I want to work in affordable and sustainable housing

May 2, 2018 2:02 PM

I am an (a)architect. Small 'a' because I am not licensed. Have hit retirement age, and been free-lancing for some time. I need the income, and won't let go of the passion.

I have always been drawn to well designed, well built, affordable and sustainable
housing. In both domestic and esp. developing world areas. Everyone deserves shelter.
Add in some knowledge of FEMA regs. energy saving construction, and some overseas experience, and i have some skills to contribute
I am sending out inquiries and resumes, searching for organizations. Voluntary or paid or both.
Can anyone suggest a path forward?

There is Habitat and Peace Corps of course, but I have a family.

posted by ebesan to Home & Garden (3 answers total)

Don't give up on Habitat - try reaching out to their local office to see if you could possibly design an adaptable (to local regs) plan that would work in many locations. Their answer might surprise you. Memail me if you run into a roadblock, a good friend of mine is the Director of the local office where I live, and has been involved with them since forever, so he may be able to help you.
I wish I could hire you to design a smaller, one-story house for my husband and I - we are facing needing to move in about 10 years-ish, and the supply of single story home is limited, and all would need adaptation for aging in place.
I really admire your motivation. Good luck!
posted by dbmcd at 2:10 PM on May 2, 2018 [1 favorite]

Engineers Without Borders?
posted by glibhamdreck at 4:42 PM on May 2, 2018

In my experience, which is fairly long, but limited in geographic scope, affordable housing developers do not have design professionals on staff. Or, if they do, they are working as developers, not as designers. Almost all design work is contracted out. But, most of them also need help with reviewing design documents, managing the Architect -GC relationship, and construction administration. So, there might be a role with a non-profit (or for-profit) developer in your area.

Multi-family affordable housing development is also very cyclical. Applications and awards are made once a year and the requirements of the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program mean that lots of developers are trying to close financing (which requires 100% plans and specs) around the same time. So, there's probably a market for free-lancers withing the design community on a seasonal basis.

I think folks are still pushing Passive House design (I'm not sold for multi-family personally) so if you're passive house certified, that should be of some interest to both developers and designers. (you'll definitely need to know Enterprise Green Communities and USGBC standards)

As far as where to start, every state has a Housing Finance Agency that allocates LIHTCs. Their websites will have lists of awarded projects including developer names. The big developers get one or more awards every year. I would start with them, if your interest is in development. If your looking for design shops focussed on affordable housing, I would google "LIHTC Architect *state*" That should give you a list of folks in the business.
posted by qldaddy at 7:14 AM on May 3, 2018