Latest news with #essentialworkers
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
More affordable housing coming to South St. Pete with Habitat for Humanity partnership
The Brief To address the affordable housing crisis, the City of St. Petersburg is partnering with Habitat for Humanity to build new homes in South St. Pete. A new community of 40 townhomes called Pelican Place is coming to South St. Pete. The city donated a vacant lot off 18th Avenue for the project, which sits across from the mostly empty Tangerine Plaza. ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - In a bold effort to address the affordable housing crisis, the City of St. Petersburg is partnering with Habitat for Humanity to build new homes in South St. Pete. It's to ensure that families who live and work in the area have a real shot at staying in their community. As the Tampa Bay region continues to grow, so does the cost of housing — forcing many long-time residents out. Follow FOX 13 on YouTube "The need continues to increase, and we continue to see so many people priced out of our community," said Mike Sutton, the president and CEO of Habitat for Humanity of Tampa Bay and Gulf Side. The people most affected? Teachers, firefighters, police officers and essential workers who form the backbone of the city. Local perspective Habitat currently has 140 families enrolled in its homeownership program. One of the developments they'll have access to is Pelican Place — a new community of 40 townhomes in South St. Pete. READ: Florida ranked as the worst state in the country for aging in place: Study The city donated a vacant lot off 18th Avenue for the project, which sits across from the mostly empty Tangerine Plaza — also slated for redevelopment. "By putting 40 homeowners across the street in these townhomes... we hope it's a catalyst to get Tangerine Plaza redeveloped," Sutton said. Big picture view What sets this project apart is Habitat's commitment to sourcing future homeowners from within the surrounding neighborhood. "There's a pretty significant effort on our end to recruit future homeowners from the CRA [Community Redevelopment Area]," Sutton explained. MORE: New affordable housing complex opens in Winter Haven, offers on-site medical, mental health services City Councilmember Brandi Gabbard praised the move, saying, "That is something for a very long time we needed to make a greater effort at... so I just want to applaud you for taking that extra step. Dig deeper The homes at Pelican Place will be priced at $300,000 each, available to families earning less than 80% of the area's median income. And to keep the homes truly affordable, buyers will have zero-percent mortgages. Still, building homes isn't cheap — especially post-pandemic. "It costs us about $100,000 more to build a home than it did before 2020," Sutton said. What's next Pelican Place is expected to break ground by the end of this year. The Source The information in this story was gathered by FOX 13's Genevieve Curtis. WATCH FOX 13 NEWS: STAY CONNECTED WITH FOX 13 TAMPA: Download the FOX Local app for your smart TV Download FOX Local mobile app:Apple |Android Download the FOX 13 News app for breaking news alerts, latest headlines Download the SkyTower Radar app Sign up for FOX 13's daily newsletter
CBC
5 days ago
- Climate
- CBC
Last remaining firefighters, emergency staff evacuated as Denare Beach 'devastated' by wildfire
Social Sharing Firefighters and all essential staff were evacuated from the resort village of Denare Beach, Sask., as wildfire tore through and destroyed all the buildings on one of the main streets. The few remaining volunteer firefighters and essential workers were told late Monday afternoon to leave the village, located on the shores of Amisk Lake in northern Saskatchewan, after intense wind conditions fuelled the Wolf Fire threatening the town and anyone left in it. Poor internet connection? CBC Lite is our low-bandwidth website. On Tuesday morning, the village confirmed that Ninth Avenue South, a main street in Denare Beach, was "devastated by fire." Cell and internet service is offline and phone lines are also down, according to a post on the village's Facebook page. The latest report from the village, which is home to about 699 people according to the latest Census in 2021, said the fire hall, administration building and Denareplex were still standing. "We understand not receiving further information is frustrating, but please understand we feel as shocked, helpless as you all right now and are trying to navigate the situation as best we can remotely," the Facebook post said. The same post went on to confirm that members of the village's fire department had escaped and were in Creighton about 19 kilometres away. As of Tuesday morning, there were 20 active wildfires in the province, nine of which were not contained, according to the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency. About 8,000 people had been evacuated from northern Saskatchewan due to wildfires as of Monday. Saskatchewan communities now under evacuation order or pre-evacuation alert: Air Ronge. Brabant Lake. Candle Lake resort village (voluntary). Clam Crossing. Creighton. Denare Beach. East Trout Lake. Eagle Point. English Bay. Foran Mine - McIlveena Bay. Hall Lake. Jan Lake. La Ronge. Lac La Ronge Indian Reservation. Lamp Lake. Little Bear Lake. Lower Fishing Lake. Molanosa. Napatak. Narrow Hills Provincial Park. Nemeiben Subdivision. Pelican Narrows. Piprell Lake. Potato Lake. Rabbit Creek. Resort Subdivision of Ramsey Bay. Sikachu. Sturgeon Landing. Sucker River. Timber Bay. Wadin Bay. Weyakwin. Whiteswan/Whelan Bay. Up-to-date info on active fires, smoke and related topics is available at these sources: Interactive Sask. active fire map. Fire danger map. Fire bans. Environment and Climate Change Canada weather alerts. Sask. Highway Hotline. Smoke forecast. Air quality. Tracking wildfires across Canada.
