Beyond costs, what else can we do to make housing affordable?
This week on Extra Crunch, I am exploring innovations in inclusive housing, looking at how 200+ companies are creating more access and affordability. Yesterday, I focused on startups trying to lower the costs of housing, from property acquisition to management and operations.
Today, I want to focus on innovations that improve housing inclusion more generally, such as efforts to pair housing with transit, small business creation, and mental rehabilitation. These include social impact-focused interventions, interventions that increase income and mobility, and ecosystem-builders in housing innovation.
Nonprofits and social enterprises lead many of these innovations. Yet because these areas are perceived to be not as lucrative, fewer technologists and other professionals have entered them. New business models and technologies have the opportunity to scale many of these alternative institutions — and create tremendous social value. Social impact is increasingly important to millennials, with brands like Patagonia having created loyal fan bases through purpose-driven leadership.
While each of these sections could be their own market map, this overall market map serves as an initial guide to each of these spaces.
Social impact innovationsLandlord-tenant toolsInnovations that increase incomeInnovations that increase transit accessibility and reduce parkingInnovations that improve the ability to regulate housingOrganizations that support the housing innovation ecosystemThis is just the beginningI’m personally closely watching the following initiativesThe limitations of technologyMove fast and protect peopleSocial impact innovations
These innovations address:
