New Housing Complex Smashing Ideas of What Affordable Housing Should Look Like

A new affordable housing development on the Gulf Coast is trying to shatter the notion of what affordable housing is supposed to look like. MPB’s Phoebe Judge reports.

When Back Bay Mission, a community ministry that provides health and human services to the Gulf Coast decided to get involved in an affordable housing project they knew they wanted to do something different. Everett Lewis with Back Bay Mission says they wanted to create a sustainable housing project that would dispel the myths of what affordable housing is supposed to look like.

“People just run or are afraid of the word affordable now, because they just seem to have this vision of something that is going to be undesirable in the community. That is definitely not something that we are going to produce in Pass Christian. There will be no distinction that there is any kind of subsidy that came to these units just by looking at these units themselves.”

Bethel Estates, which is being funded in part by a grant from the Mississippi Development Authority, will include 34 subsidized units for purchase those families making between 80-120% of the area median income. The decision to develop Bethel Estates in Pass Christian is also significant as that city has become the first in the nation to completely adopt a Smart Code zoning system. Jeff Bounds is City Planner for Pass Christian,

“Smart code is really aimed at making all neighborhoods in all economic spectrums better. We know the best neighborhoods and the best way to deal with affordable housing is to incorporate it in such a way that it is mixed with other people of all economic ranges.”

Construction on Bethel Estates is set to begin in September. Mississippi will also be benefiting from just over 22 million dollars in newly announced funds from the American recovery and reinvestment act to jumpstart affordable housing initiatives statewide.