1. IMPROVING
HOUSING ASSISTANCE
Community Building and Shared Responsibility
Eduardo Staszowski
Desis Lab | Parsons The New School for Design | NYC
Local Public Design
Design to Reshape Local Public Policies
20 September 2012
Tourcoing, France

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HOW MIGHT WE…?
Structural holes
…develop design strategies to bridge information gaps and narrow
areas of disconnection within a social setting, where needed
information is not shared due to structural limitations?
Tacit knowledge
…make use of participatory design methods to observe and engage
citizens in order to reveal the subjective knowledge of individuals and
communities?
Heterarchies
…flatten hierarchy by creating collaborative networks that generate
more opportunities for heterogeneous collaboration?
Source: Srinivas, N. and Staszowski E.

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Course: IDC Interface | Home Services | Fall 10 | Students: Micah Spears, Rachel Happ and Chantelle Fuoco

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WHAT IF…
…public services could be designed to trigger, orient,
support, and scale promising cases of bottom-up social
innovation?
…promising social innovations could then become
powerful and positive drivers of public innovation?

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Designing
Services
for Housing

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NYC HOUSING YESTERDAY
During the 1970’s and 1980’s, neighborhoods across New York
City experienced wholesale blight and abandonment and the City
became NYC’s largest landlord, taking ownership of over 100,000
units of in rem properties.
Photo: Teresa Zabala/The New York Times

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NYC HOUSING YESTERDAY
By the late 1990’s, New York City experienced a renaissance
bringing many neighborhoods back from the brink.
Source: HPD Photo Archive

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NYC HOUSING TODAY
New York City has had an overall net vacancy rental rate of less
than 5% since 1974—the legal definition of a housing emergency.
As shown below, vacancy rates among low cost units continue to
be significantly below this threshold, while the luxury sector has
consistently experienced health vacancy rates above 5%.
* Rent levels represent monthly
contract rent in real 2008 dollars;
Source: 2002, 2005, 2008 Housing
and Vacancy Survey (U. S. Census
Bureau)

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NYC HOUSING TODAY
As the city prospered through the early 2000’s, the stock of in rem
housing diminished to less than 1,000 properties midway through
the decade. As such, the city had to seek new land, stock and
financing strategies to leverage the market and expand the
affordable housing stock.
Source: HPD Performance Metrics
Represents total unit count in
Occupied and Vacant buildings in
the DPM Workload

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BUT WHAT IS
AFFORDABLE HOUSING?
Source: Center for Urban Pedagogy (h6p://envisioningdevelopment.net/affordable‐housing)

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AFFORDABLE HOUSING
“It’s housing that families in certain income categories can
occupy for 30% or less of their income.”
But, rent burden is not evenly distributed across income categories.
50% of New York City residents pay more than 30% of their income
in rent and 30% pay more than 50% of their income in rent.
This government definition determines which families are eligible
to benefit from different affordable housing programs according to
different income categories and …
“30% of $1 million is very different from 30% of $20,000!”
Source: Center for Urban Pedagogy and HPD.

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Source: Center for Urban Pedagogy (h6p://envisioningdevelopment.net/affordable‐housing)

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Source: Center for Urban Pedagogy (h6p://envisioningdevelopment.net/affordable‐housing)

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Source: New York Magazine

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NYC HPD - MISSION
Today, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development
(HPD) is the largest municipal developer of affordable housing in
the nation.
Quality: HPD code inspectors respond to complaints regarding housing
conditions, such as the availability of heat and hot water.
Availability: In 2004, HPD launched the New Housing Marketplace Plan, the
most extensive affordable housing development plan in the country to create or
preserve 165,000 units of affordable housing.
Affordability: HPD administers the country’s fourth largest Section 8 Housing
Choice Voucher program to provide a rental subsidy to over 32,000 low income
households.

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OUR PROJECT
With the support of the Rockefeller Foundation’s Cultural
Innovation Fund 2012, Public and Collaborative: Designing
Services for Housing is a 2-year initiative the NYC Department
of Housing Preservation & Development (HPD) and the Public
Policy Lab (PPL) to explore innovative ways to improve
services related to city-supported affordable housing
development and preservation.
http://nyc.pubcollab.org
Source: Center for Urban Pedagogy and HPD.

