Takeaways from Annual Luncheon 2020: Part 4

Leading Change in… Affordability through Transportation and Housing Advocacy

5 minute read  The following is a summary of key takeaways from this Breakout Session during the virtual Annual Luncheon that took place on November 13, 2020. This session was led by Kelsey Oesmann, Jackie Paul Sims, and Daniel Hernandez, and moderated by Tanisha Hall.

Affordability with a Systems Perspective

With the recent release of Mayor Cooper’s Transportation Plan in December 2020, advocates for public transit are assessing gains and continuing needs. While progress is being made for transit, advocates are continuing to educate folks on the connections between public transit and affordable housing. Many advocates and organizations are locally doing work from this systems perspective. This perspective, used by the Biden administration, is embedded in each of the session’s takeaways. 

Action #1: Discuss transportation decisions with a variety of stakeholders to understand wants, wishes, and needs.

Need to get feedback from transit riders? Talk to people at the bus stop. There are easy ways to get community feedback without having a meeting at 2 p.m. on a Tuesday that can be inaccessible for many people. When discussing transit decisions, keep in mind that for every environment you talk to people in, there will likely be a different audience you reach. 

Additionally, a large part of transit conversations is education. If you are an advocate or  facilitator, try to encourage understanding amongst stakeholder groups. NIMBY, or “not in my backyard,” attitudes can have far-reaching consequences for planning. Trying to bring some understanding to those with NIMBY attitudes by lifting the stories of others to humanize those affected by certain decisions. 

“There have been projects that have been blocked by neighborhood resistance and the NIMBY (‘not in my backyard’) attitude. [For] the way that some of our programs are structured, that doesn’t just kill that one project, it has really far reaching implications. The way that some of these programs score projects on a county level, our projects in one part of the city [can be] disadvantaged because a project in a different neighborhood was shut down.”

— Jackie Paul Sims

A person playing The Game of Rent [photo from Harry Connolly]

Action #2: Educate others on the important connection between affordable housing and public transportation including community members, city officials, and developers.

Housing justice is transportation justice. Transportation justice is housing justice. Part of this systems connection resides in understanding displacement. That is, if people are unable to afford to live in an area and move somewhere else, their transportation costs can increase just as much. Finding ways to advocate for people and educate decision makers starts with taking a look into household expenses and making arguments for people who are spending 30% of their income on transit or 80% of their income on housing. 

Fruitvale Transit Village in Oakland, California. [photo from Jen Gray-O’Connor]

Precedents in other places can be opportunities to imagine what can be possible for places like Nashville in the Southeast United States. For example, check out Fruitvale Transit Village. Opened in 2004, this transit-oriented development clustered transportation, affordable housing, and social services to promote social equity in Oakland.

“I often hear housing and transit as competing priorities, which I think is really unfortunate, because they go so hand in hand. We know that if folks aren’t able to afford where they live, and they move somewhere else, their transportation costs increase just as much.”

In addition to exploring precedents, use a game! The Game of Rent is an excellent tool for educating its players on all the factors go into affordability using local data. When you play the game, you are dealt a hand of life factors including your career and your dependents. The goal is to find a place to live that suits your needs within your budget. Your housing budget also affects how far away you will live from your "job" and therefore impacts your commute. 

Action #3: Advocate for transitioning away from autos towards public transit, bike lanes, and pedestrian mobility for more equitable access.

Biking culture in Copenhagen [photo by Veronica Foster]

The panelists agreed that too much of land use is auto-centric in Nashville and more time and share of land and resources must be allocated towards bike lanes, public transit and pedestrians. Overall, Southern cities need to catch up with the North American and Global cities that already have designed major pedestrian streets and plazas as well as safe bike lanes that connect to comprehensive public transit. 

We know that well connected communities are possible, but the major hurdle is a culture shift away from the freedoms of a privately-owned vehicle. Walking, biking, and taking public transportation create more freedom within urban areas when they are interconnected, safe, and affordable. 

What comes first: the chicken (comprehensive transit infrastructure) or the egg (a culture of walking, biking, and taking transit)?

Do you know of any examples of Leading Change in Affordability though Transportation and Affordable Housing? Comment below! 

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Speaker Bios

Kelsey Oesmann is an Architect and Design Initiatives Manager with Urban Housing Solutions, one of Nashville's nonprofit providers of affordable housing, and has been with the organization for nearly four years. She is also the creator of the Game of Rent.

Daniel Hernandez is a real estate developer, planner, and project manager and founder of PROYECTO. With over 25 years of experience, Daniel’s portfolio includes a broad range of project types in urban places from San Francisco to New York. 

Tanisha Hall is the CEO and Principal of Fairpoint Planning, a management consulting firm focused on transportation planning, engagement and outreach, and project visioning. She is a Civic Design Center Board Member. 

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Takeaways summarized by Gretchen Trast, Civic Design Center Research Fellow

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Jump to other Annual Luncheon Takeaways

• Part 1: Leading Change in Economic + Community Development Within Neighborhoods

• Part 2: Leading Change through Diversity in Design Education and Practice

• Part 3: Leading Change by Celebrating Neighborhood Identity in the Face of Gentrification

• Part 4: Leading Change in Affordability though Transportation and Housing Advocacy

• Part 5: Leading Change in Safe Pedestrian Infrastructure for All