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What does "affordable housing" mean in America? I tried looking at the wiki article and it's absolutely massive and I feel like it's almost designed to obscure what is probably a simple answer. When some new building is going up and you hear somebody praise it, "oh, it's going to be Affordable", what is going on? Is it subsidized? Something else?
affordable housing refers to housing rented at below market rates. Usually available to single mothers, blacks, natives, low income or some other government defined condition. affordable housing is usually a "scratch my back i'll scratch yours" agreement with local politicians where developers only get to build when they commit to some percent of government rules.
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It's Affordable if it's a government-run project to make housing affordable. Otherwise it's not Affordable.
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Strictly speaking, 30% of income. Practically? Keeping in mind that everything is relative?
Multifamily units. Doesn't have to be run as Section 8, doesn't even have to be advertised as budget. So long as it's not specifically angling for "luxury" apartments, it probably counts.
"Affordable" usually implies they're being measured against 1) legacy, gentrified neighborhoods or 2) suburban housing. Both are pretty tightly constrained on supply. A lot's worth of mediocre apartments is going to be more "affordable" than that same lot turned into 2 bedroom houses.
This conversation is loudest in housing-starved cities like the Bay Area. Not coincidentally, California also allows certain developments to bypass normal red tape.
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