Growth FAQ - Planning & Zoning

What is affordable housing?

Planetizen.com notes that "The term affordable housing refers to housing units that cost less than a predetermined percentage of household incomes. Planners use affordable housing as a general term to describe housing that doesn't put an excessive financial burden on occupants. Affordable housing is a relative term that defines affordability based on a household's income. Thus, the threshold for what counts as "affordable" varies widely by city and state."

What qualifies as affordable housing is typically expressed as what can be paid based on a percentage of household median income. In Tallahassee, Sec. 1-2, TLDC, defines "affordable housing" as follows:

"Housing units available to very low, low, and moderate income households at a cost which neither constitutes a financial hardship to the household nor exceeds the ability of the household to pay the monthly mortgage or rent payment. The classification of households will be stated in terms of their relation to the most recent estimate by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development of median household income for the Tallahassee Metropolitan Statistical Area, as follows: a.) Very Low Income = ≤ 50 percent of median household income; b.) Low Income = 50-80 percent of median household income; and c.) Moderate Income = 80-120 percent of median household income"