Indicator: Access to affordable housing
Definition
There is sufficient availability of affordable housing for the number of families with low incomes in an area (city or county).
RECOMMENDED METRIC(S)
- Ratio of (1) the number of affordable housing units to (2) the number of households with low and very low incomes in an area (city or county). Housing units are defined as affordable if the monthly costs do not exceed 30 percent of a household’s income. Households with low incomes are defined as those earning below 80 percent of area median income (AMI), and very low-income households are defined as those earning below 50 percent of AMI.
- Percentage of eligible households receiving federal rental assistance
Type(s) of Data Needed
Administrative dataWhy it matters
A lack of affordable housing leaves families with less money for food, clothing, medicine, and transportation. Aside from causing material hardship, this lack has consequences for individuals’ mental and physical health; for example, tenants who fall behind on their rent are more likely to experience depression, and children who live in unstable or poor housing conditions are more likely to experience developmental delays. Lack of affordable housing may be linked to higher rates of eviction, with families having low incomes, women, and people of color being most likely to be evicted from their homes.
What to know about measurement
The first recommended metric can be calculated at the city and county level using public data from the American Community Survey (ACS) and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; however, a framework user would need to calculate the ratio. An advantage of this metric is that it captures the supply of affordable housing relative to demand for it, and therefore reflects whether there are shortages of such housing for those who need it. However, we note that the available data do not consider the features or quality of available affordable housing; for example, many large families have difficulty finding affordable housing with enough bedrooms. We also note that this metric does not capture an individual’s ability to pay for housing. An alternative metric would be to measure the percentage of households that spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing costs. At an aggregate level, this percentage can be calculated using ACS data.
As a second metric, we recommend systems track the percentage of eligible families receiving federal rental assistance, which includes programs administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, such as public housing, Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers, and Section 8 Project-Based Rental Assistance, among others. This information can be used to support low-income families in enrolling in these programs. National and state-level data are available from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, but may require administering a survey to obtain information at the individual level.
E-W Case Studies
Source frameworks
This indicator appears in four source frameworks reviewed for this report. Our proposed measure draws on the Affordable Housing metric in the Urban Institute’s Boosting Upward Mobility framework.
References
The framework's recommendations are based on syntheses of existing research. Please see the framework report for a list of works cited.