Amid a nationwide housing shortage of an estimated 5 million units, one group of University of Virginia researchers, including Professor Andrew Hayashi of UVA Law School, is hoping to find solutions here in the commonwealth.
The initiative, called Building Efficient, Durable, Resilient, Optimizable Communities and Knowledge, or BEDROCK, will study how zoning laws and building codes, coupled with financing mechanisms and tax law, are incentivizing the construction of lower-quality housing, particularly multifamily rental housing.
The project, which will focus on Fairfax and Arlington in Northern Virginia as well as Charlottesville, received initial seed funding from the University’s Environmental Institute through its Climate Collaborative program. That support was recently bolstered by a grant from Arnold Ventures of $767,571 for the overall initiative, of which $584,390 went to UVA researchers.
The goal, Hayashi said, is to “take a bit of a longer-term view about creating housing that doesn’t just meet today’s needs or yesterday’s needs but is forward-looking,” given changing economic patterns, environmental factors and preferences in the types of homes people desire.
“The two pillars of the project right now are thinking about, first, how can new housing construction be adaptable and repurposed as the economy and demographics evolve over time,” Hayashi said. “And the second is that, if we're successful in building a lot of new residential housing, what is it being built out of? Is it ramping up industrial production to produce that housing? Is it going to have climate costs?”
“If we’re going to build a lot of new housing, how can we do it in a way that minimizes its effect on the environment?” he added.