Mixed-Income Housing Leads to Vibrant Neighborhoods

What do you think are the benefits of mixed-income housing, either in one or a few adjoining buildings, or over the entire range of a neighborhood? Or, to put it another way, how do mixed-income neighborhoods strengthen our social contract and therefore expand our social capital?

Think about these benefits:

1. Low-Income Households

Lower income people tend to escape from poverty and improve their productivity to society faster when they land in a higher income neighborhood. This is true because of better role models and better social networks, which help most of us get jobs. Of course living among some higher income people also would allow the low-income people who never quite found themselves because they're supposed to be entrepreneurs to pursue opportunities of that type.

And here's an odd fact: Many low-income people in their early 20's tend to become middle income and high income folks later in life!

And who are the people who bring vitality to our streets by adopting new trends sooner than the rest of us, worrying about style and styling, generally acting slightly or mostly outside over-prescribed social roles, and bringing idealism and enthusiasm to many different projects and ventures? Oh, young people. If you price them out of your market, you've lost something significant. The mix of ages will enhance the possibility that you can attract some of the creative class to your little corner of the world.

2. Middle-Income Households

Middle income families and households are able to diversify their acquaintance base and thereby gain some of the benefits of getting acquainted with higher-income people to learn how they did it, as well as to observe the cautionary tales of how lower-income people came to be in their less versatile low-income situations.

If the mixed-income strategy becomes intentional and also a part of civic dialogue and consciousness, there's some hope that some of the detrimental aspects of "keeping up with the Joneses" might be mitigated. When you live among people of lower income, there's a tendency to appreciate how fortunate you are much more. And an appreciation of the fact that it's the public spaces that make you really rich or really poor might develop. A variety of shared facilities, access to nature, and a sense of community are the true wealth that's worth worrying about. Not tennis shoes or logos on handbags.

3. High-Income Households

Higher income people also benefit from living in a mixed-income housing situation. And I hope that many of them will recognize the benefits to the soul of doing so. It's tempting, I know, to barricade oneself off from the rest of society in an attempt to find safety and avoid some of the more disturbing images of the underclass. But don't do it, if you're a high net worth individual. Because in only associating with others who have figured out the money piece, you lose touch with the common lot of humanity, at least in your own nation.

In becoming a wealthy person cowering in a gated community, you lose the opportunity to be of service in a democratic society, to model how restrained and noble wealth can really be, and to gain a really appreciative audience. Yes, we're saying that your wealth will be more appreciated if you choose a mixed-income housing community than if you seclude yourselves with others who also are in the highest tax bracket.

How to Build a Mixed-Income Housing Community That Works

Many naturally occurring mixed-income housing already exists. Nearly every small town and most small cities exhibit this phenomenon. Many new urbanist communities come close to the mark. A few neighborhoods in large cities seem to have mastered the art, but usually what people tout as mixed-income communities actually consist of some artificial boundary drawn around an area where from block to block, the demarcations of relative wealth are stark.

Actually high-rise multi-family buildings in cities offer a relatively abundant stock of potential mixed-income housing. Different sizes of units within the building are easily camouflaged.

If you get to start from scratch on building mixed-income housing, the secret is architecture. In particular, the "big house" phenomenon is vitally important. What I call a "big house" in quotation marks is the multi-family dwelling that is designed with architecture that makes it nearly identical to that of a mansion. In reality, it could be two, three, or four housing units. And there could be an alley house, carriage house, granny flat, mother-in-law unit, or whatever you want to call it on the rear of the property, offering one more housing housing unit.

So if your architecture is well controlled, and you have a clever person doing the controlling, a four-family with a granny flat, a one-family that's a second residence for a person of huge wealth, a single-family that's large but has to accommodate a large family who needs a rental property in back to be able to keep up the payments, and a three-family that consists of two smaller units downstairs and a large owner-occupant unit upstairs can be side by side by side on a block.

With even more work than is evident in the new urbanist communities, existing neighborhoods can be retrofitted to allow more of this type of mixed-income housing. Many cities are well equipped for the mix, especially when renovation of upper level stories in a downtown or densely developed business area is considered.

In a more suburban example, ranch or tract houses of a certain age might actually be able to be combined into two or more units by connecting them with a new addition. In this event, the lots are combined through a process that most cities already have on their books in the form of subdivision regulation. Then the logistics of dealing with different ground elevations and so forth are worked out, and the new addition expands both homes. The resulting two-houses-turned-into-a-building then becomes a single-family residence for a more wealthy family, or it becomes a two-family allowing both households more space. If you do this along an entire block face, no one needs to know which two-house combinations now house one family, two units, or even three households.

In new developments, a government actually can virtually require a mix of incomes by requiring a certain amount of affordable housing and by providing incentives for the development of same. Then if you want to "require" higher income people to live with the rest of us, that's a little harder, but you can do it through subdivision regulation policies that prohibit really large lots, prohibiting gated communities, perhaps prohibiting golf course communities and other planned developments that emphasize high-end amenities, and limiting the size of single-family homes in planned developments unless a particular percentage of smaller square footage housing units also are provided. And requirements for a liberal dose of public space also are helpful.

In Sum

These are just some starting points. Begin by talking about and convincing others of the social benefits of creating mixed-income housing neighborhoods and new communities, should you be so fortunate as to be in a region that is growing in need for housing.

The concept of social capital is useful here. When a community increases its social capital, it is increasing its networks of social networks. Most people in the business community have grasped to some extent the power of networking. The concept of social capital is that different networks will benefit by having people who connect across the networks. And you can escalate those social benefits in a huge way if you think about how to provide mixed-income housing in your town. For civic life to work, of course in some sense the entire political jurisdiction must become one big network.

I'm becoming convinced that poverty as an issue will never be resolved, even though we have the means to do so, unless we explain clearly how higher income and middle income associates are essential for many people to raise themselves out of poverty. Then hopefully some of us will be willing to help.

Note that if only one neighborhood in a metropolitan area is willing to participate in this effort, it won't help much. Many neighborhoods, in fact most neighborhoods, have to be willing to accept a few low income households, who then will be able in some instances to move themselves out of poverty. But in any event, they will move themselves out of the permanent underclass mentality that breeds crime, depression, lethargy, civic apathy, dull eyes, and indiscriminate pregnancy because only a baby would love me.

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