CBC
23-05-2025
- Health
- CBC
Public sector workers rally in Charlottetown for better support and against privatization
Dozens of people rallied in Charlottetown on Thursday to urge the province to better support public services and recognize the essential workers who maintain them. Many of the people gathered were public sector workers, who assembled outside the provincial government office on Rochford Street. The rally was organized by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) P.E.I., which represents public sector workers in areas such as education, health care, municipalities and post-secondary education. "We have been asking for respect at the bargaining table for responses to questions and queries that we have for government to meaningfully invest in public services for ages and ages and ages and we have been ignored over and over and over again," said Ashley Clark, CUPE P.E.I. president. Clark said the rally was meant to send a message to the province that public services are not luxuries, but essential infrastructure that supports the well-being of entire communities. Services like health care and education, she added, are fundamental rights. "Those are the things that people rely on, that people need to live… and this government has consistently been showing that they would rather sell those off than do their jobs and invest in them and support them and allow them to thrive." Clark added that labour relations will be a central issue in the upcoming byelections in the province. "You need to value the people that live here, that work here. These are your constituents." Privatization concerns Clark said the union and its members have been trying to raise concerns with the province about the potential privatization of the public health system, and the province should instead focus on investing more in public services. Their primary concern centres around what Clark calls the "privatization playbook" — a systematic approach she believes is undermining public services. This strategy, she said, begins with starving sectors of resources through austerity and cutbacks, which can lead to public sector workers losing hours and wages. Then comes short staffing, causing systems to crumble. As services deteriorate, people become desperate, and that can create an opening for private sector intervention. "When a private company swoops in, arm's length from the government … they don't have to be accountable," she said. "They swoop in and they make profit off of the things that we need to survive." She added: "If the same service were offered in the public sector, any revenue would get reinvested in that system, would go back to worker wages, would go back to benefits, would go back to having properly resourced facilities and institutions." In a statement to CBC News, the province said it acknowledges the concerns raised by the union and values the important work public sector employees do across the province. "There is no plan to privatize public health services. Our focus remains on improving the services Islanders rely on, supporting frontline workers, and working together to build a stronger more resilient health-care system," the province said. CUPE P.E.I. isn't alone in its concerns. Other groups on the Island have raised alarms about health-care service privatization. The P.E.I. Union of Public Sector Employees has recently expressed concerns about a home-care program by Health P.E.I., which they say is an example of health-care privatization and seems to be millions of dollars over budget. Unaddressed issues in education Clark also pointed out that the union's members working in schools have been vocal about their challenges, with the government failing to address these issues. One of the most alarming concerns, she said, is the workplace violence in schools, where some educators are regularly subjected to physical and verbal abuse. "They're going to bargaining tables and being pushed into conciliation and binding arbitration because the government is not bringing fair wages to the table. They are not bringing improvements to the health and safety concerns that our members have every day in schools," she said.
