Making Inclusionary Housing More Flexible: Four Ideas for Urban Settings - July 30, 2015

As inclusionary housing becomes more popular in urban settings with high land costs and high construction costs, workable alternatives to on-site affordability requirements and other forms of policy flexibility are becoming increasingly important. A new brief released by the center for Housing Policy at the National Housing Conference presents four ideas for improving the flexibility of inclusionary housing - while at the same time promoting mixed-income neighborhoods.
 
The policy brief, Making Inclusionary Housing More Flexible: Four Ideas for Urban Settings, outlines how places such as San Diego, Montgomery County, Md., Boston and Boulder, Colo. are extending more compliance options to developers by:

  1. Permitting off-site development in multiple low-poverty neighborhoods
  2. Offering options to preserve or increase the affordability of existing housing
  3. Allowing in-lieu fees while restricting where they can be spent and
  4. Providing greater flexibility on the incomes that can be served through the program.

Click here to download the report and learn more about new ways for ensuring the workability of inclusionary housing policies in high-cost, urban settings.