{"id":1662,"date":"2025-01-26T20:58:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-27T01:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/poverty-journal\/?page_id=1662"},"modified":"2026-02-09T09:09:41","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T14:09:41","slug":"an-application-of-equality-theories-to-commercial-to-residential-adaptive-reuse-projects","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/poverty-journal\/in-print\/volume-32-issue-i-fall-2024\/an-application-of-equality-theories-to-commercial-to-residential-adaptive-reuse-projects\/","title":{"rendered":"An Application of Equality Theories to Commercial-to-Residential Adaptive Reuse Projects"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><i>Low-income U.S. renters currently face a severe housing shortage: approxi<\/i><i>mately eight million too few affordable units exist for households earning less <\/i><i>than their area<\/i><span class=\"s1\">\u2019<\/span><i>s average median income. At the same time, office buildings have <\/i><i>become increasingly underutilized. Thus, adaptive reuse<\/i><span class=\"s1\">\u2013<\/span><i>which focuses on reno<\/i><i>vating and reusing old buildings for new purposes<\/i><span class=\"s1\">\u2013<\/span><i>can reduce inequality in the <\/i><i>United States by turning vacant office space into much-needed affordable hous<\/i><i>ing. This paper posits that if jurisdictions improved adaptive reuse policies by <\/i><i>codifying both affordable housing 1) incentives and 2) mandates, those jurisdic<\/i><i>tions would enjoy more equality, as defined by leading political philosophers. <\/i><i>Parts I and II of this paper provide background on affordable housing and adapt<\/i><i>ive reuse policies. Part III applies Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum<\/i><span class=\"s1\">\u2019<\/span><i>s <\/i><i>Capabilities Approach to adaptive reuse, identifying adequate shelter as an impli<\/i><i>cated <\/i><span class=\"s1\">\u201c<\/span><i>capability<\/i><span class=\"s1\">\u201d <\/span><i>to consider in adaptive reuse ordinances. Part IV analyzes <\/i><i>whether adaptive reuse advances capabilities at a level consistent with John <\/i><i>Rawls<\/i><span class=\"s1\">\u2019 <\/span><i>difference principle; this Part determines that satisfying the difference <\/i><i>principle requires governments to include both incentives and mandates for <\/i><i>developers to incorporate affordable housing into adaptive reuse projects. Part V <\/i><i>outlines additional changes to adaptive reuse ordinances that jurisdictions could <\/i><i>implement to better facilitate equality. Part VI concludes.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/poverty-journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/25\/2025\/01\/32.1-deluca.pdf\">Read the full article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Low-income U.S. renters currently face a severe housing shortage: approximately eight million too few affordable units exist for households earning less than their area\u2019s average median income. At the same time, office buildings have become increasingly underutilized. Thus, adaptive reuse\u2013which focuses on renovating and reusing old buildings for new purposes\u2013can reduce inequality in the United [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14231,"featured_media":0,"parent":1643,"menu_order":3,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"abstract.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1662","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/poverty-journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/poverty-journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/poverty-journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/poverty-journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14231"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/poverty-journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1662"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/poverty-journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1662\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2016,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/poverty-journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1662\/revisions\/2016"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/poverty-journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/poverty-journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}