Local Housing Solutions
To enhance local affordability. To foster inclusive communities.

Affordable rental housing

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Affordable rental housing

Overview

Local Housing Solutions includes guidance on how to promote rental housing affordability through a variety of mechanisms, including creating and preserving new and existing dedicated affordable units, increasing the overall housing supply, and helping low-income households find lower-cost units in the private market.

Rental affordability

How significant is the affordability problem for renters in my locality and is it getting better or worse?

Brief

Increasing the affordability of rental housing

There are many approaches that cities, towns, and counties can use to increase the availability of affordable rental housing. In fact, the majority of policy tools in the Housing Policy Library work to advance this very goal. This brief describes how policies in each of the four main categories in the Housing Policy Library can be used to address rental affordability challenges.

Balancing the goals of promoting homeownership and increasing the availability of affordable rental housing

This brief presents several factors that may be helpful for local governments to consider as they decide how to allocate available resources between renter and homeownership assistance programs.

Selected local housing policies

Accessory dwelling units
Brownfields
Capital subsidies for building affordable housing developments
General obligation bonds for affordable housing
Housing choice vouchers
Housing trust funds
Inclusionary zoning
Low income housing tax credit
Missing middle housing
Operating subsidies for affordable housing developments
Rent regulation
Stabilizing high-poverty neighborhoods through a mixed-income approach
Use of publicly owned property for affordable housing
Zoning changes to allow for higher residential density

Related content

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