It’s time to talk about keeping Columbia an affordable place to live

A wave of growth and development in Columbia is coming with a wave of higher living costs, and city leaders are talking about what to do about it.

“This city, along with every other community in the state, has shown we have a significant need for more affordable housing,” Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin said Tuesday. “We’re seeing rents rise rather precipitously in the city, and we want to see rents rise for our commercial owners. But at the same time, we want to remain a city that’s affordable and is a city for all people.”

He and other city leaders say now’s the time to decide how Columbia will incorporate affordable housing into its expanding city fabric.

Affordable housing projects typically are aimed at people earning 80 percent or less of the area median income, as defined by the federal department of Housing and Urban Development.

For perspective, a single person earning $37,500 a year or less in the Columbia area would fit the mold for this type of affordable housing. That captures many healthcare workers, first responders, some teachers and other professionals vital to a city’s economy and society.

For a family of four, the same income threshold is $53,600.

“We need to commit to advocating for what’s needed,” Councilwoman Tameika Isaac Devine said. “I’ve seen this council, to be frank and honest, back down when people say, ‘I don’t want it in my neighborhood and I don’t like it.’ And we’re hurting ourselves and we’re hurting our citizens.”

City Council’s goal is to, by the end of the year, come up with a list of possible tactics to advance affordable housing projects in the city and figure out how they can move forward.

Some of the ideas mentioned at a council work session Tuesday that could resurface in later conversations:

▪ Offer perks to developers who include affordable units in their projects.

Those could include donated land, faster planning and approval processes and tax incentives – similar to the offer of half-off taxes for 10 years that lured a number of student housing developments downtown in recent years.

By putting “incentives on the table,” the mayor said, the city “can dictate what we want the product to look like.”

▪ Set policies that encourage affordable housing.

These could be “inclusionary zoning” rules, which require developers to make a certain number of units affordable – an option Councilman Howard Duvall wants to see on the table.

Or there could be zoning rules that make it easier to put tiny houses, a new affordable living trend, in the city, Councilman Daniel Rickenmann mentioned.

▪ Plan developments, like big-box stores, with future reuse in mind. Think of a Walmart store being built in such a way that it could easily be converted into affordable residential units in the future. Rickenmann has seen it done in other communities, he said.

▪ Encourage affordable housing near existing schools, parks, commercial corridors, transportation lines and other amenities.

This story was originally published October 3, 2017 at 5:07 PM with the headline "It’s time to talk about keeping Columbia an affordable place to live."