News.com.au
15-05-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
‘Choice is clear': NSW Treasurer's line in the sand as workers reject compo reform
A staggering 95 per cent of essential employees with workplace psychological injury would be 'abandoned' under controversial proposed changes to the NSW workers compensation system, unions say. The Minns government wants to overhaul the workers compensation system to tighten claims for psychological injury, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, saying the number of cases is growing and 'unsustainable'. But Unions NSW says the proposed changes would make it harder for essential workers, including firefighters and hospital staff, to be eligible to claim damages as a result of psychological injury in the workplace. Under the government's proposal, an employee with a permanent impairment for a psychological injury under 31 per cent would not receive compensation. For a physical injury, the threshold would stand at a lower 15 per cent. A survey of 10,000 essential workers released by the union in the wake of the proposed reforms found 83 per cent believed the changes would force injured colleagues back to work before it was safe, while 60 per cent said they had been exposed to trauma. 'We're talking about life and death decisions,' union secretary Mark Morey said. 'The government claims this is about financial sustainability, but their 30 per cent impairment threshold would abandon 95 per cent of psychologically injured workers – many of whom are already contemplating suicide.' A NSW parliament inquiry will on Friday morning begin a hearing into the government's draft proposal. Treasurer Daniel Mookhey is expected to tell the hearing the upcoming state budget would report a $2.6bn writedown arising from the Treasury Managed Fund, the government's self-insurer. 'As the TMF continues to deteriorate, the pressure for cash injections grows,' Mr Mookhey has said. 'Since I became Treasurer, the government has authorised an additional $1.2bn in cash injections to keep the public insurer fully funded.' Mr Mookhey is expected to say previous Liberal treasurers Dominic Perrottet and Matt Kean had authorised an earlier $4.9bn injection, and that since 2018 the state government had borrowed $6.1bn so that the TMF's assets equalled its liabilities. 'I will not be authorising any further injections,' Mr Mookhey is expected to tell the hearing. 'Not until parliament decides its collective response to a scheme that most acknowledge is failing. 'Not when that money is coming at the expense of schools, hospitals or kids in need of out-of-home care. 'That choice is clear for me.' Administered by icare, the TMF is a self-insurance scheme created by the NSW government to insure its agencies' risks. As for the nominal insurer, the statutory body that steps in to provide workers' compensation to employees benefits when an employer is not insured, the picture Mr Mookhey is expected to paint on Friday morning is similarly dire. At the June 2024 valuation, the nominal insurer held 85 cents for every dollar it expected to pay in compensation and has since them only plunged further into debt. 'Absent reform, I expect the scheme to plunge further into deficit when the scheme is revalued in six weeks,' Mr Mookhey is expected to say. 'Fast deterioration has real implications for sustainability of the scheme. 'Workers get less. Businesses pay more. 'Put simply – you can have the best workers compensation scheme in the world on paper. If it has no money – it helps no one.' The NSW government previously said the current workplace health and safety and workers compensation laws were failing to both prevent psychological injury and to treat sufferers quickly so that they may be able to return to work. Only 50 per cent of workers with a psychological injury return to work within a year. That is compared to 95 per cent of workers with a physical injury under the current system, which the state government said spends seven times more on keeping an injured worker away from the workplace then it does on getting them healthy. Mr Morey said respondents had shared stories of prolonged battles with the compensation system after suffering psychological injury in the workplace, with some telling the union that they 'would not be alive today' if they had not received compensation. The union reported a Sydney firefighter having disclosed that he 'would have certainly taken my own life' had it not been for the compensation system, while another unnamed admin worker said they faced the risk of a 'mortgage collapse'. 'The system is already traumatic for injured workers who have to repeatedly prove they're suffering,' Mr Morey said of the changes. These changes would make that process virtually impossible for the vast majority of psychological injury claims. 'There's a better way forward that doesn't involve abandoning our essential workers. 'When 97 per cent of workers are begging for better mental health support instead of compensation cuts, the government needs to listen before it's too late.' More than 10,000 workers were surveyed by Unions NSW between April and May for the Cast Adrift report, with almost half employed in education, as well as staff working in health, transport, local government, and public and emergency services. Of those respondents, more than 96 per cent identified at least one psychological hazard, while about 30 per cent said they experienced workplace violence or a hazardous physical working environment, and 44 per cent said that they had experienced bullying, Unions NSW says workers who suffered bullying, sexual or racial harassment in the workplace would be required to go through a 'lengthy and expensive' court process to access treatment and support, further jeopardising the prospect of long-term care. The proposed reforms have also faced pushback from the legal sector, including the Australian Lawyers Alliance whose spokesman, Shane Butcher, in a statement said the draft bill 'drastically strips rights away from all workers' in NSW. 'The proposed reforms are significant and will impact all workers injured physically or psychologically in NSW,' Mr Butcher said. 'All workers will have a much harder time accessing the support they need to recover and return to work. 'That is the primary objective of our modern workers compensation system. Nothing in the bill addresses prevention. 'These reforms will dump NSW workers who have suffered a psychological injury due to their work out of the workers compensation scheme.' The Law Society of NSW president Jennifer Bell also said that while she recognised the workers compensation scheme was under pressure and in need of reform, the proposed changes risked stripping the rights of 'some of the community's most vulnerable'. 'There's no doubt the sustainability of the current scheme needs addressing, but that should not be at the cost of those people who have sustained serious and debilitating psychological injuries on the job,' Ms Ball said. 'The proposed increase of the 'whole person impairment' (WPI) threshold to 31 per cent will conceivably exclude nearly all workers with psychological injury from making a claim. 'To reach 31 per cent WPI, a person would need to demonstrate they're unable to live alone, care for dependants, or to function in society.' The Law Society will instead propose a compromise at Friday's hearing, namely changing the WPI threshold to 21 per cent which Ms Bell said would 'ensure that many workers generally recognised by community standards as being severely impacted by mental ill-health would be able to make a claim'. The hearing begins at 8.30am.
