Running Head: ALTERNATIVE HOUSING
Movements in Alternative Housing: An Audit of America’s Zoning Ordinances and Building Codes Lauren Deming Drexel University College of Engineering
Alternative Housing 2
Abstract In direct response to America’s current housing crisis and its global ranking as third greatest culprit for carbon emission, grass-root movements toward scaled-down, affordable, sustainable homes or “alternative housing” are trending here. Unfortunately, current building codes and zoning ordinances (intended to protect the health and welfare of the community) are impeding the progress of these movements. Case studies and testaments from leaders in these alternative housing movements were collected. Through this research, common building codes and zoning ordinances which test the limits of these movements were identified and then evaluated for their credibility and utility in serving the health and welfare of these American communities. Based on this evaluation, it is evident that many of these ordinances and codes are not serving the public as they were intended. Furthermore, while technology and American’s needs continue grow and change, many codes and ordinances have been preserved for over a half a century only by the inertia of municipal bureaucracy. Should these obsolete building codes and zoning ordinances be ratified, America’s housing crisis would be resolved and our environmental impact would be significantly reduced.
Alternative Housing 3 Movements for Alternative Housing Due to America’s current housing crisis and the growing public interest in environmental preservation, grass-root movements toward scaled-down, affordable, sustainable homes or “alternative housing” are trending here. However, current building codes and zoning ordinances are impeding the progress of these movements. Because building codes and zoning ordinances are intended to protect the health and welfare of the community, and because alternative housing offers solutions to problems faced by the community, we must examine whether these municipal ordinances are obsolete. First, the economic and environmental need for alternative housing and the various movements addressing those needs must be explored. Then the respective building code or zoning ordinances that prevent the progress of these movements must be audited for their utility in the modern context. Ultimately, current zoning ordinances and building codes must be amended to be inclusive of these movements to address these immediate environmental and economic needs. The Housing Crisis The United States housing market is comprised mostly of people who financed their home over the 30 years through mortgages, people who live in subsidized housing, and people who use some combination of those two options. None of these options are “affordable,” defined by Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS) as housing that costs less than 30 percent of a household’s income (JCHS, 2014). By that definition, more than one third of U.S. households live in housing that exceeds their means (JCHS, 2014, p. 5). Moreover, in the last decade, Americans increasingly owe
Alternative Housing 4 more on their mortgage than their home is worth (Gottschalck & Carter, 2010, pp. 17 22). Finally, low-income household are more likely to live in housing that exceeds their means, forcing these Americans to forego other necessities (like food and healthcare) to afford shelter (JCHS, 2014, p. 6). Homeownership depends on the cost and availability of mortgages. “Federal agencies are working to expand access to mortgage credit by convincing lenders that they can extend well-documented loans to lower-credit-score borrowers without fear of reprisal in the case of default.” (JCHS, 2014, p. 7) This mortgage solution offers crippling debt to low-income households in return for shelter, a basic human need. This untenable financial arrangement has become the status quo, making truly “affordable housing” attainable by the elite few. Since the recent recession, the number of renters eligible for federal aid rose by 3.3 million while the number of subsidized housing units was essentially unchanged. At last count in 2011, the majority of low-income households that qualified for subsidies were left to find housing in the private market. For the nation’s 11.5 million extremely low-income renters, only about 25 percent were able to find housing within the affordable range. (JCHS, 2014, p. 5). Further, one in 300 Americans are homeless, and over 50 percent of homeless Americans are without any shelter at all (JCHS, 2014, p. 31). These statistics provide evidence that our nation’s demand for affordable housing is not being met. The Environmental Burden of American Housing It is increasingly evident that the Unites States’ carbon footprint is a disproportionate to its population. In 2011, the United States had the third largest per
Alternative Housing 5 capita carbon footprint, trailing only Saudi Arabia and Australia. (Union of Concerned Scientists, 2014) A compilation of studies archived by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2009 demonstrates some of the many ways in which the American residential building industry significantly impacts our environment: consuming energy, polluting the air and atmosphere, depleting our non-renewable resources of water and land, creating indoor environments that make us sick, and creating waste. The statistics show that American residential housing is a leading contributor to our nations’ poor environmental standing. (EPA, 2009) We flush our toilets with potable water despite historically prolonged droughts. Volatile chemicals (asbestos insulation and lead paint) used by previous generations are causing health concerns now. Our children will incur the health repercussions of the latest Volatile Organic Compounds that are commonplace in newer carpet, paint, and adhesives. Alternative housing methods demonstrate that these practices are avoidable. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) has increased awareness of the impact buildings have on the environment, however most studies attesting to LEED’s efficacy in combating our environmental deterioration were conducted by the organization that initiates and regulates LEED, the United States Green Building Council (USGBC). The New Building’s Institute (NBI), a non-profit organization committed to reducing energy consumption in commercial construction, conducted one of the few independent studies to evaluate the USGBC’s claims for energy consumption in LEEDcertified buildings. Physicist Professor John Schofield of the NBI evaluated the USGBC’s
