Can we ever solve our housing
crises? Easy question! I know the answer is,
“Yes, we can!” Tougher question: “...
but will we?”
Would you
believe we can create housing for 2 adults and 1
child at unsubsidized rents as low as $206 per month
(per home)? And, for no more than $575 per month
(including taxes and insurance) the
‘tenant’ would instead become a
mortgage-free owner within only 10 years!
Design,
Engineering and Construction are the easy part, the
hard part is our culture. For one thing, as
conservatives will rightly claim, piggish behavior is
as firmly rooted in the poor as it is among the
affluent sectors of U.S. culture... so won’t
such “low cost” homes inevitably devolve
into public-housing slums? Another (quite related )
major obstacle is our affinity for “$tuff”
(first studied in accurate anecdotal form by comedian
George Carlin, and, based on my own observations, it
can be argued that one-third to one-half of all U.S.
“housing” space is now dedicated to
storage): Storage of furnishing (for cooking and
dining, bedding, lounging, working, cleaning,
maintaining, etc.), clothing (especially specialty,
i.e. ski, scuba and “church-going”,
apparel), recreational items, and the other god-
knows- why- the- hell- my- uncle- gave- me- that-
crap- but- I- better- save- it- for- his- annual-
holiday- visit- since- I- couldn’t- dare- tell-
him- to- stop- wasting- his- money- on- mindless-
consumption- because- just- giving- me- a- hug- and-
his- love- is- enough collectibles. But I made it
work, and I think many others could make it work as
well... with a little help from a tolerant and
open-minded culture.
Serendipity
started my minimalist project in a larger house I had
purchased with my brother... and, by a series of
chance events, I soon found how happy I could be in
just 380 square feet of self-contained living space
(plus a similarly- sized patch of outside garden).
During the late 80’s and early 90’s I
tinkered (on paper) with various ideas for low-cost,
community-oriented housing. Then, right at the end of
my commercial development “career”, I made
my bed and lived within it; for five years
altogether, nearly 2 years of which was shared with
my beloved Heidi. We lived in “affordable
housing” of my own creation: An area just 20
feet deep by 19 feet wide which (surprisingly)
included a full kitchen, a full toilet and bath
tub/shower combo, a multimedia entertainment center,
ample closet and cupboard space, dual office desks
with computer, printer and the like, music recording
equipment, breakfast nook, and even gathering room
(we hosted dinner parties for as many as eight). As a
point of reference, 380 square feet is about the same
size as two SUVs parked tightly by a Newport Beach
valet (see the floor plan on our web site). Although
the design was a success, I would do a few things
differently in the future, such as installing PV
Solar panels on the south-facing roof to generate
most of the home’s power needs.
Now, here is
all the really good news: This place was a snap to
clean-up and to keep clean. Our utility bills were
tiny. Everything was easy to get to. My costs were so
low, the savings account swelled. Then, since my
commute to work was non-existent and mundane
household chores didn’t occupy my life, I found
I had time for nearly daily bike rides of 5 - 20
miles including trips to the market, movies,
restaurants and clubs... in fact, the use of my car
declined to the point where I often had trouble
keeping my car battery charged. I also had time to
tend a garden which included fruit trees, herbs,
vegetables and even row crops which provided calm
recreation in addition to fresh foods. I had time to
compose and practice music, to write, to think, even
to sleep! I was amazed at how much more time I seemed
to have: I learned that living small translated into
better living. I began to imagine entire communities
of like-minded folks living within a framework of
such voluntary simplicity.
Of course,
Orange County has no land zoned RESIDENTIAL - VSL
(“voluntarily simple living”) so there was
no place to demonstrate the concept on a scale larger
than my bootlegged experiment (this is another
“cultural” obstacle). Today, my hope is
that such projects will be tried within some of the
less densely populated areas of California (such as
San Luis Obispo County) thereby creating clusters of
low-cost, high-density, strong- community housing
surrounded by correspondingly available open spaces.
A typical housing tract of fifty 1,500 square foot
homes each occupying 5,000 square foot lots set along
a maze 50-foot wide streets (plus 5 additional feet
on each side of the street for sidewalks), thus
blankets 10 acres of land with asphalt, autos,
rooftops and cement surfaces plus a mentality of
isolation, mechanization and consumption... which are
then sold at enslaving prices from $250,000 up.
Instead, fifty of the proposed 400 square foot homes,
including 320 square foot private gardens for each
(when properly arranged in checkerboard fashion along
common 20 foot wide landscaped pedestrian paths with
auto-accessible streets only at the perimeter) uses
under 1 acre of land (including those 50 private
gardens!), leaving nine acres of open space for
larger scale agriculture, recreation, tranquility,
etc. (As a side note, to ensure these units would
remain in use as affordable housing, CC&Rs would
limit re-sale prices to the rate of inflation, and
sub-rental of any privately-owned unit would be
pre-defined and tied to inflation as well.)
Notice that
this vision bears no relation to dismal and failed
“public housing projects”. By using an
equity-building structure, the pride and upside of
private ownership would ensure proper care and
maintenance by residents. And, while such housing may
not appeal to everyone (especially those folks
trapped firmly within the shop-till-you-drop
mentality), it will appeal to both those folks who
wish for voluntarily simple lives with greater
community, not to mention those who now use an
automobile, a bridge or a box to shelter themselves
and their loved ones.
Any way you
slice it, the numbers are “do-able” even
for single parents and even for workers earning the
current minimum wage. This style of living encourages
tight-knitted communities, personal food gardening,
lower consumption, and less accumulation of $tuff
(primarily because there is less space to store it!)
but it is also quite modern and dignified. And, of
course, larger floor plans (i.e. up to 600 square
feet) could provide up to two additional private
rooms to accommodate larger families with adolescent
children of different sexes.
Unfortunately,
this type of housing takes some profit out of the
developers pockets, and even reduces the income
generation requirements of its occupants, both of
which are heresy for the powers-that-be... and thus,
such housing would require significant political will
along with minor cultural adjustments.
We can do it!
I know it because I’ve built the prototype.
I’ve lived it. I’ve enjoyed it! We can
create dignified and affordable housing to
accommodate all but the hard core sociopaths in our
community... only one question remains: Will we?
Dean Disandro lives and works in
north SLO County. He also was involved in running for
County Board of Supervisor in 2000.
[Editors
note: The full text of this condensed article,
including illustrative floor plans, cost figures and
financial calculations, can be found at http://www.Alter-Nation.com/alternazine.htm]
