The affordable housing market, after a couple of tough years, is showing signs of renewed momentum, says Sheila Kneifl, principal at JHP Architecture.

“In today’s environment, affordable housing developers have a bit of an upper hand,” Kneifl said. “Unlike market-rate developers, they’ve always been acutely aware that there’s a gap in financing, and they’re out there looking for incentives and rebates to make deals pencil. Our current workload is as good as it was in early 2023.”

Moreover, despite the headwinds the industry has faced, affordable housing developers are continuing to innovate in how they design and configure projects.

They are turning to modular building techniques, reimaging unit layouts and creating new kinds of common spaces to support affordable housing residents in new ways, Kneifl said.

Kneifl will speak at Bisnow’s Multifamily Annual Conference Rockies event in Denver on Sept. 17. Bisnow caught up with her to hear about the affordable housing trends she is seeing in Denver and nationally.

Register here to attend the BMAC event.

Bisnow: What inspired you to attend this event?

Kneifl: JHP Architecture has been in business for 46 years, and we’ve served clients in Denver for over 20 years. We’re looking to grow our footprint in Denver even further and are looking for talent and business in the Mountain West.

Bisnow: What do you hope people take away from the event?

Kneifl: We’re coming out of a rough couple of years, and I hope people leave feeling positive. Since September 2023, construction has been in the doldrums, with projects on hold. But things are starting to pick back up. Developers are looking at deals and want to get started on projects again.

In markets that were overbuilt, including Denver and Austin, units are being absorbed and rents are ticking up. Things are looking brighter.

Bisnow: What affordable housing trends are you seeing in Denver and nationally?

Kneifl: There have been a lot of policy changes happening around affordable housing, as municipal governments focus on increasing the supply of housing. For example, the permitting process is being expedited.

There is also more inclusionary zoning, with a certain percentage of units having to meet area median income requirements.

We’re also seeing bonus heights used by municipalities to incentivize development teams to add more units and more height and to boost floor area ratio. Permissions for additional dwelling units are being rolled out, and parking requirements for projects in urban cores and near transit are being reduced or eliminated.

Building code changes are allowing for apartments with a single stairwell. This allows developers to build up to six stories, in some cases, with four housing units per floor around a single stair. It’s a change that yields cost savings and thus boosts supply.

Bisnow: What are you seeing on the construction side?

Kneifl: There is an uptick in modular construction, including more 3D-printed homes. In Colorado, especially in remote mountain areas where labor supply is scarce, this kind of innovation will help get housing built more efficiently.

At JHP, we’ve designed modular projects and components like kitchens and bathrooms. And we’re looking at how our current designs can be adapted to be modular. Anything that’s repeatable creates efficiency. If it’s also elegant and livable, that’s our goal.

Bisnow: What has changed about how developers are designing affordable housing?

Kneifl: Health and wellness are becoming more of a focus for this type of product. I’m seeing more fitness centers as well as clinics on-site. Ground-floor amenity spaces are being used by local health organizations to conduct wellness checks and provide education. We’re also seeing more gardens on-site, where residents can grow their food.

And we’re seeing incubator spaces, where residents can open restaurants or retail shops to sell goods. These spaces become centers of community engagement and allow residents to learn new skills.

Multigenerational living arrangements are also something that design has been addressing, with more shared common spaces, larger units, or with a senior housing component integrated into projects as a whole. Sometimes developers opt to add cottages or townhomes to a project and integrate senior housing that way.

Bisnow: How is the industry navigating this shifting landscape?

Kneifl: Affordable housing developers are focused on the durability, design and efficiency of their projects, perhaps even more so than market-rate developers.

As the architect, we understand that affordable housing projects are not cheap. They often cost more than market-rate product. They have more sustainability requirements, they have more requirements when it comes to acoustics, and a lot of them are on brownfield sites that require remediation, which again costs more.

Developers are stretching the dollar as much as they can. It helps to work with an architecture firm that understands the nuances of a complicated project and understands the value of the dollar.

Register here for Bisnow’s Sept. 17 event.

This article was produced in collaboration between JHP Architecture and Studio B. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.

Studio B is Bisnow’s in-house content and design studio. To learn more about how Studio B can help your team, reach out to studio@bisnow.com.