Affordable Workforce Housing

The widely used benchmark that housing is affordable when a household spends no more than 30% of its gross income on rent or mortgage costs plus utilities.

The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit rule that lets a project receive 4% credits outside a state's annual cap if enough of its building and land cost is financed with volume-cap tax-exempt bonds; the threshold fell to 25% in 2026.

A small, self-contained home, with its own kitchen, bathroom and sleeping area, on the same lot as a main house. It can be inside the house, attached to it, or a separate backyard building.

Converting an existing building designed for another purpose, such as an office, school, hotel, factory, or warehouse, into housing rather than demolishing it and building new.

Housing a household can pay for while spending no more than about 30% of its income on rent or mortgage plus utilities. In policy, the term usually means homes whose rents or prices are restricted for lower-income households.

Homes for working households, typically earning about 60% to 120% of area median income, that a binding rent, price, or income restriction keeps affordable. It combines the guarantee of affordable housing with the income band of workforce housing.

The midpoint income for families in a metro area or county, published each year by HUD and used to decide who qualifies for most affordable housing programs.

Housing or other construction that local staff must approve without a public hearing, variance or discretionary vote, because the project meets all of the written zoning and building standards that already apply to the site.

The full set of loans, equity, and subsidies that pays for a housing development, ranked by who gets repaid first and who takes the most risk.

Special Census Bureau tabulations, published by HUD, that count households by income level, tenure, and housing problems such as cost burden and overcrowding for nearly every U.S. state, county, and city.

A nonprofit organization rooted in a particular neighborhood or region that develops affordable housing and other community assets, usually with residents represented in its governance.

A private, mission-driven lender, such as a community development bank, credit union, or loan fund, certified by the U.S. Treasury's CDFI Fund to provide financing in low-income communities and to people who lack access to mainstream credit.

A nonprofit, community-governed organization that owns land permanently and leases it to homeowners or housing providers, using a long-term ground lease and resale limits to keep homes affordable for one buyer after another.

A 1977 federal law that requires bank regulators to assess how well each insured bank meets the credit needs of its whole community, including low- and moderate-income neighborhoods, and to weigh that record when the bank seeks to expand.

A local government's officially adopted long-range plan for how a community will grow, setting out where housing, jobs, roads, and parks should go, which zoning and other land-use rules are then expected to carry out.

A five-year housing and community development plan that states and local governments must submit to HUD to receive CDBG, HOME, ESG, HOPWA, and Housing Trust Fund formula grants.

A cluster of small detached homes, typically about 800 to 1,200 square feet each, arranged around a shared courtyard or green, with parking kept to the side or rear of the site.

Federal rules that require construction workers on many federally funded or assisted projects, including some affordable housing, to be paid at least the local prevailing wages and fringe benefits set by the U.S. Department of Labor.

A legally binding limit recorded against a property's title that controls how it can be used. In affordable housing, it caps rents or resale prices and limits who may live there, often for decades.

Delaware's cabinet-level state housing agency, which now calls itself Housing Delaware. It finances homes and rental housing, allocates the state's Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, and runs voucher and public housing programs.

Permission to build more homes on a site than zoning normally allows, granted in exchange for a public benefit, most often a share of income-restricted affordable units.

Grants or low-cost loans from governments, nonprofits, employers or lenders that help homebuyers cover the down payment and closing costs on a home.

Eligible basis is the depreciable cost of a tax credit building that can earn Low-Income Housing Tax Credits; qualified basis is the share of that cost tied to the building's affordable units.

The federally required review of a project's environmental effects that must be completed before HUD money, or other money for a HUD-assisted project, can be committed to it.

People whose jobs keep a community running, such as nurses, teachers, first responders, grocery and transit workers. Housing policy increasingly targets them because many cannot afford to live near where they work.

Two congressionally chartered, shareholder-owned companies that buy mortgages from lenders and package them into guaranteed securities, keeping a steady supply of money flowing to home loans and apartment financing.

Housing for people who work in agriculture, whether provided by employers, built with dedicated USDA loans and grants, or rented on the private market. Federal rules set who must provide it and what standards it must meet.

A federal agency within HUD that insures private lenders against losses on qualifying mortgages, which makes low-down-payment home loans and long-term apartment financing easier to get.

Money that fills the shortfall between what an affordable housing development costs and what its private loans and investor equity can cover. It usually comes from government agencies or other mission-driven lenders on favorable terms.

A federal income tax credit equal to 20% of the qualified costs of rehabilitating a certified historic, income-producing building, claimed in equal parts over five years.

A framework that lays out a community's housing options along a spectrum, from homelessness and emergency shelter through supportive and subsidized housing to market-rate rentals and homeownership, often matched to income ranges.

The condition of a household that spends more than 30% of its gross income on housing costs, including rent or mortgage payments and utilities. Spending more than 50% is called a severe cost burden.

A state-chartered public agency that finances affordable housing, chiefly by awarding Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, issuing tax-exempt housing bonds, and offering below-market mortgages to first-time buyers.

