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My understanding is that office buildings usually don't have enough plumbing or ventilation ductwork to make this reasonable to do, let alone cheaply enough to

by ericd 4y ago

My understanding is that office buildings usually don't have enough plumbing or ventilation ductwork to make this reasonable to do, let alone cheaply enough to make it viable to make it into "affordable housing". Unless you're suggesting that the government take on a bunch of debt on everyone's behalf to do this as a public service for those who are having trouble with rent, without regard for it being a financially viable project by itself. idk how it compares to the other options for doing that.

coffeebeqn 4y ago
Couldn’t they do dorm style with shared bathroom facilities? Usually office buildings have much better ventilation than private residences.
- giraffe_lady 4y ago
  Would you want to live in that?
  - xboxnolifes 4y ago
    Depends on the price point. And it doesn't really matter what any one person would or wouldn't want to live like. I wouldn't want to live in a 200sqft apartment in NYC, but apparently a lot of people are willing to pay a lot of money to do so.
  - FrontierPsych 4y ago
    That's not the correct question. The correct question is if homeless people sleeping on the concrete - would they want to live in that. And probably a good many of them wouldn't.
- ericd 4y ago
  They do have a good amount of ventilation, since they’re high occupancy, but you would need to run vents to all the units, at least, rather than large ducts to larger, more open spaces.
scrose 4y ago
‘Affordable housing’ is an overloaded term at this point. There are people who qualify for ‘affordable housing’ in NYC who are making ~$180,000 and will be paying $3,000/mo or more in rent after their ‘low-income subsidy’ is factored in.
- areyousure 4y ago
  In case anyone is curious, here is a table of "area median income" in New York City: https://www.nyc.gov/site/hpd/services-and-information/area-median-income.page https://www.nyc.gov/site/hpd/services-and-information/area-m... It does appear to be the case that you can qualify for "affordable housing" in NYC if you make $180,000/year ... and have a family size of at least 3. (In fact, it goes up to $290,565/year with a family size of at least 8.) However, the category of income this represents is "middle income", one level above "moderate income" and two levels above "low income". Even with a family size of 8, "low income" caps out at $140,880/year. It appears that approximately half of new affordable housing targets "low income", and most of the remaining half for incomes lower still. (The specific term "low-income subsidy" appears to mostly refer to the "Medicare Part D Extra Help Program" and cuts off below $35k/year.)
esotericimpl 4y ago
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fundad 4y ago
It would be a service from the government to residents in buildings they acquire and modify (through private-sector construction companies). Housing should not be privatized.
sowbug 4y ago
What about new office buildings? Could it be economically viable to include a residential option? Is there anything comparable to running a bit of extra conduit, the way some newer homes are built? PVC isn't free, of course, but maybe it's a negligible extra cost compared to the rest.

by ericd 4y ago

coffeebeqn 4y ago

Couldn’t they do dorm style with shared bathroom facilities? Usually office buildings have much better ventilation than private residences.

giraffe_lady 4y ago
Would you want to live in that?
- xboxnolifes 4y ago
  Depends on the price point. And it doesn't really matter what any one person would or wouldn't want to live like. I wouldn't want to live in a 200sqft apartment in NYC, but apparently a lot of people are willing to pay a lot of money to do so.
- FrontierPsych 4y ago
  That's not the correct question. The correct question is if homeless people sleeping on the concrete - would they want to live in that. And probably a good many of them wouldn't.
ericd 4y ago
They do have a good amount of ventilation, since they’re high occupancy, but you would need to run vents to all the units, at least, rather than large ducts to larger, more open spaces.

scrose 4y ago

‘Affordable housing’ is an overloaded term at this point. There are people who qualify for ‘affordable housing’ in NYC who are making ~$180,000 and will be paying $3,000/mo or more in rent after their ‘low-income subsidy’ is factored in.

areyousure 4y ago
In case anyone is curious, here is a table of "area median income" in New York City: https://www.nyc.gov/site/hpd/services-and-information/area-median-income.page https://www.nyc.gov/site/hpd/services-and-information/area-m... It does appear to be the case that you can qualify for "affordable housing" in NYC if you make $180,000/year ... and have a family size of at least 3. (In fact, it goes up to $290,565/year with a family size of at least 8.) However, the category of income this represents is "middle income", one level above "moderate income" and two levels above "low income". Even with a family size of 8, "low income" caps out at $140,880/year. It appears that approximately half of new affordable housing targets "low income", and most of the remaining half for incomes lower still. (The specific term "low-income subsidy" appears to mostly refer to the "Medicare Part D Extra Help Program" and cuts off below $35k/year.)

esotericimpl 4y ago

[dead]

fundad 4y ago

It would be a service from the government to residents in buildings they acquire and modify (through private-sector construction companies). Housing should not be privatized.

sowbug 4y ago

What about new office buildings? Could it be economically viable to include a residential option? Is there anything comparable to running a bit of extra conduit, the way some newer homes are built? PVC isn't free, of course, but maybe it's a negligible extra cost compared to the rest.