Forbes
12-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Modular's The Magic To Make Workforce Housing Work
Inside Model/Z's facility, local labor works to build high-quality housing to address the missing ... More middle housing challenges in Los Angeles. Across the country, the essential workforce is being pushed out of affordable housing options. To work in a community, essential workers frequently have to purchase housing so far out that it takes hours to commute back and forth every day. In some places, these lower paid workers resort to living in cars to stay close and to not take on the burden of a housing payment that is continually escalating, along with the insurance and taxes associated with it. 'People need to live near where they work and that is everyone across the economic spectrum – teachers, government, they shouldn't get priced out of the markets they work in,' said Adam Berger who serves as manager at modular housing company Adam Berger Development. 'You need these people to have housing nearby to serve their role in your local economy.' These essential workers account for more than 80% of the U.S. workforce according to the National Association of Business Economics. Yet, with housing costs outpacing income growth, the numbers of those impacted is rising. City officials are starting to recognize the impacts to their communities and local economies, and therefore focusing on the opportunity to provide housing at the right cost, serve the essential workforce, and create sustainable economics. 'We believe deeply that every good thing in this country is one degree of separation from housing,' Martin Muoto, housing advocate and CEO of SoLa Impact and Model/Z. 'By enabling essential workers to own homes, we not only provide them financial stability today, but give them a pathway for their children and grandchildren to thrive within the communities they live.' Robert Dietz, senior vice president and chief economist at the National Association of Home Builders, emphasized the need for more townhome developments that would serve well for workforce housing during a presentation at this year's National Housing Supply Summit. 'The success story is townhouse construction,' he said. 'This type of light density where it is zoned can grow 18%.' In February, he wrote that 2- to 4-unit rental properties have been on a development decline since the Great Recession, but recently saw a small uptick. For the last quarter of 2024, 2- to 4-unit housing unit starts increased by 25% from the fourth quarter of 2023. However, from 2000 to 2010, these types of developments made up about 11% of total multifamily construction, dropping to about 4% in the decade after that. Supply of missing middle housing has dropped off precipitously in the last decade. These trends point to zoning challenges, but the cost of construction also puts up major obstacles. Most builders cannot make these projects pencil, but some innovators are making it work with the magic and capabilities of modular construction. One of the first modules is placed on the foundation for West Holden Place in Denver. The city and County of Denver, the Colorado Department of Housing, and the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority worked with Adam Berger Development on a 6-story, 77-unit workforce housing project targeting those in the range of 80% to 120% of the average median income, or AMI. A challenge workforce housing often faces is funding, but the state of Colorado saw the value and promise of the technology and efficiency of modular construction and developed a creative funding structure. 'The West Holden project has 50 boxes stacked on a concrete podium,' Berger said. 'Colorado is forward thinking in supporting modular construction and we were a bit ahead of the state in where they are today, and I have been doing modular since 2017. The state has fully embraced modular.' The 'boxes' were designed and constructed by a firm in Boise and shipped to the site, then set in just 7 days. Berger estimates the efficiencies of modular saved 25% in hard costs and more than 40% on the construction schedule to be able to deliver at $215,000 per door in hard costs. The modules were configured into both 1- and 2-bedroom units at West Holden Place, becoming the largest modular project in Denver to date. The project made believers out of the state's leadership who later approved $38 million in funds to support Colorado-based modular housing factories. 'Modular is a tool that can address housing affordability – we are doing it,' Berger said. 'We're proving it to state, lenders, residents. You have to do your homework, you have to be prepared, and be sure you are going to deliver and leverage the things that modular offers.' Berger shares that leveraging modular requires getting modules to 99.9% complete inside the factory so that when the boxes are set onsite the connections are as efficient as possible. Then, onsite logistics have to be streamlined, from shipping to staging, the orchestration of the set company has to be flawless. Adam Berger Development acts as a vertically integrated firm, incorporating the design, development and construction into one. 'We did it out of design and necessity—we are approaching modular very methodically,' Berger said. 