Hermit crab housing: Part 3, fringe benefits and essential principles
[Continued from the previous Part 1 and Part 2.]
Two days ago we introduced Builders Of Hope in Raleigh, North Carolina, which (as profiled in the Wall Street Journal) lifts up solid but economically obsolescent houses from their ample and now-too-valuable sites, and relocates them elsewhere on smaller, less valuable sites, along the way converting what would have been a teardown into affordable workforce housing.
Rather than tear it down, you prep it for travel …
The critical role of an effective Mission Entrepreneurial Entity
In a model I call Hermit Crab Housing, Ms. Murray’s non-profit does all the pieces as a vertically integrated boutique development company that handles and quality-assures every phase:
There you go, little fella, you’re ready for occupancy now
Program conceptualization and design
Land acquisition (and, if necessary, land rezoning)
Site acquisition (via charitable donation)
Relocation of the physical structure
Construction/ rebuilding of the transplanted house
Marketing and sale of the new homes
Ongoing affordability
Builders of Hope’s great comparative advantage is its capacity; its second great advantage is its brand, meticulously developed over several years both by commitments (Ms. Murray working for free) and by outcomes (being able to show completed, successful developments).
Reuse isn’t just good economics, it makes people feel good
Preservation of existing housing is green.
Reusing the houses kept construction debris out of dumps in a city where every new landfill is a battle.
… you relocate it and renovate it, saving landfill, cost, and a bit of history
Higher density is green. So, usually, is rental.
Good ideas attract allies
Just as in the parable of stone soup, once people see it’s going to happen, they want to contribute. People bring what they can:
Add a little wi-fi and it’ll be spectacular
One Economy, a nonprofit in Washington, D.C., put in a wireless Internet system and Builders of Hope is working to get residents recycled cars from individuals and dealerships.
Can it propagate?
Why can’t the idea propagate?
If the ideas keeping bouncing through cyberspace, it will
I think it can, if the conditions are right, to wit:
Hermit Crab Housing
When it’s likely to be feasible
1. Increasing density driven by economic growth, which drives up land values and makes larger houses economically justified on existing lots.
2. High median income so that even affordable housing will support a fair amount of hard debt that pays for the physical rebuilding costs and the sponsor’s overhead and profit.
3. Available flat
4. Temperate climate and stable geology: slab on grade or at most, a crawl space. Full basements or deep foundations make the structure un-portable.
5. ‘Good bones’ in the buildings. Given the amount of systems improvement to be done, a transportable building needs to have a strong physical structure that will survive the transplant (no ficus-tree houses) and have value afterwards.
6. Economically irreplaceable interior features like hardwood floors, molding, fireplaces and mantles. Amenities that new affordable housing could not justify on a cost-benefit basis form attractions that compensate for small square footages.
7. The visionary Mission Entrepreneurial Entity, vertically integrated enough to handle and quality-assure every phase: land acquisition, site acquisition (via charitable donation), relocation, construction/ rebuilding, marketing/ sale, and ongoing affordability.
What do you call something so clever?
Ms. Murray has more schemes in mind. She’s in talks with Habitat for Humanity about a joint effort in
Just kicking around some more ideas
When a developer offered her a bunch of unwanted duplexes, she started negotiations with another developer that owns 56 vacant lots across the street from
I call it genius, and I hope it spreads.
Where can I get some?
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