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Some affordable housing advocates believe that, all too often, historic properties are a pretentious, impractical distraction in the drive for housing that suits a thinner pocket book. However, these properties can offer significant advantages: 1. It can be less costly to renovate an existing structure. 2. Using existing buildings causes less community disruption. 3. A sizeable portion of the market likes the idea of living in a historic property. 4. Historically sensitive renovation preserves America's architectural heritage and the community's character. 5. Historic structures are often located in or near the cores of our cities, giving residents access to jobs in the downtown. 6. Re-using structures means less waste is trucked to landfills. and 7. Historic properties and struggling neighborhoods are often eligible for a wide range of grants from various levels of government and other sources, giving projects a financial boost.

Some historic properties are like the prettiest girl at a high school dance, able to pick and choose from among a host of suitors. If a property is attractive, well located, and structurally sound, plenty of developers will likely contend to refurbish it into high-end condominiums and commercial space. These moves by developers have resulted in a boom in the redevelopment of formerly decaying hotels, factories, mills, and other old structures, which are being brought back to life as high-end properties. But historic properties also provide viable solutions to affordable housing and other similar community needs.

Why Historic Properties?

Some affordable housing advocates believe that, all too often, historic properties are a pretentious, impractical distraction in the drive for housing that suits a thinner pocket book. However, these properties can offer significant advantages:

* Depending on the property, it can be less costly to renovate an existing structure than to build from scratch.

* Using existing buildings causes less community disruption than sending in a bulldozer to flatten existing structures and make way for new ones.

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* A sizeable portion of the market likes the idea of living in a historic property, and offering this housing option increases the number of people who may want to live in a community.

* Historically sensitive renovation preserves America's architectural heritage and the community's character.

* Historic structures are often located in or near the cores of our cities, giving residents access to jobs in the downtown-possibly walking, cycling, or using public transit to get to work. This offers more employment options to residents who choose not to drive and results in less air pollution from car exhaust.

* Re-using structures means less waste is trucked to landfills, fewer resources are used in creating housing units, and less farmland or green space is paved over for new housing.

* Historic properties and struggling neighborhoods are often eligible for a wide range of grants from various levels of government and other sources, giving projects a financial boost.

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Can Historic Equal Affordable?

Some historic properties are money pits; however, effective upfront analysis of the property, done by experienced professionals, can help avoid these financial challenges. Many architectural firms, such Pittsburgh-based Desmone & Associates, Architects, have found that if a structure is sound, it is often 80 percent of the way toward being livable. Given the huge range of historic properties on the market, each should be analyzed to determine its appropriateness for affordable housing by assessing several factors:

Purchase price: Housing that is already constructed can often be renovated and modernized for less than the cost of new building. Is that true with this building?

Operating cost: Many historic properties can, after installing effective insulation and weatherproofing, be affordable to heat and cool. Brick walls generally require minimal maintenance, but elaborate woodwork can be costly to repaint and repair, which could add to maintenance costs.

Resale value: Often, properly maintained historic properties will maintain their value better than newly built properties.

Choosing Wallflower Properties

Choosing "wallflower" properties can be key to achieving success in making historic buildings affordable. Wallflowers are buildings not in high demand by commercial developers because they are looking for quick "fix and flips" into the arms of high-income purchasers.

To be a part of successful communities, wallflower properties need special care. In part, this is because available economic levers for development are less powerful than those being used to develop the "prettiest" properties. Not all buyers and developers have deep pockets.

Case Study: Brewers Row

Consider the example of Brewers Row, a recent Desmone project that involved residential renovation and historic facade restoration in Pittsburgh's North Side neighborhood of Spring Garden. The neighborhood had seen better days, and the Northside Leadership Conference wanted to build on its revitalisation.

The project involved eight 19th-century town houses that had fallen into disrepair. Seeing the property's potential, the Conference partnered with the Spring Garden Community Council and commissioned Desmone to make them livable again. The result is an addition to the community's entry-level housing stock.

This work required sensitivity to both historical detail and local market conditions. Now completed, Brewers Row offers a combination of restored historic detail such as decorative mantles and wooden stairs with carved posts along with modern amenities.

Success with refurbishing historic properties comes on three different levels.

