The heat is on

Affordability hunt vital to NWA’s future

The search for ways to promote affordable housing in communities across the nation, including right here in Northwest Arkansas, continues. The lack of it is a huge problem. Whatever appetite exists for growing the population to meet the needs of employers can quickly be diminished or extinguished if people earning average wages can’t afford a decent place to live.

Northwest Arkansas is a magnet for people. It has a robust economy, great employers, big-city amenities without (yet) becoming a concrete jungle and access to such incredible outdoor recreation just about every other vehicle is loaded with bikes, kayaks, campers or some combination of them.

Regional leaders appear to grasp the importance of housing availability beyond the veritable mansions top executives of Northwest Arkansas’ corporations can afford. They remain in search mode for ways to encourage private developers to build a lot of housing in the years to come to prevent the region from choking on its attractiveness. It’s an estimate that perhaps loses its capacity to shock because it’s repeated so often, but shocking it is: Within the next 20-25 years, the region’s population will be twice what it is today.

The numbers suggest the region is well behind in its quest not to fall victim to the economic forces that promote housing instability, homelessness and an inability for the average worker to carve out his version of the American dream. Publish all the promotional materials you want about how wonderful Northwest Arkansas is as a place to live, work and play, but if residents cannot find a safe and secure place to lay their heads, the joy of living in NWA will become muted.

We’re encouraged, to a degree, with the intensifying discussions of how to promote the creation of new kinds of housing that fit the evolving needs and desires of up-and-coming generations of residents. People want to live in places where they don’t have to hop in their cars every time they need a light bulb or to pick up a rotisserie chicken. Walkability is desirable, we’re told. Having big yards and 2,500 square feet of living space is less in demand, the experts say. Smaller housing is popular when it’s in the right location and won’t consume an unsustainable portion of the monthly budget.

And yet, the experts also say, Northwest Arkansas’ cities maintain land-use regulations that promote large, single-family housing almost to the exclusion of homes that can be well designed to serve multiple residents. The future of residential living won’t eliminate single-family homes, they say, but will instead promote construction of new kinds of structures that fit nicely into existing neighborhoods but can provide affordable homes for more individuals and families.

Amid the challenges is this: The public’s attitudes haven’t, in many cases, shifted away from the way things have always been done. Propose “multifamily” near single-family homes in many towns and the outcry will be quick and loud, amid visions of the worst kinds of junky duplexes or apartments one can imagine. And yet sticking to plans that make higher-density living difficult if not impossible threatens to guarantee Northwest Arkansas will feel like Dallas or any other congested city nobody wants this corner of the state to grow in to.

Promotion of affordable housing options is a necessity for the longterm health of our way of life in Northwest Arkansas. It’s time for a broader understanding of what’s possible, which can only come to pass with robust campaigns to explore how higher densities can be achieved through creative architecture and construction. Elimination of regulatory barriers that almost ensure failure is also a necessity.

What we know we do not want is what’s being embraced in a few of the nation’s largest cities: new taxes in the name of affordable housing. In Massachusetts, Gov. Maura Healey has proposed a $4 billion housing bond bill, which would allow cities to impose a transfer fee on property sales over $1 million. The money raised would be directed toward affordable housing programs. Similar approaches have been pursued or discussed in places like Chicago and Boston, where a lack of affordable housing has reached crisis proportions.

New taxes aren’t the answer to every challenge. Adding costs anywhere in the markets seems counter to a pursuit for affordability.

But it is vital the residential developers themselves become advocates and practitioners of affordable housing projects. If the free market can’t handle the delivery of more affordable options, it won’t be a shock if tax-driven programs become part of the norm.