Look around and you’ll see plenty of vacant buildings. Can they be turned into housing? Adaptive Reuse is on the rebound and estimates say ninety-percent of real estate development in the next decade will involve adaptive reuse, or repurposing buildings for something other than their intended use. Most cases involve offices or hotels but factories, warehouses, malls and schools are also undergoing transformations. We even found a bowling alley transformed into housing. 

Interview guests: CBRE Senior Associate Marianne Taylor, Executive Director UC Real Estate Center Carl Goertemoeller, and CEO G.F. Bailey Co., Tim Forbess

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Cities that want to add hundreds of housing units at a time are embracing the addition of large-scale apartments alongside other types of housing. These big multifamily housing projects are on track to break national records this year and add an estimated 2-million units by 2028. But will the current economic climate allow the building boom to continue and do communities want large-scale apartments in their neighborhoods?  

Interview guests: Yardi Matrix Manager of Business Intelligence Doug Ressler, Vice President of the Greater Cincinnati Northern Kentucky Apartment Association Justin Seger, and Assistant Anderson Township Administrator Steve Sievers 

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Housing Choice Vouchers are portable subsidies that low-income families can use to lower their rents in the private market. But is this 50-year old solution to the housing crisis working as well as it should? The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and local entities like the Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority and Greater Dayton Premier Management, which receive the federal funds from HUD to issue the vouchers, are trying to make changes but budgetary constraints are hampering their efforts. 

Interview guests: 

HUD Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian Housing Rich Monocchio, Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority CEO Greg Johnson and Greater Dayton Premier Management CEO Jennifer Heapy.

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Shane Phillips says we’re not building as much housing as we did in the 1960s when we had 120 million fewer people. He says the scarcity has caught up with us and offers up 54 ideas to tackle the housing crisis. In The Affordable City Phillips suggests everything from letting renters decide what they value to prioritizing the three S’s: Supply, Stability and Subsidy. 

Interview guest: Shane Phillips, urban planner, policy expert, podcast host and author of The Affordable City. 

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Cincinnati’s South Cumminsville is a largely low-income African American neighborhood along the once polluted Mill Creek. Seventy-percent of people live within a block of property with possible contamination and asthma rates among children are high. A nonprofit organization is helping  green it up through retrofits and near net-zero homes. Residents are hopeful and city leaders hope it can be replicated in other communities.

Interview guests: Executive Director of WIN Sister Barbara Busch, President of the South Cumminsville Community Council Derrik Feagin, VP Council on Aging of Southwestern Ohio Ken Wilson and Cincinnati Vice Mayor Jan Michele Lemon-Kearney.

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As evictions and the number of people experiencing homelessness remain high, keeping people in their homes could come down to an algorithm. If homeless prevention agencies got a heads up on who was at-risk and what types of bills they were having trouble paying, they could help prevent an eviction even before an eviction notice. Cincinnati and other cities are trying it. Maidstone, England has data to back it up. 

Interview guests: Kevin Finn, president of Strategies to End Homelessness; Amy Riegel, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio; Raúl Ordóñez, University of Dayton professor of electrical and computer engineering, and more. 

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Vacant and abandoned property accelerates the decline of neighborhoods. How can we make this land more productive? An increasing number of governments and non-profit organizations are turning to land banks as a partial solution. 

Interview guests: National Land Bank Network Director Brian Larkin, Montgomery County Land Bank Senior Advisor Mike Grauwelman, The Port’s Executive Vice President Philip Denning, Common Orchard Project Director Chris Smyth

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If we had an abundance of entry level units, there would be a lot of different opportunities,” says Charles Marohn. “A person who is in their first job, a person who’s just getting started with their family, a couple that has just gotten married, people should be able to move up when they’re ready.” In his book Escaping the Housing Trap, Marohn says because we can’t afford for housing prices to fall, one strategy is to look around your neighborhood and instigate a building boom of 600 sq. ft. houses. Among other things, in an interview with Brick by Brick, he talks about what a difference incremental developers can make.

