Dedicated affordable housing

Learn about the scope of the preservation challenge for dedicated affordable rental housing in your locality through the Housing Needs Assessment.

Brief

Preserving the existing stock of dedicated affordable rental housing

Most cities, towns, and counties have substantial numbers of units of dedicated affordable rental housing produced by HUD programs between the late 1960s and the mid-1980s, and by the Low Income Housing Tax Credit since the late 1980s. Many of these units are potentially at risk of being lost from the inventory of dedicated affordable rental housing due to expiring affordability restrictions that allow owners to decline to renew their participation, or options for owners to opt out of subsidy programs midstream. Dedicated affordable housing may also be in deteriorating physical condition that renders it uninhabitable or leads to occupancy problems that cause the property to fail financially. This brief describes how policies in the Housing Policy Library can be used to keep these units available over the long term.

Determining the duration of required affordability for dedicated affordable housing

While long-term affordability is the best way to get the most value from every dollar of investment, it does bring some trade-offs that need to be considered when designing policies. This brief describes some of those considerations, as well as steps that cities can take to mitigate potential downsides.

Balancing the preservation of existing affordable housing with new construction

This brief identifies a series of questions that communities can use to determine whether to prioritize a particular property for preservation.