[EdFNJ]

Maybe this will help: What is affordable housing?


Partial clip from that article:

What Is Affordable Housing?
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development defines affordable housing as housing where the occupant is paying 30% or less of the(ir) gross income on total housing, including utilities.

The phrase “affordable housing” is also colloquially used as a general term to refer to housing assistance for low-income individuals, including housing vouchers or housing designated for residents below a certain income for the area.

While 30% of gross income may be considered the baseline to determine whether housing is affordable, many households are forced to spend much more than that for their home and utilities, and they may or may not be receiving housing assistance to cover the high costs. Very low affordability is considered 60%, says Arica Young, associate director of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Terwilliger Center for Housing, a think tank based in Washington, D.C.

In some cases, affordability is even worse. “There are families that spend 80% of their income on housing. … It’s really shocking,” Young says.