Alternative Housing 6 studies and found bias in their statistics. (Schofield, 2009) LEED-certified residences require significant initial investment which most lower- income households do not have. For this reason, LEED-certified buildings are not a viable solution to our housing crisis. Many developers now offer LEED-certified luxury homes, clearly missing the mark by maintaining an excessive footprint that requires so much more energy consumption than a standard footprint home. That their designs passed the USGBC standards for LEED certification raises questions about whether LEED scores accurately reflect environmentally efficient design. Modern American Movements in Housing Although some may argue that the changes required to meet our national environmental goals are too extreme to be embraced by the mainstream, there are already signs to the contrary—Earthships, tiny houses, cob houses, shipping containers houses, straw bale homes, yurts, tree houses, hillside homes, earth bag homes, rammed earth construction, off-grid housing. These grass-root movements offer economically and truly environmentally sustainable alternatives to conventional housing and are gaining popularity throughout the country. Unfortunately, each raises its own legal concerns in most municipalities throughout the United States. Alternative housing advocates are frustrated because these zoning ordinances and building codes are obstructing the progress of these new housing movements without regard to their primary function—to safeguard the health, safety and general welfare of the public.
Alternative Housing 7 (1)Tiny Houses Perhaps the most popular of these alternative housing concepts is the tiny house movement, which directly opposes these LEED –certified luxury homes. The typical footprint for a tiny house is between 100 and 400 square feet. Powering the average tiny home yields about 7% of carbon emissions of the average home, annually. (Strutner, 2014) While the significantly reduced carbon footprint may be incentive enough, tiny homes also offer significant financial relief for the homeowner. The average price is $23,000. Tiny houses offer decreased taxes, reduced maintenance expenses, and reduced energy bills, and they do not require the level of debt that an average home does. They have been used for disaster relief after Hurricane Katrina and as homeless shelters in Madison, Wisconsin. (Lewis, 2014) Tiny home communities have popped up in Colorado, Florida, Texas, Wisconsin, and California. (Salguero, 2014) Tiny houses could provide relief to struggling urban environments. Unfortunately most states and municipalities nationwide prohibit permanent residences in homes less than 120 square feet in size. The documentary, Jay Austin’s Beautiful Illegal Tiny House, comments on the zoning restrictions in Washington, D.C., a city desperately trying to keep up with housing demands. Despite advancements in building technology, the reduction in household size, cultural changes, and the growing population, zoning in Washington, D.C. has not changed since its inception in 1958. (Krainin, 2014) These ordinances may have originated to protect tenements from slum lords a half a century ago, but many will argue that more can (and should) be achieved with less now. For many New Yorkers and San Franciscans, smaller dwelling sizes are an accepted way of life.
Alternative Housing 8 Throughout the country, owners of tiny home have attempted to avoid municipal fines for years. They camouflage their tiny homes with mobile accessories like wheels and license plates, dress them up as part-time residences (hiding the restrooms and appliances that define a full-time dwelling), or build upwards so their home appears more shed-like to aerial enforcers. As the tiny house movement has continued to gain momentum, the 2015 International Residential Code #304.1 will remove a mandatory minimum room size. With that simple deletion, the movement can be adapted throughout the United States, one county at a time. (Meyers, Tiny House, 2014) (2)Shipping Container Houses Like other forms of unconventional housing, shipping container homes began as temporary housing for natural disasters relief applications. (Terry, 2009) The idea of repurposing shipping containers for permanent dwellings has started to take shape in Washington, D.C. rapidly developing housing market. As long as the shipping container follows a pre-approved design, they are a legitimate, inexpensive, and sustainable alternative to stick frame building units (Containers4Sale, 2013). While shipping containers offer excellent structural integrity, they must be insulated to avoid thermal bridging. Adding thermal mass within the shipping container creates interior dimensions that do not meet the minimum room dimension (7 feet) enforced by the International Residential Code (IRC). (Myers, 2014) Shipping containers can meet the minimum dimension if owners remove one side and adjoin it to another shipping container (Myers, 2014) but, factors such as cut-in apertures (windows, doors, openings made to adjoin containers) may compromise the structural integrity of the building units.
