Employer Assisted Housing (EAH) is viewed as one strategy for employers to
increase home-ownership for their workers. Its roots can be traced to the
industrial revolution and the emergence of "company towns." Now employers are
reinventing the concept as they compete to recruit and retain works in an era of
tight labor markets and escalating housing costs.
Homeownership trends underscore the situation: Since 1978, the national
homeownership rate climbed from 65.2 percent to 68 percent. During the same
period, the rate among working families declined, dropping from 62.5 percent to
56.6 percent.
EAH can encompass any number of ways an employer invests in workforce housing
solutions, such as providing homebuyer education, assistance with down payments
and closing costs, and loan guarantee programs. Fannie Mae started its EAH
program in 1991, offering a forgivable loan to eligible employees.
Many variations of EAH exist, and while its proponents cite numerous
benefits, the concept also has its doubters and detractors, including some who
oppose tax credits and subsidies, design innovations, zoning/building code
changes or other strategies for accommodating affordable housing options.
One long-time supporter of Employer Assisted Housing is
Robin Snyderman , who
visited Seattle in mid-April as the third of four speakers in the "Housing Our
Future" speaker series program of the City of Seattle and ULI Seattle.
Snyderman, the housing director at the
Metropolitan Planning Council in
Chicago, outlined how that nonprofit, nonpartisan group has worked with a
variety of regional stakeholders to increase the range of housing options near
jobs and transit.
Chicago is "woefully under-producing" multifamily
housing, according to Snyderman
. Only 3 percent of all metro Chicago housing permits in the '90s were
for multifamily housing, far below the nationwide figure of 22 percent. She
cites three "non-economic" barriers as contributing to the shortage:
- Negative public perceptions of "affordable housing."
- 1300 different municipalities statewide (including 274 in the Chicago
metro area), each responsible for housing policy "in their own backyard."
- Lack of community support and state leadership.
Like Seattle, Chicago is experiencing a "jobs-housing
mismatch" where jobs and population are growing at a faster rate than the supply
of workforce housing. EAH can benefit a range of stakeholders, Snyderman
believes. Among some
of the key benefits she listed are:
- The employer enjoys the advantages of a more stable workforce when
employees live near work. Improved morale, less turnover and reduced
recruitment result in bottom line savings.
- The employee, beyond receiving financial support from an employer to buy a
home closer to work, also gains extra time – formerly spent in traffic – for
family or community life.
- The surrounding community gratefully trades in a portion of its traffic
congestion for the new investment and property taxes, as former commuters buy
homes near the jobsite.
In Chicago, four entities play key roles in Employer
Assisted Housing programs, the employer, the Metropolitan Planning
Council
, the Regional Employer
Assisted Collaboration for Housing (REACH, which comprises community-based
nonprofit housing partners), and financial partners/developers.