About ACHP 
ACHP News
National Historic
Preservation
Program
Working with
Section 106
Federal, State, & Tribal Programs
Training & Education
Publications
Search
Home
News
ACHP Posts Policy Statement on Affordable Housing and Historic Preservation
Council members of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation adopted an Affordable Housing Policy after two years of task force meetings and information gathering. The final policy came following extensive negotiation among task force members including the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which will take the lead in implementing the plan. The ACHP will post updates on its Web site periodically of best practices, case studies, and related articles to illustrate how practitioners are applying the policy statement.
In 2005, the ACHP established an Affordable Housing Task Force to re-evaluate existing approaches to historic preservation and affordable housing. The task force sought to address the question of how to balance the pressing national need for an expanded supply of affordable housing with the requirements of historic preservation reviews when federal assistance is included in project funding.
A primary goal of the task force’s work was to revisit the ACHP’s 1995 Policy Statement on Affordable Housing and Historic Preservation to assess its effectiveness in light of 10 years of use and recent changes in the Section 106 regulations. Following a series of efforts to gather information from the field and obtain public input, the task force presented a revised policy statement, which was adopted by the ACHP on November 9, 2006. Notice of the adoption of the new policy statement was posted in the Federal Register (PDF) on February 15, 2007.The task force also drafted a plan for the implementation of the policy statement to begin upon its adoption. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) will take the lead in implementing the plan by developing a brochure that includes the language of the revised policy statement and hosting a roundtable discussion about the policy with affordable housing providers and historic preservation experts in 2007.