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Historic Preservation = Housing Affordability
July/August 2018
By A. Hayes
 As Chair of the Smart Growth and Land Use Committee, Councilmember Georgette Gomez prepared a Housing Action Plan (see below) and has been holding committee discussions to address housing affordability within San Diego. One solution to increase the number of affordable units is to rehabilitate existing housing and older buildings, which is less costly than building new. Plus, reinvesting in older buildings (not necessarily designated historic) serves to combat blight, maintain neighborhood character, and is a sustainable solution to the need for more housing.
In general, historic neighborhoods provide a mix of housing that better fits a wider range of income and need. Just look at the Atlas of ReUrbanism from the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Summary Report. This project examines more than 10 million buildings of all ages in cities across the country, scoring urban areas by the median age of buildings, building size, and the diversity of building age within a specific area. The Atlas showed that this affordability trend held true across all the cities studied. There are twice the number of affordable units on blocks with older, smaller, and mixed-age buildings because the older housing stock, without any subsidy, remains naturally more affordable than building new units.
SOHO commends Councilmember Gomez and the Smart Growth and Land Use Committee for prioritizing this important discussion and urges it to bring Council action that will include rehabilitating existing housing and older buildings as a solution to San Diego's housing crisis.
Housing Action Plan HERE.
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