12 ACUMEN • SPRING 2024 maintain long-term affordability, with each new rental unit developed through land leases with affordability commitments of at least 15 years. Additional funding has been generously provided by Lehigh’s College of Arts and Sciences and the Baker Institute for Entrepreneurship, Creativity, and Innovation to support student fellowships for Alley House construction in the Summer of 2024. Additionally, fiscal year 2024 Community Project Funding and a grant through the Pennsylvania Housing Affordability and Rehabilitation Enhancement Fund (PHARE) are under review and pending final determinations. Hiatt says that Lehigh students will play a critical role in the success of the project. Involvement in the project begins with a designbuild course being offered in this semester. “The idea is that seven to 10 students will be out there swinging hammers with our community partners, working on a house that they helped design,” Hiatt says. Students’ labor on the project will be paid for through support from Lehigh’s Baker Institute for Entrepreneurship. Smith explained that Community Action Lehigh Valley is developing a long-term plan under which it would serve as the rental agent for affordable alley houses in the future. “We’re envisioning it most likely as a scenario where Community Action would lease the backyard for a defined time period, do the construction and manage the unit for maybe 25 to 30 years. And during that time, we would oversee who it gets rented to, and we would take care of the maintenance. We would collect the rent, and the homeowner (whose property is used) would receive a portion of rent.” Smith added that community input will be sought while developing the plan. “We are going to be holding a series of conversations with folks in the neighborhoods to define the details of the program and to understand what concerns or questions there might be,” she says. Each of the partners has an integral role in the pilot project. Hiatt will design the prototypes, in collaboration with Lehigh students. CALV will manage and construct the new alley house, working with Hiatt and Lehigh students on site during the building process. The city, working with Bethlehem’s Zoning Hearing Board, will work to effect temporary zoning variances to allow the pilot alley house to be built. Satullo says, “While we expect the first alley house to need a variance, we will simultaneously be working to update city zoning to allow for ADUs in targeted neighborhoods with a scaled-back program, which could then be expanded with success.” How an expanded initiative would look remains to be seen, Satullo adds. It might be restricted to owner-occupied lots where individual homeowners could choose to build an alley house on their property, providing housing for aging parents—colloquially called “granny flats”—or for young adults in a family needing a place to live. Lehigh, the city of Bethlehem and CALV will each receive a portion of the grant funding to support their work on various parts of the project to implement alley houses in Bethlehem. In addition to design and construction, funds will be used to revise the city’s zoning ordinance, develop a community engagement and education strategy and integrate a workforce training program into the construction process. Hiatt stresses that, while the alley house project promises to provide new options in a way that retains the historic nature of Bethlehem’s neighborhoods, it won’t solve all the issues related to creating affordable housing. “I have never said the goal of this project is to be the silver bullet that will solve the housing crisis,” Hiatt states. “I think that often disappoints or discourages people when they hear that. But that’s kind of how the world works. Complex problems usually don’t have a singular solution. We believe that this is an important step forward in increasing the supply of housing in a responsible, community-centered way.” ● A rendering of an alley house (above). A pop-up gallery show in South Bethlehem to jumpstart community conversations around the design of new affordable housing. COURTESY OF WES HIATT
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTA0OTQ5OA==