As part of promoting health and welfare for Tempe’s residents, the human services department in partnership with the students of Arizona State University(ASU) and some business leaders have come up together to solve the issue of affordable housing for the low and middle-income families.
The program dubbed humble homes is intended to commence at the end of the year, and this is per the expectations of the contributors, ASU students, and Newtown community development corporation.
Lauren Kuby, a Tempe city councilwoman, reveals how the idea came up. She says the humble homes was an ASU engineering student’s idea who had this idea tailored for the city of Tempe. The houses will be adjacent to Rural Road and Apache Boulevard.
The model is a simple house that which will consist of a kitchen, living room and bedroom. There will also be a community kitchen area and home where the humble homes community members can organize community meals or functions as one community.
The homes will be micro houses that are decent and affordable to the low and middle-income earners. The community home and kitchen area are plans to encourage community togetherness. According to Kuby, the houses are estimated to cost $130,000 on the highest side, but the price can decrease depending on sustainability such as solar power instead of electric power.
Is the price of the houses too high? Well, according to some people who liked the idea the pricing is too much. Many people think Tempe is not worth the price considering it isn’t a busy city. It might take a lot of convincing to encourage people to purchase these homes as people have cheaper alternatives to the humble homes which they consider unaffordable.
Properties that are built near or in cities are bound to be subject to the Homeowners (HOA). A lot of people dislike the rules that come with HOA, and it isn’t affordable for the low income and middle-income homes. They would instead purchase a home that is on a significant area of land at a lower price than that of humble homes and doesn’t pay HOA.
With the negative feedback from a few individuals who have heard about the program, it is uncertain what the future of the humble homes is.