Physical Viability

Some old buildings may look ripe for redevelopment but sit decaying year after year. It could be that developers took a look at the physical structure and decided that its problems were too costly to fix. Almost all historic properties face their share of structural issues, and anyone considering their redevelopment needs to have a solid idea of what those issues are.

In Brewers Row, immediately evident uneven floors pointed to deeply rooted problems. Investigation made it apparent that the foundation was inadequate. In some cases the foundation consisted of timber walls built on rocks laid on the ground. These foundations needed to be replaced with new concrete footers and concrete block walls, while the upper three floors were temporarily braced. In this case, the work could be done cost-effectively enough to keep the project viable. It does not always work out that way.

One of the characteristics of historic renovation is that problems often turn out to be worse than is first evident. These can include insect, fire, and water damage, which can be seen only when some of the interior plaster comes off. An inadequate foundation is often discovered only after digging down from ground level.

Viability often depends on maintenance performed over a building's lifetime. If the brick hasn't been repointed frequently, the lack of mortar may have allowed rainwater to soak in, damaging the wall. Roof leaks may have rotted some of the structural timber. The building's ownership history may help determine whether maintenance was adequate or not, which may indicate the project's viability.

This means that for any community development organization, experienced professional advice is vital. An architect can provide some of this, but it is also crucial to have a contractor who has experience with historic buildings and knows what to look for.

Inadequate investigation ahead of time may turn what looked like a viable opportunity into a nightmarish, budget-draining "learning experience" for all concerned. Doing a thorough investigation may help uncover a property that can change from wallflower to the belle of the ball, but the opposite is just as likely to be revealed.

Economic Viability

Some historic properties have remained undeveloped due to back taxes and other liabilities that may exceed the actual value of the property. It may be impractical to acquire them without going through the process of a sheriffs sale, which can take years. Checking for these issues is an important step in determining economic viability.

The community as a whole must be evaluated, including the availability of schools, parks, medical services, shopping, and transportation. Employment options should be available locally, as should easy access to other employers. For Brewers Row, the site's North Side location is within walking distance of Pittsburgh's downtown core and the Heinz Manufacturing Plant, making the project attractive to buyers. Pairing historic renovations with other redevelopment projects can create an impressive "multiplier effect," increasing the neighborhood's attractiveness to private investors.

Focusing on a target market is particularly important in affordable housing because residents have little financial room to afford options they don't need. For example, a family without a car will consider long and hard before deciding to purchase a house with a two-car garage.

Pittsburgh happens to have a relatively large stock of low-cost housing; however, some neighborhoods present better opportunities than others. Some parts of the North Side, where Brewers Row is located, are considered to be in a less desirable part of the city. This means that despite the area's proximity to downtown, it has a good stock of historic properties that can be bought at relatively low prices.

The North Side provides opportunities other communities do not. Consider Oakland, another neighborhood in Pittsburgh. Home to several universities and hospitals, some 100,000 people commute into Oakland each day, which makes the demand for housing high. Although the age and quality of the housing are similar to those of the North Side, redevelopment is hindered because of the high prices for housing and the high demand for rental student housing.

Contrast the North Side again with many depressed mill towns along the rivers around Pittsburgh. Many have lost most of their employment base. Again, the age and quality are similar, but low demand impedes residential redevelopment. Many of these neighborhoods do not provide conveniently located jobs and other amenities to prospective residents.

Balancing the current demand with the predicted demand for a renewed housing product within a neighborhood is vital to the success of any affordable housing project.

Community Viability

If the project "works" from a structural and economic viewpoint, it must also make sense from a community perspective. Much opposition to affordable housing comes from current residents who object to living next to perceived types of residents.

Desmone's experience indicates that a project's scope needs to include a significant number of contiguous properties to be viable, and the developer must consider the unit cost to redevelop and the likelihood that the development will bring about the desired kind of economic impact. The company has found it important to offer some variety in the housing in a development. Of the eight properties in Brewers Row, two are double-unit, allowing for the owners to rent out part of the property, or share it with other family members.

The answer to the affordable housing challenge is not one-size-fits-all housing. Not all needs can be met through rental properties or by owner-occupied properties. There is room for contractor-built housing and resident-development efforts such as Habitat for Humanity, but there also is definitely a role for historic properties in the affordable housing universe.

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