What is Affordable Housing?

Homelessness is one of the major problems faced by the government of the United States of America and a lot of steps are being taken by it in order to overcome the problem. An initiative has been taken by Obama administration to cater this problem and has been named as Affordable Housing.  These local housing authority locations help people of all walks of life find affordable housing.  Households that spend more than thirty percent of their income on their accommodation are considered incapable of easily meeting other necessities of life.

A family that has a single bread earner cannot afford the rent of a two-bedroom apartment as fifty percent of the annual income goes into housing. In order to accommodate such families who strive to meet the basic demands of living, affordable housing has been started to make the quality of living much better for them.

The Support Programs:

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has two plans that cater to the housing needs of people falling in different criteria:

1. The HOME Investments Partnership Program (HOME):

This is a program in which the federal government grants funds to local governments and states which start working in their assigned territories. This has been designed exclusively to cater low-income households so that affordable housing becomes easily accessible to them. Following are the activities that are monitored and executed in this program:

• Building, buying or rehabilitating homes for renting out or selling them to the concerned families.
• Making way for direct rental system for the low-income families

2. The National Housing Trust Fund (HTF):

This one is for families with extremely low incomes or living below the poverty line. They work for construction or reconstruction of housing for such families so that they can also focus on attaining other necessities of life.

Assistance is provided to everybody whether looking for buying or renting a house. Youth, veterans, and anybody who has been chronically hit with homelessness can find solace in this program. People who have been struck by any natural disaster like hurricane Sandy are also catered by it. They work to find people who are in desperate need and welcome suggestions from people who know somebody suffering from homelessness around them.

This is an ultimate step taken by the government to meet one of the most important needs of its people by coming in direct contact with them. They provide easy ways to be contacted so; any organization looking for affordable housing for low-income families can come in contact with them easily and help in providing a shelter to suffering fellow citizens.