Housing dictionary

The smaller form of the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, worth about 30% of qualified costs in present value, used mainly for projects financed with tax-exempt private activity bonds and for buying existing buildings.

The larger, competitive form of the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, worth about 70% of a building's qualified costs in present value and awarded by states from a limited annual supply.

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.

The Fair Housing Act's requirement that HUD and other federal agencies run their housing and community development programs in a way that actively promotes fair housing, not merely avoids discrimination.

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.

The work of keeping existing affordable homes both affordable and in good condition, especially subsidized properties whose rent restrictions or rental assistance contracts are about to end.

Income-restricted rental housing reserved for older adults, typically households with a member aged 62 or older, funded through programs such as HUD's Section 202, public housing, and housing tax credits.

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 share of a Low-Income Housing Tax Credit building that is low-income, measured as the smaller of its low-income share of units and its low-income share of floor space. It sets how much of the building's cost earns credits.

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.

A Low-Income Housing Tax Credit rule that lets certain projects calculate credits on up to 130% of their eligible basis, raising their tax credits by as much as 30% to help hard-to-finance developments work.

A 1969 federal law that capped public housing rent at one-fourth of a family's income. It is the origin of the income-based rent rule, now 30% of adjusted income, that underlies most federal rental assistance.

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 community built, owned, and run by a single employer, which supplied the housing, stores, and services its workers depended on, usually next to a factory, mine, or mill.

The first 15 tax years of a Low-Income Housing Tax Credit property's life, during which it must meet federal income and rent rules or the IRS can take back part of the credits already claimed.

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 property's net operating income divided by its annual loan payments. Lenders use it to judge whether a building earns enough to repay its mortgage, and it largely sets how big a loan a project can get.

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.

The payment a developer earns for putting together and delivering a housing project. It covers overhead, risk, and profit, and in affordable housing it is usually capped by the agency that provides the subsidy.

An area HUD designates each year where rents are high relative to incomes, a sign of high land, construction and utility costs. Low-Income Housing Tax Credit buildings there can claim a 30% basis boost.

A legal theory under which a housing policy can violate the Fair Housing Act if it falls more harshly on a protected group and is not justified by a legitimate need, even when no one intended to discriminate.

When households are forced or pressured to leave their homes or neighborhoods by forces outside their control, such as rising rents, eviction, redevelopment, or demolition, including the loss of affordable options that keeps similar households from moving in.

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.

Short-term financial help that pays a renter household's overdue or upcoming rent, and often its utility bills, to prevent eviction or homelessness after a sudden loss of income or other crisis.

Help that an employer gives its workers to buy, rent or live in homes near their jobs, such as down payment grants, forgivable loans, rental help, or housing the employer builds or finances.

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.

The legal process a landlord uses to remove a tenant from a rental home, usually through a court case that ends with a judgment and, if the tenant does not leave, removal by a sheriff or marshal.

Land-use rules that, by design or in effect, keep lower-cost housing out of a community. Examples include bans on apartments, large minimum lot sizes, and limits on manufactured homes. Such rules raise housing costs and can reinforce economic and racial segregation.

The point at which a subsidized property's affordability restrictions or rental assistance contract ends, letting the owner raise rents, convert to market rate, or sell unless the affordability is renewed.

The period, lasting at least 30 years from the start of the credit period, during which a Low-Income Housing Tax Credit property must stay rent- and income-restricted under a recorded agreement with the state.

HUD's lowest income tier: households earning no more than 30% of area median income or the federal poverty guideline, whichever is higher.

The 1968 federal law, Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, that bans discrimination in renting, buying, financing, and insuring housing because of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, familial status, or disability.

HUD's annual estimate of what a modest, standard-quality rental home costs in a local market, including utilities, set at the 40th percentile of recent movers' rents.

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.

In most housing programs, a buyer who has not owned a principal residence in the past three years, not only someone who has never owned a home.

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.

Neighborhood change in which higher-income residents and new investment move into a historically lower-income area, raising rents and home values and often changing who lives there and the neighborhood's character.

The full monthly cost of renting a home: the rent paid to the landlord plus the cost, or an allowance, for utilities the renter pays separately.

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 New Deal federal agency, created in 1933, that bought and refinanced more than one million troubled home mortgages and later drew the color-coded neighborhood maps now associated with redlining.

