Affordable Housing and the Conflict of Competing Goods: A Policy Dilemma

This paper, which was the keynote address at a conference on Affordable Housing and Pubic Private Partnerships at the University of Colorado Law School, is designed to point out the conflicts between various competing social “goods” in relation to the provision of affordable housing. In a world of finite resources in which competing goods cannot both be maximized at the same time, when the goods are incommensurable, how ought a society choose among them? The paper focuses on such issues as preservation of affordable housing and wealth creation; affordability and handicapped accessibility or green development. It examines various methods of societal choosing and provides a critique of each such method. It then cautions policy makers to be conscious of these incommensurable goals and to determine how to prioritize them

Inclusion by Design: Accessible Housing and Mobility Impairment

In the midst of pervasive national efforts at improving accessibility to public places for people with disabilities, there is no national design standard for making single-family residential housing accessible to the mobility impaired. As a consequence, people with mobility impairment often find that they are unable to safely and easily visit the homes of family, friends, neighbors, and colleagues because their housing is designed with exclusionary and unsafe features-features that would not be permitted if the property were a public place, a place of public accommodation, or publicly funded housing. This Article questions the difference in inclusive design requirements as between public places and private homes. In so doing, it suggests that the difference rests upon two fundamental misunderstandings. The first is based on a failure to appreciate the public nature of private housing, and the second involves misperceptions concerning the ability (inability) of individuals to bargain for socially optimal outcomes in the market for private residential homes. In response to these conclusions, the Article supports a national inclusive design standard for all new single-family residential housing

Will Work\u27: The Role of Intellectual Property in Transitional Economies -- From Coal to Content

The development and exploitation of intellectual property, and participation in the global information economy, are not dependent upon geography. It can take place from anywhere, from the inside of an empty factory in Detroit, to a small country road, nestled between the rhododendron and the river. From the R&D lab at a university, to a barren plain in New Mexico. To move from coal to content, we must foster a dynamic and profitable environment for entrepreneurship, through a supportive and robust university community, through state legislation and institutional support and through effective utilization of intellectual property laws. Intellectual property and technology can be used in transitional economies to create meaningful opportunities for young people to live and to work in their communities, to make efficient use of their own resources. This issue spans art and science, business and industry, culture and environment. Twin-pops and telephones. Intellectual property can help people use traditional resources in the new economy -- the art, the music, the know-how -- and to cultivate human knowledge and creation in a manner that benefits these communities across the country. This is the American story, too - to create wealth from within. To \u27Will Work\u27

Another Model of Low Income Housing Tax Credit Development: Building Housing and Building Capacity

This paper was first delivered at a conference on Affordable Housing and Pubic Private Partnerships at the University of Colorado Law School. It addresses the creation of community institutions able to acquire and wield power in the affordable housing realm. While this ability has generally been associat4ed with buildings purchased and operated by tenant groups, the paper suggests other affordable housing situations, particularly those developed under the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program, in which the accretion of power can occur. It proposes a model of tenant involvement in development and operation of affordable rental housing that can, in certain circumstances, create the type of durable institution normally associated with ownership