'We committed to using modular as one of the tools in the toolbox. We also need to pull out all the other stops, like cost effective capital. The City of Denver has a division in permitting for workforce and affordable projects and incentives with zoning to help with density.' The city's requirement associated with state funds is to derestrict units that are 80% of the AMI at a minimum. Berger's West Holden project will have 44 of 77 units deed restricted at 80% AMI. 'We limit the rents because we are pulling all the levers on building a more cost-effective project, and from an underwriting perspective we can afford that,' Berger said. 'Modular plays a major role in delivering that.' Berger insists that part of the success of modular is delivering a high-quality living experience. 'We want tenants and residents to experience high quality, the right finishes, appealing design like quartz countertops, contemporary modern finishes, soft close, brand name fixtures, under-mount sinks, nine-foot ceilings, LED lighting,' he said. 'People should walk in and say they want to live there. It doesn't matter if it is modular, that's secondary in the resident experience. Design is paramount.' Modular construction is a critical tool to make workforce housing pencil in Los Angeles as well, one of the most expensive places to develop affordable housing. 'LA is one of the hardest of the hardest to build affordable housing and has become the best example of how not to do affordable housing,' said Muoto from Model/Z. 'We're at the lowest point we have been in 10 years in affordable housing production. We are averaging 10,000 to 11,000 units per year, and this year it is only 5,000, and it's in a city that needs 500,000 units.' Funding is equally difficult in this situation. A recent RAND report shows that construction in California costs nearly two and half times what it does in Texas. Muoto is finding ways to work around that by taking advantage of opportunity zones, using private capital, and using modular housing at scale. After completing 30 projects, he admits to making every mistake possible, and with that valuable new knowledge, formed Model/Z. What he came to realize is that housing is uniquely customized for every project, whereas other industries, like autos and clothes, don't have the same level of customization. In housing, a project is designed with unique elevators, windows, flooring, and dozens and dozens of unique factors that all mean more time and cost. Muoto says this is also why modular companies cannot scale. 'They all take what is being done in the real world and bring it into a warehouse,' he said. 'And every time they have a new customer, they have to redesign the warehouse and the assembly line to meet the specifications of the project. Everyone with a new project has new ceiling heights, so you have to go source it and train the assembly line to quality check.' With former SpaceX engineers and 18 months of research and development, Model/Z designed a universal one-bedroom chassis that doesn't change and represents what most residents need and want. The modules are built using structural light gauge steel designed to be stacked 5 high and engineered to last 100 years. The company has produced more than 300 units in its first year and continues to produce about 2 units per day, which Muoto claims is better than about 90% of modular builders across the U.S. There is the opportunity for some customization, but the door and window location don't change, allowing Model/Z to produce at scale. The other critical factor to the company's success is using AI and automation to design the buildings and expedite permitting. The company's AI-powered software analyzes land parcels in Los Angeles to identify those suitable for modular by the type of grading, and by its accessibility for a crane. These factors contribute to the company's 'Z score,' or its modular suitability. The software will determine the number of units that can go on the lot, and map the appropriate building codes to optimize the property. 'We're close to being able to build fully baked plans with no human intervention,' Muoto said. 'Our hope is that over time, with those two components in place, we will be able to reverse engineer to submit perfect plans to the permitting department and cut the red tape.' Model/Z has completed 17 projects, has 13 in construction and 10 in entitlement currently—all without government subsidies—and is able to open for occupancy in less than 9 months. 'LIHTC and traditional funding tools led to housing being built at $800,000 to $900,000 per door,' Muoto added. 'We have built for under $300,000 per door, all in with land and labor, and we are building consistently at under that without government subsidies. We now have a pipeline that is around 4,000 units between multiple funds and have become the largest developer of affordable housing in LA and we shouldn't be.' Every project creates stable housing, job opportunities, and equity for communities in Los Angeles and beyond. The company has 120 employees from the local neighborhood. 'We want people who build the units to be the ones who might be living in them,' he said. 