Everyone knows there's a housing crisis
(or as Shay Salomon writes, we have a "homing
crisis" since even though we have almost tripled
our personal square foot per person since 1950,
nobody is at home (see page 20). What irks me is that
there is no outrage against the increasing rents and
the fact that only 20% can actually afford to buy a
house. Where is the outrage?
Studies show that a person making
minimum wage would have to work 175 hours a week to
pay the average amount of rent (see Mark Wilson's
piece on page 32).
But as HopeDance readers, you
dont't expect another whining exposé of the problem
filled with criticism, blame and helplessness, but
are hungry for stories of people and organizations
who have come up with creative solutions to our
housing needs. And perhaps you are part of the
growing number of people who no longer believe that
government will be the caretakers for social justice
(affordability) when it comes to our basic need for
shelter. As the saying goes among people in the
Simplicity Movement, "Most people are two
paychecks away from being homeless."
Fortunately for us, Alison Pernell, one
time resident of SLO (who was instrumental in
orchestrating many of the earth-friendly natural
building workshops at Cal Poly), has contributed much
to this issue. She now works in Sacramento and has
scoured her files for affordable housing (see page 33
for Resources).
However, the title of this issue is
"Affordable and Sustainable Housing." This
may sound like an oxymoron especially since most
people assume that affordability means dumpy housing
projects where the word sustainability doesn't even
get a mention. Sustainable housing (using
earth-friendly materials, energy-saving methods
(solar, wind, passive solar design, etc., as well as
water-saving technologies) has traditionally been for
the wealthy in North America, or has been operational
for thousands of years in so-called "developing
countries" and among fourth
world/native/indigenous peoples. So, the challenge
is, how do both of these movements form a united
front? (One sign of a united front appears at UC
Davis which sponsored an event where environmental
organizations collaborated with affordable housing
organizations to embrace the need for housing... (see
Resources in this issue).
How does sustainable or green or natural
building become affordable (as well as legal)? And
how does the new urbanism movement that focuses on
high density and affordable living in
pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods (combining mixed
income as well as mixed zoning) include the use of
alternative design and alternative energies and
building supplies that are natural, renewable,
recycled or recyclable?
This bridging of the two radical
elements: social justice (affordability) and
environmentalism (sustainability) is what this issue
is about. In fact an entire magazine could be created
focusing on this vital topic!
When I first thought of this idea for a
special issue, I simply condemned the notion as an
oxymoron and left it at that, knowing that it was
only a matter of time that sustainability builders
would be seduced into scaling down their projects so
that their natural homes could become affordable. I
mean, the designers and architects and builders are
certainly not even living in homes like the ones they
are building. It's sort of like Malaysian children
manufacturing toys for the West that they cannot even
afford themselves.
I was aware that there was a fringe of
builders who were tackling this issue of
affordability but thought that HopeDance needs to
raise issues that are a bit beyond the fringe. So,
one day I sat at the computer, got on google.com and
entered "affordable and sustainable
housing" and lo and behold! inspiration grounded
in the real world of people, organizations,
collaborations and ordinances sped before my eager
eyes. (In fact, see Carla Grindle's
excellent summary of many web sites (p. 14) that she
found while she was searching for the same.)
This issue is a result of that early
enthusiasm as well as finding people on the Central
Coast and beyond who are taking the building of their
own homes into their own hands.
Local folks may remember Jim
Merkel, a local SLO activist who was very
involved in alternative transportation and living
simply. In fact he was considered to be the Edward
Abbey of the Central Coast. He has written a piece
about how he created a straw bale cafe for less than
$1500 with an ecological footprint 23 times less than
normal construction (see page 10). Becky
Kemery reports on Christina Sporrong who
built her own Earthship in New Mexico (in fact we
might get the originator of the Earthship
architecture, Mike Reynolds, to help build an
Earthship here in SLO County using Paso Robles high
school students in the very near future... keep
posted). See page 18 for Becky's report. Our own Dean
Disandro writes about building a
380-square-foot house and declares unabashedly that
such a home could be purchased at $575 per month
within only ten years. Go to page 22 for his story!
For retrofitting building codes, you
must learn what David Eisenberg is
doing. Read his concise and poignant essay on
"Sustainability and Building Codes" on page
8. A remarkable man, Nader Khalili,
working in Hesperia, California, is creating numerous
examples of alternative buildings, many of them
affordable. See Mary Rourke's story about this
building/poet pioneer on page 24.
Speaking about various alternative
materials, we have a story about cob by Martin
Hartmann on page 50 and an interesting story
about how the Integrated Waste Management Authority
(IWMA) actually gave the Ojai Foundation $56,000 to
support building that would lessen the increasing
impact that landfills have in Ventura County (see
page 49).
We also have some short pieces (see
"Shorts" on p. 26) that
speak about working with papercrete (papercrete is
where straw bale was 10 years ago) by Mark Phillips.
Teresa built a house in Santa Cruz county out of
hemp, cob and sand. David Cook writes about how to
salvage material for building your own house. Wanda
Cebulla reports on what Hayward Lumber is doing
towards green building. People may remember Robert
Bolman who has visited us in SLO and Santa Barbara
with his gripping presentation about sustainable and
affordable housing.
As for actual community organizations
coming together to address the issue of affordable
housing in Santa Barbara (see page 52 and 53) and San
Luis Obipso County, (see page 36). This is a
beginning. Unfortunately these organizations are not
addresing the environmental impacts or sustainability
issues within the affordable housing topic. Perhaps
they will. We can only hope that this particular
special issue of HopeDance can reach policy makers,
decision makers, and ordinance makers to get the show
of affordable and sustainable housing on the road!
Bob Banner
Publisher / www.hopedance.org
