Case Study: Challenges Facing Urban Planners

Fair housing for allall human beings who live in this countryis now part of the American way of life. President Lyndon B. Johnsons proclamation following the enactment of the Fair Housing Act of 1968

Today, the United States is experiencing the most severe shortage of affordable housing since the end of World War II (Finnegan, 2021). Indeed, the affordable housing shortage in the United States has assumed crisis proportions and there are few positive signs that any substantive progress is on the horizon. The dearth of affordable housing, combined with a growing not-in-my-backyard mindset against locating low-income housing in local communities among American who are fortunate enough to have a home has made it especially difficult to formulate timely and effective solutions to this nationwide problem. The epigraph above, though, makes it clear that urban planners have a fundamental responsibility to the American people to solve this problem. To determine the extent and scope of these issues, the purpose of this case study is to provide an analysis of the various critical challenges that are currently facing urban planners as well as how and why they affect the planning process. In addition, an analysis of the solutions to the selected planning and development challenge and their potential for success is followed by an analysis of the partnerships that can help mitigate the affordable housing crisis using a biblical worldview. Finally, the case study provides a recapitulation of the research and a summary of the key findings in the conclusion.

1) Critical Challenges Facing Urban Planners

Given the dynamics, complexity and resource-intensive stakes that are involved in the affordable housing market, it is little wonder that urban planners today are faced with multiple critical challenges, including most especially the lingering effects of restrictive, racially based zoning laws that contributed to predominately white communities across the country as well as local, state and government regulations concerning real estate development (Finnegan, 2021). Further, irrespective of other considerations, there is widespread agreement that any affordable housing initiative must take into account the need for access to public services including transportation and health care (Gonyea et al., 2022). Likewise, sustained increases in the prices of real estate properties and construction materials have introduced particularly intractable challenges for urban planners who are confronted with the need to balance the expenditure of scarce taxpayer resources with the needs of low-income citizens.

Beyond the foregoing, some other critical challenges that are currently facing urban planners include the following:

Disruptive innovations;

Financing difficulties;

Fragmented and overlapping governments, authorities, and special districts;

Untangling organizational purpose and organizational strategy;

Social conflicts and rapid population growth;

The spread of scattered new development;

Outdated planning and zoning techniques; and,

Incorporating what people think (reputation and the social definition of value) in the strategic planning process.

All of these critical challenges were already in place in varying degrees and exacerbating the affordable housing crisis in the United States before 2019, but the COVID-19 pandemic served to amplify these challenges even further. For instance, as Finnegan points out, COVID-19 has further brought to light the structural racism that underlies our housing market, and since the pandemics onset, it has become clear that renters and landlords have been pushed to the precipice (p. 478).

Finally, urban centers continue to attract growing numbers of residents which are representing an increasingly diverse population group with correspondingly diverse social and health care needs. One especially salient example is the increase in the number of elderly Americans who are at high risk of suffering from food insecurity and homelessness (Gonyea et al., 2022). Moreover, minorities in the U.S. are also a vulnerable population with respect to becoming homeless (Gonyea et al, 2022). In sum, urban planners have much to consider when formulating initiatives in general and those seeking to alleviate the nationwide affordable housing crisis in particular as discussed further below as it relates to the planning process.

How do they affect the planning process? Why do they affect the planning process? What are second-order consequences?

Rapidly changing urban environments create real challenges for urban planners who must identify current priorities and weigh them against projected changes in future trends and the needs of a given community. While there are a number of factors that must be considered in the planning process, there are some that represent real existential threats which require the highest priority. For example, the devastating effects of climate change on many American communities, including those situated in coastal regions and where heat indexes are projected to skyrocket by mid-century, mean that urban planners must evaluate the potential for some regions to become essentially uninhabitable in the foreseeable future. In other cases, urban planners must focus on developing climte-resilient infrastructure to protect these threatened communities (Jagarnath et al., 2022).

There are also some severe second-order consequences associated with these constraints to the urban planning process. For instance, many states are already experiencing severe shortages of water supplies, and current projections indicate that this problem is only going to get far worse over time. Indeed, time is already running out for many American communities that have suffered unprecedented droughts and water wars are characterizing interstate relations in some parts of the country (Parween & Sinha, 2023). Moreover, there remains a paucity of timely and informed research concerning the viable strategies that are required to respond to these changes in the environment. In this regard, Parween and Sinha (2023) emphasize that, Even...

…provides low and middle-class residents with the tools to cope with certain short-term impacts of COVID-19, the various economic effects of the pandemic are nevertheless propelling hundreds of thousands of low-income Americans into debt and housing insecurity, (p. 468)

These findings indicate that there is a growing need for public-private partnerships which are better situated to provide the impetus for real estate development specifically for affordable housing in the United States today (Kavishe & Chileshe, 2019). According to the definition provided by Batra (2021), Public-private partnerships are one of the holistic built-environment development and management approaches having all the processes under one roof, built-up with varied processes, and propagating improved performance [which] are widely adopted in various building sectors (p. 1). These types of partnerships have been used to good effect in other countries as well as several American cities to provide affordable housing for low-income residents.

It is important to note, though, that public-private partnerships are not a cure-all nor do they avoid many of the same challenges that face urban planners using other developmental strategies to promote affordable housing, especially the not-in-my-backyard mindset that characterizes American society (Read et al., 2020). Furthermore, the potential also exists for civic leaders to leverage public-private partnerships in ways that mirror the restrictive zoning laws that characterized the American landscape until the passage of the Fair Housing Act in 1968 (Finnegan, 2021). This point is also made by Eagle (2012) who emphasizes that, Through so-called public-private partnerships, cities and states have tried to provide carrots, such as tax incentives, to ensure the creation of development they wanted. This augmented zoning and other regulations would [also] prevent development they did not want (p. 630).

Conclusion

The research was consistent in showing that there are no easy or inexpensive solutions to the nations affordable housing crisis. Not only are urban planners faced with multiple critical challenges that continue to expand in scope and intensity, new challenges are always emerging to further complicate the process. Unfortunately, the research also showed that there is little financial incentive for real estate developers to focus on economically suboptimal investment opportunities such as housing that is specifically designed for low-income residents during a period in the nations history when there is also a demand for higher-priced residences. There are some proven strategies that are available, though, that can facilitate the development and construction of affordable housing initiatives, most especially public-private partnerships that provide private sector expertise with governmental funding and oversight in ways that are not possible otherwise. Despite the potential for these types of partnerships to alleviate the nationwide affordable housing crisis, it is reasonable to conclude that nothing substantive will be accomplished unless and until policymakers at all levels of governments place…