September 23, 2022

Hi First name / there,

I'm landing in your inbox a few days later than usual. The start of this semester has been… rough. From coming down with covid during the first week of class, to resigning from an internship that was not upfront about expectations until after I onboarded (yikes), to just generally being in grad school, it's been a lot! 

 

I'm really grateful for this community of folks though. Whenever I'm feeling blah about social media, at least there's A Place to Call Home. AND! If all goes according to plan, by the time you receive the next newsletter, my rebrand should be complete! It's all very exciting. 

 

Okay, let's get into it. 

 

As interest rates rise and we deal with inflation, we’ve reached a point where middle-class folks are feeling the hurt a little more. For better or worse, I think it’s economic environments like that where we start to see actual action from our leaders. 

 

The same principle might apply to housing. 

 

Major cities with tight housing markets may seem like they always have new construction happening, but what kind of things are being built? Well, in DC, we do build a decent amount of affordable (read: income restricted) housing – that’s not to say we can’t and shouldn’t build more… we definitely should – but the majority of new construction skews toward high-cost luxury.

 

Where does that leave regular folks with “middle” incomes? I’m talking about teachers, people who work in local government, and the like. How is a non-profit employee doing important, community-based work for $65,000 a year in a city where you need to make more than $87,000 to “live comfortably” (or ~$138,000 if you’re a homeowner) expected to make it work in the long run? 

 

That’s where Missing Middle housing comes in. Sort of. 

 

Unlike income-restricted housing, Missing Middle isn’t actually targeted at a specific income level. The idea is this: smaller-sized homes tend to be cheaper to build, and in turn, tend to be more affordable for folks with these mid-range incomes. I’m going to get into what these smaller homes might look like in a bit, but first – why the heck doesn’t this exist already?

 

For a variety of reasons (mainly related to single-family-home-only zoning rules, related building codes, and the high cost of land), it’s been challenging to entice developers to build things that fall into that Missing Middle category. Many municipalities across the country are in a nascent stage with making Missing Middle happen, and it’s not without opposition from communities. But honestly, today’s newsletter isn’t about the opposition (they get enough attention/power without my help). Today, we’re going to celebrate this cool corner of the housing policy world with some dope pictures. 

“Missing Middle Housing is a range of house-scale buildings with multiple units—compatible in scale and form with detached single-family homes—located in a walkable neighborhood.” This is according to Daniel Parolek of Opticos Design, who coined the term. 

 

When people talk about more dense housing leading to a loss of neighborhood character, I think they picture large, soulless apartment buildings. And there’s definitely a place for larger buildings, but in neighborhoods like mine, they would feel super out of place! And that sense of place is important (a topic I’d love to explore more). Here’s the thing though: we used to build a wide variety of home types, many of which would be considered Missing Middle. 

 

I actually grew up in a duplex! Aside from wishing I had my own bathroom (I have three younger brothers lol), I don’t think I “missed out” on anything by not living in a standalone house. 

 

Anyway, I hope that this little introduction to Missing Middle taught you something new. I’m curious: are there buildings in your neighborhood like this? Hit reply and let me know!

 

Until next time,

🧡 Dominique

 

I'm working on a redesign of my mom's house, and the first place I like to start with any design project is with layout. Here are a few quick tips: 

Here's the layout I'm going to propose! They host a lot of big family gatherings, so having a decent amount of seating is a must. 

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