Converting Offices To Housing Is Hard; These Changes Might Make It Easier

Stateline, an initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts. By Erika Bolstad Stroll around America's vacant downtowns, and a seemingly obvious solution emerges to the housing shortages and homelessness problems in many states:  Why not turn all those unoccupied offices into living spaces? Especially in cities such as Portland, Oregon, where the office vacancy rate in the urban core peaked at an estimated 27 percent earlier this year?

Stateline, an initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts. By Erika Bolstad Stroll around America's vacant downtowns, and a seemingly obvious solution emerges to the housing shortages and homelessness problems in many states:  Why not turn all those unoccupied offices into living spaces? Especially in cities such as Portland, Oregon, where the office vacancy rate in the urban core peaked at an estimated 27 percent earlier this year?…