There’s a housing crisis in Princeton, where the average sale price of a home is now well over $1 million. The Princeton Public Library, in conjunction with Princeton Future, explores strategies to provide quality, sustainable housing affordable to people of different incomes in a community meeting Saturday, January 21, from 9 a.m. to noon at the library’s Community Room at 65 Witherspoon Street.
Presenters explore housing in Princeton through these topics: “Building a Common Vocabulary of Housing Types,” “Building Livable, Lovable Density,” and “What Can We Do Together?” The meeting is free to join in person or via Zoom.
The library initiated this conversation with its community “Housing Justice Forum” on December 10. The follow-up meeting is being presented with Princeton Future, a non-governmental nonprofit not affiliated with the municipality, which encourages community involvement in addressing challenging issues.
The opening session on “Building a Common Vocabulary of Housing Types” will be led by Richard K. Rein, a Princeton Future board member, author of “American Urbanist: How William H. Whyte’s Unconventional Wisdom Reshaped Public Life,” and editor of TAPinto Princeton. Rein will present existing examples of townhomes, duplexes, triplexes, auxiliary dwelling units, and cottage courts in Princeton and ask participants if they would support any of these housing types in their neighborhoods.
Using examples from existing housing in Princeton, Rein will also address the differences between “affordable housing” and “missing middle housing.”
At 10 a.m., in a presentation titled “Building Livable, Lovable Density,” Princeton architect Marina Rubina, also a Princeton Future board member, will lead a discussion of specific ways to build quality, sustainable housing that people can afford and build equity. Questions to be considered: What other opportunities and treasures can density provide? She will ask participants to consider what makes some buildings work very well and others not so well.
Rubina is a Princeton-based architect whose Quarry Street home won the 2012 Merrit Award for Built Residential Project of the New Jersey chapter of the American Institute of Architects. Her work has appeared in Architectural Record, ArchDaily, Dezeen, and the New York Times.
The final session starting at 11 a.m. asks “What Can We Do Together?” Presenter Matt Mleczko will consider strategies to help solve the housing crisis — for example, land use policies, zoning, transit, and different financial models.
Mleczko, a doctoral candidate in population studies and social policy at Princeton University, studies housing inequality and housing policy, with a particular interest in policies that promote affordable housing and integrated, cohesive communities. Matt is also a graduate student researcher with the Eviction Lab and a member of the Princeton Affordable Housing Board.
For information, email Princeton Future at princeton.future.2035@gmail.com.
