The Politics of Joint University and Community Housing Development by Sobel Richard;Donham Brett;Herrey Antony;

Author:Sobel, Richard;Donham, Brett;Herrey, Antony; [Sobel, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lexington Books
Published: 2014-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Part III

Community/University Housing Elsewhere

Chapter Seven

Other Joint Developments

While Cambridge and Boston have the greatest concentrations of Community/University housing projects, other universities and communities have been involved in building, or planning, community housing. As table 7.1 at the end of the chapter summarizes, there is a wide variety of community housing elsewhere: some new construction, some rehabilitation; some planned, but not yet built; still others planned but abandoned. While most involve universities, communities and local governments, other institutions like hospitals and planning organizations have participated. Looking at other joint development projects provides beneficial insights.

MIDDLETOWN AND WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY

One of the most interesting community projects is in Middletown, Connecticut, where Wesleyan University and the Middletown Housing Authority built adjoining university and public housing projects midway between the campus and downtown. The sixty-unit, mixed high- and low-rise, family public housing was completed in fall 1972. The 341-unit, $3.9 million undergraduate Wesleyan housing was completed in fall 1973. The Wesleyan units were built under the HUD College-Housing program.

The original conception was to develop totally integrated graduate and public housing apartments. Because of projected shifts in graduate enrollment and the housing authority’s immediate desire for relocation housing, Wesleyan changed to undergraduate housing and the Housing Authority went ahead independently. Despite these changes and the physical separation of the two projects, this is a joint institutional venture. Both projects share a redevelopment site. The University, in fact, retained an architect to develop an integrated site plan for the two projects. The University’s participation in the redevelopment generated for the city almost $2 million of Section 112 housing credits.1 An important distinction between the two projects is that, while the University involved students in the interior design of their future housing, the authority did not involve future residents. This difference contributed to the Wesleyan project’s being more attractive and flexible. This lack of user participation in developing the public housing means that this development constituted more of City/University housing than a Community/University joint project.

Why did Wesleyan, which already makes in-lieu-of-tax payments, participate in such a project? Community pressures similar to those in Cambridge were absent in largely middle-class Middletown. The motivation basically came from within the University. Besides a desire to gain favor in the city and maintain stable neighborhoods, student housing was seen as a mechanism to integrate the low-income families into the fabric of the larger community and thereby avoid the traditional isolation of residents in public housing projects.

The project also tied in with a philosophy that few other institutions hold: “that it is not enough for the University to be a critic of society, however useful and constructive. The University also has an obligation to be a vital part of its Community.” Though the hope that undergraduates would help public housing tenants may involve a rather idealist conception of community service, the project is a revealing model of University/Community cooperation. Interestingly, the Wesleyan architect felt it would be possible to create a totally integrated college/public housing project, where there is a sufficient conviction to overcome bureaucratic and political inertia.

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