NMHC and NYU SPS Release Groundbreaking Housing Affordability Toolkit

Not Tomorrow but Today: Project Highlights Steps Policymakers Can Take Now to Solve Nation’s Housing Affordability Challenges in This Generation

WASHINGTON & NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Housing affordability is the single most important issue for the vast majority of Americans.

The National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC), in partnership with the NYU Urban Lab at the Schack Institute of Real Estate, has released The Housing Affordability Toolkit, a sweeping policy resource outlining a flexible roadmap for addressing the nation’s rental housing affordability crisis.

This Toolkit is explicitly crafted to put forward actionable solutions that will improve affordability, expand supply and create more choices for residents.

Housing challenges are especially acute for those in the most economic need and this Toolkit presents pathways to alleviate those critical shortages while improving housing for families and individuals across the nation and at all income levels.

“For generations, Americans have accepted housing affordability as a problem to be managed, not solved,” said Sharon Wilson Géno, NMHC President. “This Toolkit rejects that premise entirely.

“With the right combination of deregulation, targeted affordability support and preservation strategies, the math shows we can close the gap for all 22.4 million rent-burdened households within 17 years. The time is now for lawmakers at all levels of government to take action on behalf of not just those in need of housing today, but for decades to come.”

Drawing on the latest available housing data as well as original analysis, the Toolkit examines potential strategies to improve housing affordability and address the needs of the more than 22.4 million rent-burdened households in the U.S.—roughly half of all renters).

The Toolkit recommends a three-part strategy:

• Creating and preserving lower-cost housing that does not rely on government subsidies, including naturally occurring affordable housing (older or lower-cost homes that remain affordable because of market conditions).
• Reducing barriers to housing development by enacting strategies such as streamlining development timelines and using targeted tools such as tax abatements to increase rental supply and expand rental options.
• Developing new public-private participation programs to support the development of new affordable housing and help more households access existing and newly built housing.

The Toolkit also recognizes that increasing housing supply alone will not solve affordability challenges for everyone. For many households with the lowest incomes, housing remains out of reach even when more homes are available. The analysis estimates that approximately 10.1 million renter households are “subsidy-dependent” (earning too little to afford housing without public assistance regardless of supply conditions) and makes the case for significantly expanding both the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) and income assistance programs to help these households access stable, affordable homes.

“The data make clear that the rental affordability crisis is not one problem — it’s several, each requiring its own set of tools,” said Dr. Caitlin Sugrue Walter, Senior Vice President of Research and Innovation, NMHC. “From the 10.1 million subsidy-dependent households who will never be served by the private market alone, to the millions more burdened by undersupply, this Toolkit maps the scale of each challenge and pairs it with evidence-based policy solutions. Regulatory costs alone account for more than 40 percent of the cost of building a new apartment. That number demands a policy response.”

“Housing affordability will not change unless we change our approach. The numbers are too big to spin: 22.4 million rent-burdened households, 10.1 million households that can’t even afford to pay utility costs,” said Matthew Kwatinetz, Clinical Associate Professor and Director of the NYU Urban Lab, and Toolkit author. “Relying on a tax credit-only path still takes 157 years in the best case. It is longer than the span since World War II and the resulting Great Society programs.”

“This Toolkit is about doing something different — creating an executable plan that aligns public and private action instead of substituting blame for progress,” added Kwatinetz.

View an Executive Summary of the Toolkit here.

View the full NMHC Affordability Toolkit here.

*Metro-level Time to Address (TTA) analysis—a new metric measuring how long a given policy would take to reduce rent burden at scale—and naturally occurring affordable housing (NOAH) market data are available for all 50 of the largest U.S. metropolitan statistical areas. Reach out for market-specific figures.

About the National Multifamily Housing Council

Based in Washington, D.C., the National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC) is where rental housers and suppliers come together to help meet America’s housing needs by creating inclusive and resilient communities where people build their lives. We bring together the owners, managers, developers and suppliers who provide rental homes for 40 million Americans from every walk of life—including seniors, teachers, firefighters, healthcare workers, families with children and many others. NMHC provides a forum for leadership and advocacy that promotes thriving rental housing communities for all. For more information, contact NMHC at 202/974-2300, email the Council at [e-mail], or visit NMHC's website at nmhc.org.

About the NYU SPS Schack Institute of Real Estate

The NYU SPS Schack Institute of Real Estate was founded in 1967 by prominent members of the New York City real estate community, who encouraged NYU to establish an academic center that would provide a world-class education for industry professionals. More than 50 years later, the Schack Institute remains at the forefront of real estate education, recognized globally as one of the world’s leading centers for real estate research and practical, real-world learning.