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Smart Growth and Affordable Housing
Background
Housing is a critical part of the way communities grow. Not only does it constitute a significant share of new construction and development, it also has dramatic environmental and economic effects for individual households and entire communities. The true cost of housing is more than just the rent or mortgage payment—it also includes the costs of the energy it takes to run the home and the transportation residents need to get from their home to work, school, shopping, and other destinations. When few transportation options exist, requiring people to rely on their cars to get around, rising energy and oil costs can make the true cost of housing dramatically—and unpredictably—more expensive. Likewise, when housing is constructed at low densities in a far-flung location, the negative environmental impacts associated with its construction, site stormwater runoff, and movement between home, shopping, schools, and work are compounded.
Some of the smart growth approaches that can help communities provide more affordable housing while protecting environmental resources include:
- Increasing the supply of attached, smaller, and/or live-work units by reducing or eliminating minimum lot, setback, or square footage requirements;
- Locating new housing in transit-rich corridors, where it is easier for people to walk, bike, or ride bus or rail to meet their daily needs;
- Strengthening existing housing stock by supporting reinvestment in existing neighborhood schools, infrastructure, and commercial and recreational amenities;
- Linking community goals of natural resource conservation and affordable housing by supporting efforts to locate low- or moderate-income housing near job centers, thereby reducing development pressure on critical environmental resources at the urban fringe; or
- Incorporating sustainable elements into site and building design that lower utility costs through better capture, use, and reuse of water and solar energy.
EPA Resources
Affordable Housing and Smart Growth: Making the Connection (PDF) (57 pp, 2.5 MB, About PDF), Smart Growth Network, November 2001.
Send your name and address to smartgrowth@epa.gov for a free hard copy.
This report provides case studies of towns, cities, and states that have linked smart growth with affordable housing. Among the policies and approaches featured are: reuse of vacant properties and land, flexible land use policies, regional fair-share housing agreements, the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, increased affordability through reduced transportation costs, the federal HOPE VI program to construct mixed-income housing, and community land trusts. The approaches discussed represent a range of options for public, private, and nonprofit sector members to consider as they pursue smart growth and work toward affordable housing goals in their communities.
Other Resources
Center for Neighborhood Technology, Housing and Transportation Affordability Calculator. 
The Conservation Fund, “Conservation-Based Affordable Housing Report”. June 2006.
KnowledgePlex Expert Chat, Green Affordable/Workforce Housing and Green Neighborhoods.
National Association of Realtors, “On Common Ground: The Sustainable Future” (PDF) (64 pp, 2.5 MB). Summer 2008.
New Jersey's Rehabilitation Subcode
Planning Advisory Service 513/514: Regional Approaches to Affordable Housing, by Stuart Meck, FAICP, Rebecca Retzlaff, AICP, and James Schwab, AICP. 2003. 271pp. Available through the American Planning Association.
Planning Advisory Service 516: Jobs-Housing Balance, by Jerry Weitz, AICP. 2003. Available through the American Planning Association.