A Decent Home: Planning, Building, and Preserving Affordable Housing

As more and more families lose their homes to foreclosure, affordable housing is very much in the public eye. Across the country, lawmakers and community development organizations scramble to create affordable, decent places to live for the millions in need. Yet affordable housing remains poorly understood and widely controversial, with even experienced professionals finding it difficult to navigate the maze of legal and financial complications that surround it. With A Decent Home, housing expert Alan Mallach disentangles the issues and breaks down the jargon, offering professionals and educated laypersons a comprehensive picture of what affordable housing is, how it works, and how it is planned and developed. Mallach examines the most important issues and controversies surrounding affordable housingincluding social, economic, and political considerationsand provides readers with the information and insight to develop thoughtful, responsible opinions about an issue that is hotly contested both nationally and in individual communities around the nation.

Alan Mallach is a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC and a senior fellow at the National Housing Institute in Montclair, New Jersey. He is the author of many books and articles on urban planning, housing, and community development.

Acknowledgments

Preface

Chapter 1. The Case for Affordable Housing

The Need for Decent Housing

Affordable Housing Needs and the Private Market

Is Affordable Housing a Housing Problem or an Income Problem?

Conclusion 

Chapter 2. Affordable Housing in the United States: A Short History

Beginnings

The Rise and Fall of Public Housing

Federal Funding, Private Ownership

The Age of Devolution

Affordable Housing Policy Today

Chapter 3. Designing Affordable Housing

Why Design Matters

Housing for Whom?

Housing That Works for People

Cars, People, and Open Space

Safe Spaces

Designing Housing That Fits In

Chapter 4. Finding Sites and Gaining Approval for Affordable Housing

Criteria for Selecting Sites

Good Sites Are Hard to Find

Getting Projects Approved 

Chapter 5. Making the Numbers Work: Financing Affordable Housing

Defining Affordability

Filling the Gap

Capital Grants and Tax Credit Equity

Putting the Pieces Together: Subsidy Layering and the Development Pro Forma

Chapter 6. Developing Affordable Housing, Step-by-Step

Thinking the Project Through

Forming the Development TeamFinding a Site

The Predevelopment Process

Construction, Marketing, and Rent-up

Chapter 7. Concentration and Opportunity:

Undoing the Exclusion of Affordable Housing

The Practice of Suburban Exclusion

Challenging Exclusion in the Courts

State Planning Laws and Affordable Housing Mandates

Conclusion

Chapter 8. Affordable Housing, Community Development

Corporations, and Neighborhood Revitalization

Affordable Housing and Poverty Concentration

The Role of Community Development Corporations

Toward Communities of Choice

Balancing Affordable Housing and Neighborhood Revitalization

Revitalization

Chapter 9. The Risks and Rewards of Affordable Home Ownership

Home OwnershipThe American Dream

The Costs and Benefits of Home Ownership

Public and Nonprofit Strategies to Foster Lower Income Home Ownership

Low-income Home Ownership and the Subprime Meltdown

Chapter 10. Preserving Affordable Housing

Preservation: A Critical Issue

The Problem of Expiring Use Restrictions

Preserving Affordable Home Ownership 

Preserving Affordability in the Private Market

Chapter 11. Homelessness and Affordable Housing

Who Are the Homeless?

Why Are So Many People Homeless?

Changing Approaches to Housing the Homeless

Affordable Housing and Housing First

Chapter 12. Inclusionary Housing: Using the Market to Create Affordable Housing

What Is Inclusionary Housing?

The Legal Status of Inclusionary Housing

Economics of Inclusionary Housing

Making Inclusionary Housing Work

Chapter 13. Policies, Politics, and the Future of Affordable Housing in the United States

Drivers of Housing Policy Change

Shaping Future Affordable Housing Policy

Appendix: Resources for Further Information

Index