Calculating the True Cost of Affordable Housing
It isn't just the rent that can make a particular place affordable or unaffordable. How much it costs to get out of the house and to work, school or other destinations has a huge impact as well. Car ownership is expensive; walking is practically free. About half of affordable housing residents spend more than 15% of their income on transportation, and it is worse in places where sprawl dominates.
“As defined by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, affordable housing costs less than 30 percent of a household’s income. But when necessary transportation costs—gas prices, car maintenance, monthly transit passes, etc.—are added into the mix, those percentages go way, way up.”