San Francisco's new experiment in low-income housing is a beautiful one; a new building combines eye-popping design and amenities you wish you had.
Many people think of how-income housing as single room occupancy (SRO) hotels. The Richardson apartments in San Francisco turn this model upside down with beautiful (albeit small) living spaces.
"The 120-unit, five-story building is the kind of place that most city-dwellers would love to live in: It features sustainably harvested wood (including redwood and elm), a landscaped courtyard, a green roof, sunshades outside the apartment windows, solar hot water heating, solar panels, intelligent lighting controls, and low-VOC paints," writes Fast Company's Morgan Clendaniel.
"The apartments also have amenities tailored to the population, including abuse-resistant drywall and cabinets, grab bars everywhere, and wheelchair-accessible showers. The building doesn't have car parking, but it does have parking for bikes--not that tenants would be likely to have a vehicle or even need one in this transit-rich neighborhood."
The building has proved to be extremely popular. Supporters hope the building is just one of many future low-income housing developments in the expensive city.
FULL STORY: Low-Income Housing That Anyone Would Love To Live In
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City of Albany
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research