A study that measures a community's current and future housing needs, including how many homes are missing, at what prices, and for whom, so governments can set goals and direct resources.

A gap between the homes a place needs and the homes it has. It can mean too few homes overall, or too few that households at a given income can afford and actually get.

A pool of public money that a state, county, or city dedicates by law to affordable housing, usually fed by a recurring revenue source rather than a one-time appropriation.

The hourly wage a full-time worker must earn to afford a modest rental home at HUD's Fair Market Rent without spending more than 30% of income on housing, as calculated by NLIHC.

A local land-use policy that requires or encourages developers of new market-rate housing to set aside a share of the homes at prices or rents affordable to lower- and moderate-income households.

A Low-Income Housing Tax Credit option, added in 2018, that lets a property serve households earning up to 80% of area median income as long as the income limits assigned to its affordable units average 60% of AMI or less.

The maximum household incomes, set as percentages of area median income and adjusted for household size, that determine who is eligible for HUD-assisted and other affordable housing.

A public entity created under state law that acquires vacant, abandoned, or tax-foreclosed properties, clears their legal and financial problems, and transfers them to responsible new owners in line with community goals.

The period after a new or renovated rental building opens when the owner markets the units, screens and certifies applicants, and signs leases until the property reaches stable occupancy.

A fee charged on new commercial or other non-residential development to help pay for the affordable housing needed by the workers those new jobs bring to a community.

In HUD's housing programs, a household earning no more than 80% of area median income, adjusted for household size. It is the upper eligibility line for public housing and many other federal programs.

Homes built in a factory to a single national HUD construction code, then transported to a site in one or more sections. Federal law defines them by size and preempts local building codes for them.

An independent analysis of whether there is enough demand, at the proposed rents and income levels, to fill a planned housing development and keep it occupied without hurting nearby properties.

Small multi-unit or clustered homes, such as duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, townhouses and cottage courts, built at roughly the size of a detached house. Zoning has made them rare in many U.S. neighborhoods.

A building, development, or neighborhood that deliberately combines homes at different rent or price levels, usually mixing market-rate units with subsidized or income-restricted units for lower- and moderate-income households.

An income band with no single legal definition. Federal programs place it anywhere from 50% to about 115% of area median income, and workforce housing programs commonly use roughly 80% to 120%.

Housing built as finished three-dimensional sections in a factory, then trucked to the site and joined on a permanent foundation, generally to the same state or local building code as a site-built home.

Low-income census tracts, nominated by governors and certified by the U.S. Treasury, where investors can defer and reduce capital gains taxes by investing through a Qualified Opportunity Fund.

A small cluster of homes arranged around a shared garden, lawn or courtyard, designed so neighbors share common open space while each household keeps a private home.

The early, high-risk phase of a housing project before construction financing closes, when a developer secures the site, studies feasibility, designs the building, and wins approvals and funding commitments.

Tax-exempt bonds that a state or local government agency issues on behalf of a private borrower, such as a developer of affordable rental housing, so the project can borrow at a lower interest rate.

The practice of using land owned by governments and public agencies, such as surplus lots, former schools, transit parking, and federal property, as sites for new housing, often at a discount in exchange for long-term affordability.

The plan each state housing credit agency must adopt, after a public hearing, that sets the priorities and scoring rules it uses to award Low-Income Housing Tax Credits to developments.

A formula-priced offer to buy a Low-Income Housing Tax Credit property after year 14; if the state agency cannot find a buyer at that price within a year, the property's affordability restrictions can end early.

Changes that housing providers must allow or make for people with disabilities under the Fair Housing Act: an accommodation adjusts a rule, policy, or service, and a modification alters the physical premises.

An arrangement in which a household rents a home with the right or the obligation to buy it later, often at a price agreed upfront and with part of the rent credited toward the purchase.

A family of homeownership models, including community land trusts, deed-restricted homes, and limited-equity co-ops, in which a one-time subsidy lowers a home's price and resale limits keep it affordable for the next income-qualified buyer.

Homes, apartments, or rooms rented to guests for brief stays, often defined as fewer than 30 days and usually booked through online platforms. Local governments regulate them through zoning, licensing, and tax rules.

A loan with far gentler terms than a bank mortgage, usually from a government agency or nonprofit. Interest is low or zero, and repayment is deferred or tied to available cash flow. It is used to fill financing gaps in affordable housing.

A local financing tool that freezes a district's property tax base and uses the extra tax revenue from rising values to pay for public investments there, sometimes including affordable housing.

A very small dwelling, defined in the model International Residential Code as 400 square feet or less excluding lofts, built either on a permanent foundation or on a wheeled trailer.

The cabinet-level federal department, created in 1965, that runs the nation's main housing assistance, community development, mortgage insurance, and fair housing programs.

Housing priced for working households that earn too much to qualify for most housing assistance but too little to afford market-rate homes near their jobs, often defined as roughly 60% or 80% up to 120% of area median income.