Why We Don't Build Apartments for Families

Today, we’re joined by Bobby Fijan. He’s a co-founder of the American Housing Corporation, a startup building housing for families in cities. A burning question motivates his work: How do you make cities places where families can live and thrive? He has a new report out with the Institute of Family Studies looking at what families really want from their apartments.

This is a pretty self-indulgent episode for me. I live in Brooklyn with my wife and two-year-old, and we’re expecting our second kid. We want to stay in the city — it’s where our life and community are, and where we’ve put down roots. But the classic route for people like us is to move out to the suburbs once the family grows. I hoped talking to Bobby would help me avoid that fate.

Bobby argues that the best ideas for family-friendly housing aren’t new. Pre-war apartments in American cities look a lot like what he’s advocating for. We’ve done this before, and we could do it again.

We discuss:

* How the financial crisis fuelled a boom in studio apartments

* Why did apartments get so much smaller after 2008?

* Why are most two-bedroom apartments designed for roommates?

* What do families actually want in a floor plan, and why don’t developers build it?

* Whether upzoning can help

Thanks to Harry Fletcher-Wood and Katerina Barton for their judicious transcript and audio edits.

The full transcript to this conversation and many others is available at www.statecraft.pub.

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