October 11, 2019
Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) Information

Research-Based Articles

Luxury Housing Effect on Low Income Residents

• Editorial: Too much ‘luxury’ student housing hurts everyone – Students who lease at such places pay higher rents, however, shoddy construction is often part of the deal.
• YIMBYs: The Alt-Right Darlings of the Real Estate Industry – A Campaign to Legitimize the Luxury Condo Boom
• Luxury Development is Making Our Housing Crisis Worse –  Developers tout increased building as salve for rising rents, lining their pockets while driving cycles of displacement.  This unquestioning reliance on new construction – a code phrase used by developers to signify for-profit building – is deeply flawed.
• Luxury private student housing further divides rich and poor on campuses — Luxury housing for college and university students has become a multibillion-dollar industry and the student housing market has become big business for mega-developers who see it as a recession-proof investment. Last year, real-estate fund managers raised $2.5 billion for student housing projects.
• The Real Cost of Luxury Student Housing in U.S. College Towns – Across U.S. college towns, luxury student housing is gentrifying (often called “studentifying”) cities with amenity-filled, privately owned complexes. The trend is driving students who can’t afford to reside there far from campus, and also raising the cost of living for city residents.
• Supersized cities: residents band together to push back against speculative development pressures — Speculative property development is a high-risk business, so high profit margins are needed to offset the risk. What such calculations do not consider is how this approach can fundamentally alter the culture and character of urban environments, displace long-standing residences and local businesses, and tear apart community bonds.
• What YIMBYs Get Wrong About Housing — Zoning laws should be enforced against turning apartments and houses into short-term hotels. The YIMBYs’ rejoinder is that cities should build more housing. But who is going to support more housing if it is built only for tourists who can pay $200 to $300 a night?
• How to Be a Housing Ally (Or, Why I’m Not a YIMBY) – As affordable housing allies, we need to work for housing and regulations that directly benefit everyday people and communities — not just fall back on an approach that gives more profit to development with the hope that it will trickle down to residents.
• If the Tuition Doesn’t Get You, the Cost of Student Housing Will – National developers are behind the proliferation of luxury student housing on college campuses, and they’re driving low-income students further away.

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