Alternative Housing 9 (3)Cob and Straw Bale Houses Cob is made from clay, sand, and straw. Cob homes may seem primitive, but they are every bit as functional as other modern homes and their sculptural forms can be quite attractive. Furthermore, cob offers three times the thermal mass of conventionally framed walls, keeping the structures temperature neutral throughout the seasons without supplemental energy sources, offsetting 75% of a home’s heating and cooling expenses. The cob material is nearly free to procure and transport so its impact on the environment is negligible in comparison to that of steel or lumber. Salvaged window frames and doors fit easily into the flexible form of the cob walls, which reduces both construction costs and someone else’s demolition waste. While the process of constructing cob homes is labor intensive and time consuming, cob communities pool their labor, creating stronger community ties among residents. (Sumerall, 2012) Like cob homes, straw bale homes have good thermal properties and are more fire resistant (two-hour rating for interior walls) than conventionally framed walls (a 30minute rating). Straw is a rapidly renewable and recyclable resource, and for many Americans, a readily available one. (Morrison, 2013) While proper construction methods are crucial to ensuring the straw bale walls can bear lateral and vertical loads, straw bale walls have been tested and cleared for structural integrity, including seismic loads. Despite this, cob houses and straw bale houses have not yet become popular in urban communities. Mike McDonough, a seasoned cob builder, explains because there is no code for cob, it really comes down the local interpretations of the code. (Sumerall, 2012) For urban applications where these homes are most needed, stamped and sealed
Alternative Housing 10 drawings are required and these drawings do not guarantee a building permit. However, Andrew Morrison, trail blazer in the straw bale movement, publically announced the approval of an annex to the International Code Council’s Final Action Hearings in 2013. (Morrison, 2013) The appendix (now 13 years in the making) gets the straw bale movement closer to acceptance by municipalities nationwide as a “de facto” code. Although it will still take time before this rapidly renewable resource becomes part of the body of the international code, this movement is one step closer to enabling straw bale builders to receive bank loans and acquire building builders’ insurance. (4)Earthships The earthship movement has come a long way since its experimental inception in Taos, New Mexico four decades ago. Earthships are completely self-sustaining, off-grid homes made of mostly recycled local materials and rammed earth. While the cost of these homes is comparable to an average home, they cost almost nothing to run, making them suitable for people of all income levels. These homes were proven to meet the needs of disaster relief victims after the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 and the 2010 earthquake in Haiti (Earthship Biotecture, 2013). Partnered with organizations such as Habitat for Humanity, which has abundant volunteer labor but limited material resources, earthships can provide housing for families in need. The documentary, Garbage Warrior, follows earthship founder and architect, Michael Reynolds, as he lobbies for change with state politicians who are unwilling to risk losing the support of “big business” energy companies. Ultimately, he won his battle in the state of New Mexico, reserving test land amid the dessert plains. Since the
Alternative Housing 11 documentary, the Earthship Biotechture team devotes their efforts to help builders pull permits for the construction of earthships elsewhere, providing engineering reports prepared for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), case studies, building codes for the materials used, and online consultations. (Earthships, 2014) Even with all this support in place, permits for these a well-established but non-traditional building are still subject to municipal discretion. Safeguarding the Public Health, Safety and Welfare According to the International Code Council (ICC), the purpose of the International Building Code is to “safeguard public health, safety and general welfare […] from hazards attributed to the built environment.” In a heated plea for alternative housing, the Executive Director for the Development Center for Appropriate Technology in Tucson, Arizona, David Eisenberg, argues that the ICC is not looking at the bigger picture. First, the “big picture” risks (like climate impact, embodied energy, air and water pollution, water, toxicity of materials, loss of biodiversity, loss of farmable land) are all as important as established ICC concerns for fire safety, structural integrity, means of egress, light, ventilation, heat, water, sanitation, electrical power, and gas. (Eisenberg, 2009) Furthermore, maintaining one set of safety ideals should not come at the expense of the other. Further, to obtain permits for passive heating and cooling systems, builders are required to submit designs that ensure safety and conform to “narrow and unnatural” comfort standards and install a back-up, mechanical systems to ensure that those comfort levels are maintained (Eisenberg, 2009). Furthermore, it is a federal law that homes must
