“With a strong economy, a cruel irony: we actually have the greatest
need for affordable housing in the nation’s history.”
Andrew
Cuomo, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
In the United States today, as many as 50 million households carry rent
payments or mortgages and other housing related expenses that exceed their
ability to pay. Many are under-housed or have no housing at all. Very
low-income working-class Americans are finding it difficult to find and
keep their homes. Low cost housing options, such as public housing and
single room occupancy hotels, are being demolished more rapidly than new
units are produced. Over the past several decades, affordable housing
needs continue to grow and exceed the production of new and renovated
units.
As Roberta Feldman explains, “It is not surprising that many of the
Center’s community-based partners have requested assistance in developing
innovative and effective low-cost housing - it is a vital need.”
The Center has been working with non-profit housing providers and low-income
community residents to support households that are struggling to keep
and improve their homes as well as those organizations seeking to develop
exemplary affordable housing design and planning strategies.
