Finding a place for affordable accessible housing

Abstract

Studying affordable housing is like exploring the ocean; it is inadequate to examine one section of the area in depth without contextualizing its broader environment, nor is it preferable in only understanding the ocean at a surface level. There is no one affordable housing crisis, nor is there one solution to these crises. The depth and breadth of the study of affordable housing is perhaps why municipal governments see affordable housing as a brick wall, such as planners I have spoken to over my two years of deep sea diving through this complex topic. During this time I have learned that affordable housing is about more than funding for social housing projects and rent subsidies. There exists opportunities to supply much needed affordable accessible housing (AAH) at the market level by enabling developers to reach this undersupplied demographic of homeowner or renter.