A HUD grant program, created in 1992, that paid public housing agencies to demolish and redevelop severely distressed public housing, usually replacing it with lower-density, mixed-income communities.

The New Deal law, signed September 1, 1937, that created the permanent federal public housing program: Washington finances the homes, and local public housing agencies build, own and manage them.

The postwar law, signed July 15, 1949, that set the national goal of 'a decent home and a suitable living environment for every American family,' restarted public housing construction and launched federal urban renewal.

The 1974 federal law that created the Community Development Block Grant and the Section 8 rental assistance program, shifting federal housing aid toward local decision-making and subsidies for privately owned housing.

The contract under which a public housing agency or HUD pays a private landlord the difference between a unit's approved rent and the share an eligible tenant pays under the Section 8 program.

A bond sold by a state or local government, or its housing agency, to raise money for housing, such as low-interest mortgages for first-time buyers, loans for affordable apartments, or a local affordable housing fund.

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.

An approach to homelessness that moves people into permanent housing as quickly as possible, without first requiring sobriety, treatment or program participation, and then offers voluntary support services.

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.

The ordered list of applicants that a public housing agency or assisted-housing owner keeps when more eligible households apply than there are vouchers or units. Applicants are chosen by preference, then by date or lottery.

A one-time charge a local government places on new development to help pay for the roads, water and sewer lines, schools, parks, and other public facilities that growth requires.

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 small living unit of no more than 500 square feet created within the walls of a single-family home, with its own entrance and an efficiency kitchen. The term is defined in California law.

A legal rule that lets a landlord end a tenancy only for a reason listed in law, such as unpaid rent or a serious lease violation, instead of simply declining to renew or giving notice without a reason.

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 housing cooperative in which residents buy shares rather than units, and the bylaws cap the price at which shares can be resold so the homes stay affordable for each new member.

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.

Housing whose rent or sale price is set by supply and demand in the private market, with no public subsidy, no income limits for residents, and no affordability restriction on what the owner can charge.

The 1987 federal law that created national programs to respond to homelessness. It now authorizes HUD's Continuum of Care and Emergency Solutions Grants programs and protects homeless children's access to public school.

A zoning or subdivision rule that sets the smallest land area a lot must have before a home can be built on it, which caps how many homes can fit on a given amount of land.

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.

New Jersey's constitutional rule, set by its Supreme Court starting in 1975, that municipalities must use their zoning powers to create a realistic opportunity for their fair share of the region's low- and moderate-income housing.

Privately owned rental housing that lower- and moderate-income households can afford without any public subsidy or legal rent restriction, usually because the buildings are older, modest, or in less expensive locations.

Short for 'Not In My Back Yard': local opposition to new housing or other development near one's own home, often from people who may accept that it is needed somewhere else.

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.

Zoning rules that require new buildings to include at least a set number of off-street parking spaces, such as one or two per apartment, regardless of how many cars the residents actually own.

A payment that a tax-exempt or partially exempt property owner makes to a local government instead of regular property taxes, often set below the full tax bill to help keep housing affordable.

The ceiling a housing agency uses to calculate a voucher holder's subsidy: the most it will count toward rent and utilities before subtracting the family's share. Agencies set it for each unit size, usually between 90% and 110% of HUD's Fair Market Rent.

Long-term rental housing with no time limit, paired with voluntary support services such as case management and health care, for people with disabilities who have experienced homelessness.

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.

A one-night count of people experiencing sheltered and unsheltered homelessness, conducted by local Continuums of Care during the last 10 days of January and reported to HUD.

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.

A form of Section 8 rental assistance that a public housing agency attaches to specific units in a building under a long-term contract, so the subsidy stays with the unit rather than moving with the tenant.

A temporary reduction in the property taxes a building owes, granted by a local government in exchange for something the community wants, such as new housing or a share of affordable units.

A state or local government body, often called a housing authority, that runs federally funded public housing, Housing Choice Vouchers, or both in its community under contract with HUD.

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 census tract that HUD designates each year because at least half its households earn under 60% of area median gross income or its poverty rate is 25% or more. LIHTC buildings there can claim a 30% basis boost.

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.