'We need to be accessible to 95% of the population.' Gene Myers is CEO at Thrive Home Builders, a green home builder in Colorado, and he not only wants to build the most sustainable housing available, but he also wants it to be attainable. The City of Breckenridge had adopted zero energy ready standards, but also needed affordable housing to sustain its economic pillar—the resort industry—along with the essential workers that keep the resorts running. The city turned to Thrive to develop 61 workforce housing units, offering free land and a large subsidy. Scheduled to complete in 2026, the project will meet the U.S. Department of Energy's Zero Energy Ready program criteria with rooftop solar and double 2x4 panelized walls delivered from an offsite component manufacturer in Denver. Modular again was important to complete this project by offering time and cost savings. Myers pointed out that getting the project enclosed quickly makes a big difference when construction crews are clearing snow from the job site on a regular basis. 'The housing is built for the townspeople who you need to retain, for the 5,000 permanent residents in Breckenridge, like a restaurant owner,' Myers said. 'Young people move here and put up with terrible housing for a little bit, and the town board wants to retain them by offering good housing units.' The lowest cost units are at 100% AMI, then go up to 160% AMI and are deed restricted. While not in the traditional missing middle AMI range, Myers says the most accurate description of the project is missing middle because there are not more affordable housing options around. Plus, residents will be saving on energy costs due to the design. Thrive also used OneClick LCM to calculate the carbon footprint of all the houses and is balancing those by purchasing carbon offsets. 'This project is making a difference in the local economy,' Myers said. 'The town has a fund so we took what we would have paid for a third party offset to put in the town's fund to do local offsets, such as putting a solar array on a school. Customers appreciate something they could see, and that would drive local benefit. We also lifted the local trades with the construction work.' Thrive will be working with the City again on another 150 attainable units with the potential for an additional 44 accessory dwelling units. Workbnb develops container-based, net-zero housing for traveling workforce. One of the most popular projects in the country right now is data center construction. One data center needs hundreds if not thousands of workers, but only for a few years. Yeves Perez is CEO at Workbnb, a workforce housing as a service startup based in Las Vegas that is focused on providing comfortable, quality housing for mobile workers. 'This workforce is marginalized by housing when they are contracted to build,' he said. 'Nine times out of 10, it's not near where they live so they have to go on the road. The alternatives are living in a hotel, man camps are prevalent in places with oil, and with data center construction.' Perez said this workforce needs to have a good travel experience to stay on the job. 'I talk to workers every day in their 20s and 30s and they got into trades because of a family member or friend, but they are staying in sleep trailers, like semis stacked with bunk beds to fit 40 workers in the trailers,' he said. 'These are wildly inefficient, have no amenities, but the workers don't have a choice.' Workbnb partnres with an engineered manufacturing incubator mHUB and S.I. Container Builds to deliver net-zero, climate-resilient, solar-powered container homes for workers. These 20-foot studios resemble single occupancy units that can perform off grid utilize air-to-water technology, require no power source, and feature advanced on-site water processing. With two pilots in the works, Perez believes that this product will be what construction projects need to attract youth and offer a better quality of life on the road where workers are stretched to the max, have bad sleep quality in low quality housing, which causes more accidents on the job. The container-based units cost about $50,000 to build, but are rented out by Workbnb at a nightly rate with the addition of a maintenance contract. As the original in workforce housing, the architect firm Opticos Design recently launched the Missing Middle Neighborhood Kit to help expedite the entitlement and delivery of workforce housing. The kit includes two types of master planned workforce housing communities and one infill option. One is a complete, walkable master planned community with all missing middle or a combination of missing middle and single family attached and detached. The second kit offers ways to integrate workforce housing types into a larger master planned community. The third kit would make use of a larger infill property that is in a walkable area. A developer using the kit will get a selection of prototype designs and conceptual site application from Opticos, along with architectural and structural drawings, specifications, MEP design and permit revisions. 'It's more than a product—it's a system that can be used to rethink how we build neighborhoods to create inclusive, sustainable, and vibrant walkable places for everyone,' wrote Daniel Parolek, founder of Opticos Design. These forward-thinking innovators are dedicated to solving a national issue—housing the people who make our local communities safe, healthy, attractive, and comfortable. Modular construction is helping create and scale workforce housing so the firemen, policemen, teachers, and healthcare professionals can live in the places they serve.
