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Older Buildings = Affordable Housing
January/February 2022
 Few hotels from 1914 and before have survived in San Diego due to redevelopment, neglect and fires. The Sandford Hotel project, for which the San Diego Housing Commission won a 2013 SOHO PIP award, is important not only for preserving or replicating the hotel's original architectural beauty and elegance, but also for major socioeconomic reasons. By continuing to dedicate the hotel to low-income residents, the social makeup of downtown today is interwoven with its historic fabric. Photo courtesy Heritage Architecture and Planning |
Within San Diego and across the country, skyrocketing housing prices and the loss of naturally occurring, or unsubsidized, affordable housing plague our communities. One important solution is to reinvest in and preserve older buildings for housing. This would alleviate some of the pressure for three compelling reasons: existing buildings are inherently more affordable and sustainable, enable less costly housing and more of it to be produced faster, and don't contribute to the landfill.
Obviously, older buildings can play a significant role in meeting affordability and housing challenges. This is why SOHO supports policies that promote repair, maintenance, and adaptive reuse over new construction. Reinvestment in existing buildings will create housing faster, due to less processing and construction timelines, and cheaper, by reusing buildings. This solution is also community-based: It helps keep individuals and families in their neighborhoods, supports home ownership, and minimizes gentrification.
Acknowledging this solution, the May 2020 San Diego Housing Commission report Preserving Affordable Housing in the City of San Diego states, "Preservation of existing unrestricted, naturally occurring affordable housing (NOAH) can be more cost-effective on a per-unit basis than producing new units…" (p. 10, ) Despite this assertion and SOHO's participation in housing initiatives such as Blueprint San Diego and Housing for Us All, the City has yet to prioritize and promote reinvestment in and preservation of existing buildings as housing solutions.
As in other cities working to reduce housing shortages, data could show that San Diego is systematically razing housing that is naturally affordable (meaning unsubsidized) and building housing that is not. SOHO will continue to advocate strongly for the reinvestment and preservation of older buildings to support housing and affordability.
For further reading, check out these resources by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and Place Economics.
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