Developing Affordable Housing Ecosystems World Wide
By: David A. Smith
We think of apartments, like other forms of housing, as existing in a particular space, but they also exist through time – our occupancy occurs nights, weekends, mornings, and holidays. Because we make our move-in decision based solely on a few snapshots – a half-hour walkthrough, perhaps, or maybe a second visit, [...]
[Continued from yesterday’s Part 1.]
When an owner skedaddles, leaving a trail of crumbling buildings and reams of uncured building code violations, whom can we vilify?
Building code violations! New York Times articles! Run away!
Certainly someone is culpable:
At 1744 Clay Avenue, residents have endured winter days without heat and hot water. The super has not been paid [...]
Residential property is an exoskeletal shell that, like the chambered nautilus, is alive only when inhabited, the occupant playing the important role of eternal vigilante.
I may not own it, but I occupy it!
These two roles are best fused via homeownership, where the occupant and the owner are one and the same, but can also [...]
Are bad landlords a disease or a symptom? That’s the question tacitly asked by the Boston Globe in a practical and depressing article entitled Sun, sand, and seediness:
From the Boston Globe: dangling light in John Murphy’s cottage
SALISBURY – Light bulbs dangle from sockets fed by fraying wires. Water leaks from an uninsulated ceiling.
[Love that [...]
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