{"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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14231,"featured_media":0,"parent":1643,"menu_order":26,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"abstract.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":"","_tec_slr_enabled":"","_tec_slr_layout":""},"class_list":["post-1662","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"ticketed":false,"_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}]}}