A clause in a property deed or neighborhood agreement that barred people of certain races, and sometimes religions, from buying or living in a home. Courts stopped enforcing them in 1948, and federal law outlawed racial discrimination in housing in 1968.

A homelessness intervention that quickly moves people into private-market rental housing, using short- or medium-term rent help and case management, with no preconditions such as sobriety or employment.

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.

Denying or limiting credit because of the racial or ethnic makeup of the neighborhood where a person lives or wants to buy, rather than because of the borrower's own qualifications.

Laws that limit how much and how often a landlord can raise the rent on an existing home, ranging from strict caps tied to a fixed formula to looser 'anti-gouging' limits on annual increases.

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 manufactured home community whose land is owned and governed by the homeowners themselves, usually through a nonprofit cooperative in which each household has one vote.

Housing for people employed only part of the year, such as farmworkers and resort, hospitality or recreation staff, who need a place to live near the job for weeks or months.

The common name for federal rental assistance authorized by Section 8 of the U.S. Housing Act of 1937, including Housing Choice Vouchers and project-based contracts, which generally let low-income households pay about 30% of income for rent.

The condition of a household that spends more than half of its income on housing costs, the standard federal threshold for the most acute housing affordability problems.

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 zoning designation that allows only one detached house per lot, ruling out duplexes, townhouses, and apartments on that land. It is the most restrictive common residential zone in American cities and suburbs.

Housing made up of small, single-occupant rooms, often with shared kitchens or bathrooms, that historically served as some of the lowest-cost housing in American cities.

A Fair Market Rent that HUD calculates for each ZIP Code instead of a whole metro area, so housing vouchers pay more in higher-rent neighborhoods and less in lower-rent ones.

Housing owned or controlled by public agencies, nonprofits or cooperatives and kept permanently outside the speculative market, often open to a broad mix of incomes rather than only the poorest households.

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.

Refusing to rent to someone, or offering worse terms, because of how they lawfully pay rent, such as with a Housing Choice Voucher, Social Security, disability benefits, or child support. Federal law does not ban it generally, but many states and cities do.

A modestly sized, relatively low-priced home, such as a small house, townhouse or condominium, that a first-time buyer can afford and often later sells to trade up.

Housing in which a government program lowers what residents pay, by paying part of the rent, funding the building's construction or operation, or granting tax benefits in exchange for rent and income limits.

The process of pooling investors' money and channeling it into affordable housing developments in exchange for their tax credits. It is typically arranged by a specialized firm called a syndicator.

The cash that investors pay into a housing development in exchange for the right to claim its federal tax credits. It is usually priced in cents per dollar of credit and reduces the debt a project must carry.

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.

The sweeping federal tax overhaul, signed October 22, 1986, that created the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit and rewrote how rental real estate and housing bonds are treated under the tax code.

Rental help attached to a household rather than to a building, so the family can choose a private-market unit and, within program rules, take the assistance with it when it moves.

A crowded, low-cost multifamily rental building of the kind that housed millions of immigrant and working-class families in American cities in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and the target of some of the nation's first housing laws.

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 amount a household in HUD-assisted rental housing must contribute each month toward rent and utilities, usually 30% of its adjusted monthly income. The subsidy covers the rest, up to program limits.

Time-limited housing with supportive services for people experiencing homelessness, designed to help them move into permanent housing, generally within 24 months under HUD rules.

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

A change to zoning rules that allows more housing or larger buildings on a piece of land than before, for example by permitting fourplexes where only single-family houses were allowed or by raising height limits.

The federal program, launched by the Housing Act of 1949 and wound down after 1974, that helped cities acquire and clear neighborhoods labeled slums or blighted and make the land available for redevelopment.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's mission area that lends, guarantees, and grants money for housing, utilities, and businesses in rural America, including home loans and rental housing for lower-income rural households.

An estimate, set by a housing agency or program rules, of what a household will reasonably spend each month on utilities it pays itself. Subsidized housing uses it to cap rents and calculate what tenants owe.

The middle of HUD's three standard income tiers: households earning no more than 50% of area median income, adjusted for household size and for areas with unusually high or low incomes or housing costs.

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.

Short for 'Yes In My Back Yard': a pro-housing movement and political stance that supports building more homes of all kinds, including in established neighborhoods, mainly by loosening zoning and permitting rules.