It’s no surprise that there is a need for more “market-rate affordable” missing middle housing in the Washington DC Metro Area, especially in walkable and transit accessible locations. This lack of affordability doesn’t just affect low income residents but extends to moderate income families and millennial families, as well.

One potential solution for addressing this affordability crisis, is to build more diverse housing types that can provide more “market-rate” affordable housing choices – often referred to as the “missing middle” (i.e. housing that fills the gap between single family homes and mid-to high-rise multi-family buildings). The housing typology commonly associated with the missing middle is not new. In fact these housing types, including duplexes, triplexes, quadplexes, stacked flats, were fairly common in the first half of the 20th century.

Why have these housing typologies largely disappeared from our current lexicon? And more importantly, given rising land and construction costs, what changes are necessary to make developing these housing typologies more feasible in today’s current market?

AHS Executive Director Michelle Winters will serve as a panelist for this conversation hosted by Urban Land Institute Washington.