A former staff member sent me an article from The New York Times recently that talked about social housing being a possible solution to the lack of affordable housing in this country. It was an Op-Ed piece from two members of congress who want to introduce a bill called the Homes Act. Their point is, “instead of treating real estate as a commodity, we should build more affordable homes…these homes would be built to last by union workers and then turned over to entities that agree to manage them for permanent affordability,” like non-profits.

The NY Times article references Vienna (Austria) as a city who has made social housing work. In another article published earlier this year from PD&R Edge Home, “the effectiveness of the housing program has helped in making the city (Vienna) one of the most livable cities in the world, as judged by The Economist and Monocle in 2012, and as the city that offers the world’s highest quality of life, according to Mercer’s Quality of Living survey for the past four years.”

Here’s how Vienna’s social housing model works. The city purchases land zoned for residential use, they bid out to developers and then sell the land to the winning developer at an affordable price even offering low interest loans and other favorable terms if needed. In turn, the developer must rent out 50 percent of the units to lower-income residents with the remaining offered to moderate income individuals and families. These income requirements only apply when families and individuals move in so tenants can stay as long they want. In other words, there is no income cap where any future increased income would make them ineligible and have to find new housing. This allows for tenants from all socio-economic backgrounds to co-exist together in the same complex.

Can this work here in the United States or in our own “backyard” of Sussex County? Time will tell but it is definitely worth looking into different approaches to the affordable housing dilemma we face. In an article from the Housing Community Development Network of NJ, their president and chief executive officer stated, “Ensuring that all NJ residents can exercise their human right to housing requires bold investments and programmatic solutions to address our vast shortage of available and affordable homes.”