Alternative Housing 12 connect to municipal utilities if they are available (Reynolds, 2014). Conversely, the ICC allows inoperable windows, rooms without natural light or natural ventilation, materials created with volatile chemicals, and heating / cooling systems that emit carbon monoxide or flammable natural gas. Code does not require these systems to have backup systems should they fail. (Eisenberg, 2009) From an economic standpoint, America’s concept of substandard housing is antiquated, established at a time when the population was significantly smaller and wealth was differently distributed. [O]ur present concept of a proper house is one that is too big and too expensive for us to afford. […] This dream is based on the conditions of fifty years ago, when land was cheap and plentiful, energy was not a problem […]What is clearly needed is a serious look at our building codes, zoning codes, property tax structure and, fundamentally, our existing attitudes. Unfortunately, the process of change in these areas moves with slow, painful inertia. What we are dealing with right now is a national emergency and by non-action we are guilty of prolonging and exacerbating the situation. (Konzak, 1999) The default non-action—preservation of these codes—enforces unrealistic housing standards, trapping a good portion of the low-middle class between substandard housing and homelessness. The Opposition Community leaders may support alternative housing in theory, but may they be less inclined to embrace these houses in their community for fear of possible conflicts within the mixed- income communities that will be created, the safety of alternative means and methods, and preparedness for natural disasters. For example, when reached for comment about the Tiny House lobby in Washington, D.C., Ellen McCarthy of Washington, D.C.’s Office of Planning stated, “We need some level of control so people
Alternative Housing 13 aren’t setting up squatter camps in alleys.” (Krainin, 2014) These fears are perpetuated by political agendas and can be negated by common sense. Low-income residents, without the duress of a high mortgage or utility bills are not the squatters, or slum dwellers that politicians claim to fear. Some worry that alternative housing allows inexperienced builders to experiment with materials, means, and methods that may prove dangerous for the dwellers and adjacent properties. As far as private endangerment, a builder should build at his or her own risk. When it comes to the concerns of the neighbors, Loss Prevention Engineer Tom Meyers states, “No matter what it is constructed with, sufficient set-backs can be provided to ensure that fire [does not] spread readily.” (Myers, 2014) Some critics note the potential hazards of these new or experimental materials, specifically with respect to flammability and toxicity. Myers argues an individual’s home is the only appropriate place to experiment as long as the owner understands and accepts the conditions, is willing to disclose to subsequent owners, and does not threaten the welfare of his neighbors. Finally, there seems to be a social stigma attached to alternative housing. Myers concisely identifies the problem and solution: “This perception of informality makes [it] difficult to codify as few seem to really take the concept seriously. The key to getting this accepted is re-branding the method.” (Myers, 2014) In order to apply alternative housing principles where they are most needed, irrelevant building and zoning policy must be challenged. Our nation is stretched over a climatically diverse terrain that hosts various population densities, economic strata,
Alternative Housing 14 changing technologies, and environmental flux. Though it is understandable that the International Code Council may face challenges creating all-encompassing, detailed codes that provide for alternative housing, such changes are necessary to continue to ensure that codes and ordinances serve the public as they were intended. It is crucial that the code authorities keep the bigger picture in mind—a U.S. citizen’s right to affordable housing and a clean, safe environment. As the needs and abilities of our building industry changes, our laws must adapt or be circumvented. They have been in the works for decades, but are finally from theory to action. Should these obsolete building codes and zoning ordinances be amended to allow for alternative housing modalities? America’s housing crisis could be resolved and our environmental impact would be significantly reduced. References Containers4Sale. (2013, December). Consider the Engineering Implications Before You Modify Your Shipping Container. Retrieved November 9, 2014, from Containers4Sale: http://containers4sale.com/2013/07/08/consider-theengineering-implications-before-you-modify-your-shipping-container/ Earthship Biotecture. (2013, June 13). Earthships.com. Retrieved 9 2014, November, from Codes and Laws: http://earthship.com/codes-and-laws Earthships. (2014, June 13). Codes and Laws. Retrieved November 9, 2014, from Earthships.com: earthships.com/codes-and-laws?highlight=WyjwZXJtaXQiXQ== Eisenberg, D. (2009, July 21). Our Myopic Building Codes: Are Building Officials' Practices Encouraging Builders to Perform Mediocre Work? Retrieved November 9, 2014, from Natural Building Network: http://nbnetwork.org/2793 EPA. (2009, April 22). Buildings and their Impacts on the Environment a Statistical Summary. Retrieved November 9, 2014, from Green Building: http://www.epa.gov/greenbuilding/ Gottschalck, A. O., & Carter, G. R. (2010). Drowning in Debt: Housing and Households with Underwater Mortgages. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Census Bureau. Hodge, O. S. (Director). (2007). Garbage Warrior [Motion Picture]. Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University. (2014). The State of the Nation's Housing 2014. Cambridge: Harvard University.
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