Sustainable and affordable housing is a big part of our future. With housing prices rising all around the country, many people worry that their dreams of homeownership will never become a reality. With rental prices going up just as quickly in most parts of the country, finding an affordable place to call your own, whether you own it or rent it, seems almost impossible.
As a response to this, many initiatives are popping up to help make housing more affordable. Not only that, these initiatives are looking to make sustainable housing that can last a long time, along with green housing that can protect our environment for the future. One such initiative that is able to do all of these things and more is the Alley Flat Initiative.
What is the Alley Flat Initiative?
The Alley Flat Initiative is not something that just one person or one group decided to put together and run with. In fact, it is a collaboration between a number of different groups throughout Texas in order to create affordable and sustainable housing for those who need it the most. The groups who are responsible for collaborating on this endeavor include:
· The Austin Community Design and Development Center
· The University of Texas Center for Sustainable Development
· The GNDC
What is really unique about this idea is that the initiative was originally conceived through student research and design at the University of Texas School of Architecture. Throughout the years, this initiative has gained a lot of traction and has even won a few awards that helped further its position in the area.
What are Alley Flats?
To understand this initiative a bit better, it is important to recognize what Alley Flats are in the first place. While there are a variety of different types of alley flats you can find, these are basically small, detached residential units that can be accessed from the alleyways already found in Austin. The homeowners that have access to these alleys will be able to build these alley flats on the back of their lots and have additional living space when they need it the most.
These alley flats are generally fairly small because they need to fit on a lot that is already there. They may not be much bigger than a shed, though it will depend on where the lot is and how much space the homeowner has. The only access to the new structure will be in the alleyway that is already there, which is where this gets its name.
These flats are generally a lot less expensive than building a brand new home or even adding an addition to your current home. When you compare the costs of building a full home to the costs of building something the size of a shed, the prices will be a lot lower. They can include as many amenities as you would like, depending on how you plan to use them.
This initiative has already won a number of different awards for the work it is doing in the Austin area. For example, the GNDC, which is one of the groups that is collaborating with the Alley Flats Initiative, received the Shelter with Spirit grant that allowed them to add spray foam insulation into a one bedroom Alley Flat in Austin. The Initiative itself also won the Envision Central Texas Community Stewardship Award for Redevelopment.