Regulatory Barriers Clearinghouse
Strategy-of-the-Month Club
 
December 2007
 
Affordable housing developments often experience
community opposition, based on a misguided perception
that such projects will be based on poor designs that
don't blend in with the surrounding neighborhood. In
response, HUD's Office of Policy Development and
Research, together with New Jersey Institute of
Technology's Center for Architecture and Building
Science Research, the American Institute of
Architects, and Enterprise Community Partners, Inc.,
has created the Affordable Housing Design Advisor.
 
The Affordable Housing Design Advisor assists housing
developers by bringing together real world examples of
high-quality affordable housing projects from the people
who have successfully developed, designed, and built
them. The website houses over 80 case studies, each
covering an affordable housing development from concept
to execution. The site also provides a step-by-step
guide to achieving quality design and includes a
variety of tools and resources to help affordable
housing developers understand the design process and
improve the quality of their own projects.
 
With community support and a high-quality design,
affordable housing developers can enhance all stages of
development, alleviate "Not in My BackYard" (NIMBY)
concerns, accelerate the approval process, and ensure
overall resident -- and neighbor -- satisfaction.
 
Additional information about the Affordable Housing
Design Advisor can be found at
 https://www.huduser.gov/rbc/search/rbcdetails.asp?DocId=1560.
 
We hope this information proves useful to you in your
efforts to grow your region's affordable housing stock.
If you have regulatory reform strategies or resources
that you'd like to share, send us an email at
 rbcsubmit@huduser.gov, call us at 1-800-245-2691 (option
4), or visit our website at www.regbarriers.org.
 
Feel free to forward this message to anyone who is
working to reduce regulatory barriers to affordable
housing.
 
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