Interview guest: Engineer, Author and Strong Towns CEO Charles Marohn

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We don’t have enough houses or apartments. However, plenty of people may have extra space in their house for a separate garage, attic or basement apartment. And they might even be able to build a separate structure in their backyard. California, Oregon and Washington states have built an estimated 100,000 of these, so-called-Accessory Dwelling Units or ADUs. They are now legal in Cincinnati and conditional in Dayton. Can these structures ramp up here to help fill the housing gap?

Interview guests: ADU expert Kol Peterson, Miami University Assistant Architecture Professor Jeff Kruth, KeyBank Vice President Kenya Taylor, UC Berkeley researcher Mohammed Alameldin

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Vehicles spend most of their time parked. And because of that, for years cities have dictated how many parking spots developers should include based on sometimes arbitrary numbers. But do those numbers still make sense and could reducing them allow for more housing and development? An increasing number of cities are getting rid of those so-called parking mandates or parking minimums, including Cincinnati. 

Interview guests: Author of The High Cost of Free Parking Donald Shoup, President of the Parking Reform Network Tony Jordan, Cincinnati Councilmember Jeff Cramerding and City Officials from Buffalo, Minneapolis and Tulsa.

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We like to keep things as up to date as they can be here on Brick by Brick: Solutions for a Thriving Community. This is a short update from host Ann Thompson regarding the next episode release date.

Please offer feedback on the series through this short survey. 

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Cincinnati and Dayton have some of the highest rates of eviction filings in the nation. And with rents continuing to rise, it’s unclear when those evictions will start slowing down. On this episode of Brick by Brick we examine one possible solution that could even the playing field in eviction court. It’s called Right to Counsel, or the right of a tenant to be represented in court. Dayton is starting a pilot program to either help keep people in their homes or at least avoid an eviction on their record.  Does Right to Counsel work and is it worth it? Some landlords are open to the idea.

Interview guests: National eviction researcher Tim Thomas, officials from Cleveland and Philadelphia: cities seeing success from Right to Counsel

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In this special episode, known as a Solutions Sidebar, Brick by Brick interviews authors Richard and Leah Rothstein on what role the government played to segregate society and how to undo it. We get their insights on everything from barriers to home ownership and rent equity to how communities can level the playing field. In the interview and in their book Just Action, the Rothsteins explain how to beat NIMBYism and establish land trusts. They also say for every example of a strategy, there is a group or a local community that is implementing that change. According to the Rothsteins “It’s all very achievable.”

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Zoning dictates how our communities are designed. For decades Cincinnati’s zoning has favored detached single-family homes. But with rising home prices and skyrocketing rents, the city looks to house more people through “missing middle” housing. On this episode of Brick by Brick we look at Cincinnati’s bold new zoning reform plan called Connected Communities and its potential impact. Brick by Brick Journalist Hernz Laguerre Jr. also investigates other cities which have tried similar zoning proposals to see what we can learn.

Interview guest: Cincinnati Councilmember Reggie Harris

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Cincinnati is number two nationally converting office space into apartments. Dayton is also doing it. On this episode of Brick by Brick we look at how this possible solution can create more housing and whether this mode of up-cycling has any constraints. Brick by Brick Journalist Hernz Laguerre Jr. tours both luxury apartments in Dayton and the first new affordable apartments in Cincinnati’s downtown business district in thirty years. 

Interview guest: Doug Ressler, Manager Business Intelligence, Yardi Matrix

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Is a Cincinnati response to out-of-town investors now a national model for preserving local affordable housing? On this episode of Brick by Brick, we’re diving into a solution created by The Port (short for Port of Greater Cincinnati Development Authority), in which an agency or non-profit effectively buys up affordable housing – competing against institutional or Wall Street investors – in order to maintain local control and preserve housing stock. Brick by Brick journalist Hernz Laguerre Jr. follows along on the homebuying journey with residents interested in buying some of The Port’s properties – known as the CARE portfolio. 

Interview Guest: Laura Brunner, CEO of The Port.

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