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PROJECT
STRUCTURE
1. Design | 2. Pilot | 3. Evaluate
Fellowships: How-to-Guide and Pilots Implementation
Academic work: Courses, Papers and Dissertations
Knowledge Sharing Platform: How-to-Guide, Open Lectures and Un-conference (Year 2)

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NYC HPD - CHALLENGES
The crash in the market in late 2008 changed the landscape of
affordable housing:
2004-2008 2008-Today
Challenges • Rising rents and sales prices • Financial distress in multi-family stock
• Displacement of tenants • Diminishing availability and increased cost of
• Increasing levels of market rate credit
development • Falling private investment
• Diminishing availability of land • Rising foreclosures
• Increasing signs of physical deterioration
Opportunities/Tools • Cross-subsidizing mixed income • Reclaiming formerly assisted stock
housing • Preserving existing stock
• Inclusionary zoning • Investing in new communities
• Rezoning under-utilized land
Source: HPD

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HOUSING/ECONOMIC CRISIS
More foreclosures Lower Quality of
Residential and
Economic Life in
Less Homeowners LMI Communities
Lower Property Less local retail and
Maintenance employment
Potential
More Crime
Abandonment
Source: George Galster (Wayne State University) | “After the Crisis: Housing Policy and Finance in the US and UK” Conference. The New School (9/14/12)

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DESIGN OPPORTUNITIES
1. The housing market in New York is extremely complex to
navigate especially in the field of affordable housing.
Going through the many government programs and services
can be a serious challenge, even for housing and development
professionals and community organizations.
2. The creation of resident-based services and collaborative
efforts of residents living in the buildings with
investments leveraged by HPD could have a transformative
impact in underserved neighborhoods promoting social and
economic integration and contributing to the overall success
and preservation of the investment.

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OUR HYPOTHESIS
Innovative networks
can be activated
when government,
tenants, landlords,
developers and
community groups
become partners in
designing and
providing services
for affordable
housing.
Source: The Young Foundation/NESTA (2007)

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Services and the City | Spring 12 | Faculty: Lara Penin | Students: Judit Boros, Matteo D’Amanzo, Harriette Kim and Molly Oberholtzer

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Public and Collaborative Services | Spring 12 | Faculty: Ezio Manzini and Eduardo Staszowski | Students: Janet Lorbberecht, Nelson Lo and Jennifer Meyer

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OUR DESIGN SCENARIO
FROM BUILDINGS TO COMMUNITIES:
A vision of how HPD might evolve to meet new realities and challenges
• A series of complimentary
innovations proposed across
the arc of the HPD’s services
• Builds on HPD’s history of
successful collaboration with
private developers and
community partners
• Illustrates the mutual benefit
of increased participation in
HPD’s services for both the
agency and its constituents

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PILOT PROPOSALS
1. Development of targeted local
marketing strategies that improve
eligibility among communities of
greatest need.
2. Integration of social media as a
platform for efficient customer
service and supportive
community-networking before,
during, and after lease-up.
3. Affordable housing kiosks or
“street teams” that activate local
networks and connect with
potential applicants not reached
by other marketing channels. Kiosk

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PILOT PROPOSALS
4. Toolkit that provides information,
increases transparency, and
aligns expectations for affordable
housing applicants and those who
assist them.
5. Tools, training, and support for
community partners or “sherpas”
who assist with marketing and
guide housing seekers through the
application process.
Applicant
Toolkit

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PRELIMINARY REFLECTIONS
1. Co-production: reform vs. devolvement
2. Right for experimentation: a call for space
3. Whose voice gets represented
4. Role of design

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DESIGN ROLE 1
1. Understand the challenges of service delivery to current and
potential users;
2. Enable residents’ involvement in the design and delivery of
local services;
3. Generate ideas, rapidly prototype and test proposed
solutions to gain insight into what works and what doesn’t;
4. Facilitate strategic conversations among stakeholders.

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DESIGN ROLE 2
1. Process Facilitator: generate a dialogue with the community,
observe local level practices and knowledge sharing, promote
networks and synergies among citizens and other stakeholders
2. Information and Cross-Cultural Broker: inform the
community, translate and visualize complex ideas;
3. Input Gatherer: map and collect information on local level
practices;
4. Visioning Catalyst: design scenarios of social innovation and
prototype ideas.
Source: Staszowski E. (2011).

32. Merci!
staszowe@newschool.edu
http://desis.parsons.edu
@desisparsons
The views expressed in this presentaLon do not necessarily reflect the official posiLons or policies of HPD or the City of New York