Housing is affordable if it costs 30% or less of a household’s before-tax income. Affordable housing can be provided by the private, public and non-profit sectors and can be in the form of rental, ownership and co-operative ownership, as well as temporary and permanent housing. Source.
*This is the definition and standard used by the Starts With Home campaign. Many groups or organizations consider affordable housing to be based on Average Market Rent or another metric. We know that when housing prices far outstrip the income people make, the “average market rent” does not reflect what a household can afford in reality. In contrast, if all households truly paid only 30% of their income on housing - whatever that income is - it could significantly reduce poverty, as housing is often one of the largest items in a household budget.
