This article is part of The Salt Lake Tribune’s ongoing effort to identify solutions to Utah’s biggest challenges through the work of the Innovation Lab.
When Aisha T. Weeks first moved to Denver, she drove to: Deerfield, Coloradoa ghost town about 90 minutes northeast.
All she found were two crumbling buildings and a plaque.
Founded in 1910, Deerfield was once a thriving black homesteading community.
“This system was founded by Oliver T. Jackson, who believed that black people needed to own land and property to truly experience the American Dream,” Weeks explained. “I just wanted to see where this town was built.”
In its heyday it housed schools, churches, meetinghouses and businesses.
More than a century after Jackson founded Deerfield, Weeks Deerfield Fund for Black Wealth. Weeks, like Jackson, is committed to his own mission of uplifting black families through his property ownership.
“When looking at the disparity in home ownership between white and black families, the wealth created through home ownership is often not available to black families, especially because of centuries of discrimination in housing. I understand,” said Weeks.
(Courtesy of Gary Community Ventures) Aisha T. Weeks is managing director of the Deerfield Black Wealth Fund, which provides down payment assistance to black families.
This fund provides down payment assistance (up to $40,000) to Black families around six counties in the Denver metropolitan area. It targets households that make up up to 140% of the median income in the region, i.e. those in the solid middle class. Beyond simply buying a home, the foundation also continues to provide advice “to ensure that this asset is utilized and passed on to future generations for a lifetime.”
Deerfield Black Wealth Fund is one of four 2023 winners Winner of the Ivory Award for Affordability of Home. Winners of the annual nationwide competition included companies looking to cut construction costs and researchers investigating urban planning laws across the country. $300,000 in prize money will be distributed to the winners.
“These notable winners of the 2023 Home Price Fairness Awards Ivory Awards embody the spirit of innovation and the transformative impact it has on addressing the impending home price fairness crisis.” Clark Ivory, CEO of Ivory Homes and founder of Ivory Innovations, said in a statement. . “From using robotics on an industrial scale, to strengthening marginalized communities, streamlining processes and enabling transparency in zoning laws, their visionary approach pushes the boundaries and empowers everyone. It inspires us to build a more accessible and equitable future for housing.”
The Tribune told the winners about their efforts and how they hope to alleviate the affordable housing crisis facing many communities in Utah and throughout the West.
Understudied Theories About Everything
“Let me tell you, this law governs nearly everything that is built in the United States, but we know very little about it,” said Sarah Bronin.
She’s talking about zoning.
(Courtesy of the National Zoning Atlas) Sarah Bronin, director of the National Zoning Atlas, is interested in the little-researched corner of the law that governs housing affordability.
Bronin, a professor in Cornell University’s Department of Arts, Architecture, and Planning, describes himself as “one of those people who are very interested in the laws that govern our built environment.”
through a project named national zoning atlasBronin, along with fellow researchers and a community team of students, nonprofits, civil servants, and academics, is working on a corner of the law that could make or break community efforts to build affordable housing. I’m trying to figure it out and catalog it.
However, as zoning is adopted at the local level, creating a national legal ‘atlas’ is a ‘painful process’. So far, Bronin’s team has cataloged zoning laws for his three states: Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Montana.
In New Hampshire, “its parcel maps reveal a wide disparity in how local governments treat housing,” said Bronin. It also shows that it is very difficult to build housing.”
Having a better understanding of local zoning laws, Bronin said states such as Connecticut and Montana are already working on reforms to make it easier to build affordable housing.
Automated construction
“This is a 1,500-square-foot one-story house,” said Jack Oslan.
It is 100 feet deep, 50 feet wide and about 30 feet high.
Concrete shells that Osrun is looking at are printed.
(Courtesy of Diamond Age) Diamond Age builds this single-family home using automated tools that help reduce construction costs.
“We call it 3D printing because it’s easier for people to understand. segment,” said Oslan.
Mr. Oslan is the CEO and co-founder. diamond age, The Phoenix, Arizona-based company wants to automate all but the smallest details in home construction.
He argued that the construction industry, especially the homebuilding industry, is experiencing a severe labor shortage because “nobody wants to do physically demanding work. Nobody wants to swing a hammer.” No one wants to hold drywall over their head, no one wants to put plaster on the outside of their house, no one wants to climb on the roof anymore.”
The technology Diamond Age is designing should do the “dull, dirty and dangerous” jobs, while leaving the fine motor and aesthetic judgment to humans.
Oslan started Diamond Age in 2017 after watching his children struggle to buy their own homes. “That made me angry,” said Oslan.
“I’ve been involved in factory automation and building millions of units at a cost of just pennies,” he said. Diamond He Age is expected to bring similar efficiencies and cost savings to homebuilding.
Oslan says his company takes less time to build homes, but they are currently not cheaper than traditional construction methods.
“It’s more expensive now, but that’s the price of technological development,” Oslan said. He expects the company to be profitable and self-sustaining within 24 months.
The company is currently constructing a 43-unit residential development in Pinal County, Arizona, between Phoenix and Tucson. “It’s our intention to build all over the United States,” Oslan said.
allow normal navigation
The road to securing a building permit to build a new home can be daunting for developers and builders.
The iterative process of submission, review, and correction of errors between the developer and the local government can take up to 5-6 months.
In the meantime, developers are losing money day by day as they wait for the final go-ahead.
(Courtesy of Francis Tumpassery) PermitFlow co-founders Samuel Lamb (left) and Francis Tumpassery (right) aim to make the building permit process faster and smoother.
Authorization flowbased in San Jose, Calif., aims to make that process smoother with automation.
PermitFlow co-founder and CEO Francis Tumpassery said, “We help you avoid all these errors because we allow experts and we aggregate them. We have software that helps us avoid it and work more accurately.” efficient way. “
We currently operate in the metropolitan areas of Texas, Florida and California.
“Our mission is basically to make construction project orders faster, easier and more transparent,” Tumpassery said. [permitted]”
Editor’s Note • The Clark & Christine Ivory Foundation is a donor to the Salt Lake Tribune’s Innovation Lab.
