Housing Choice

Everyone needs housing — a place to live, a place to call home. Housing is one of our most basic human needs. But the realization of safe, decent, affordable housing is becoming increasingly difficult for more and more individuals and families. Recent studies show that some 95 million United States residents are facing severe housing cost burden or are living in crowded or inadequate conditions. The National Low Income Housing Coalition recently found that in order to afford a market-rate two-bedroom rental unit without spending more than 30 percent of annual income, a full-time worker would need to make $15.21 per hour. The federal minimum wage in the United States is $5.15. The problem is so severe that the 2002 final report of the congressionally appointed Millennial Housing Commission identified affordability as "the single greatest housing challenge facing the nation."

With that challenge in mind, and with support from the Fannie Mae Foundation, APA embarked on a series of scoping sessions during Fall 2004. The purpose of the Housing Choice Scoping Sessions was to get in tune with real world affordable housing problems and opportunities throughout the country. The scoping sessions were held in conjunction with APA chapter conferences in six regions of the country:

1. North Carolina, September 22, 2004

2. Southern New England (MA, RI, CT), September 29, 2004

3. Oregon/Washington, October 6, 2004

4. Midwest (IL, IA, KY, MI, MN, MO, OH, WI), October 12, 2004

5. Texas, October 13, 2004

6. California, October 17, 2004

You will find posted here summaries of each session and an analysis of the themes raised by the sessions based on the session transcripts. APA has also developed a set of affordable housing strategies identified as the most promising tools by session participants. In addition to the Housing Choice Scoping Sessions, the Fannie Mae Foundation also supported the development of an Affordable Housing Reader and a special issue of Practicing Planner.

The work of Housing Choice does not end here. APA plans to expand the effort with another series of scoping sessions, a Planning Advisory Service report on Local Approaches to Affordable Housing, and educational products including an AICP training package.

This project was funded by the Fannie Mae Foundation in order to explore the state of affordable housing planning practice in the United States.

To learn more about Housing Choice, click on the links on the left side of this page or e-mail Lynn M. Ross, AICP, at lross@planning.org.