Section 2. Improving the Quality of Housing

Safe, stable, affordable housing is an important part of individual, family, and community well-being. Around the world, many people face housing conditions that are unaffordable, overcrowded, unsafe, inaccessible, insecure, or disconnected from employment, education, transportation, health care, and other community resources.

Improving housing quality therefore involves more than constructing new homes. It includes preserving and repairing existing housing, expanding affordable options, improving accessibility and energy efficiency, supporting housing stability, reducing environmental hazards, and making sure residents have meaningful roles in decisions about the places where they live.

This section focuses particularly on housing that is affordable to households with lower and moderate incomes and others facing housing barriers. We'll look at affordability, livability, design, environmental responsibility, community context, and strategies communities can use to improve and expand housing options.

This video describes neighborhood revitalization efforts in Greater Kansas City, including high-quality housing options, and how the revitalization efforts have improved community life:

What do we mean by improving the quality of housing?

Improving housing quality means creating and maintaining housing that is affordable, safe, healthy, accessible, durable, and responsive to the needs and priorities of the people who live there.

Housing quality is important at every income level, but households with fewer financial resources may have fewer options when housing is unaffordable or poorly maintained. They may have less ability to move, make repairs themselves, or absorb sudden increases in rent, utilities, insurance, or other housing costs.

Environmental considerations apply to housing at every price level. Energy efficiency, water conservation, healthy building materials, appropriate ventilation, climate resilience, and responsible use of resources can benefit residents as well as the wider community.

Affordability

Housing affordability depends on the relationship between housing costs and household resources. In U.S. housing policy and research, spending more than 30% of household income on housing is commonly used as an indicator of housing-cost burden. The measure is useful, but it does not capture every household's circumstances.

Two households spending the same percentage of their income on housing may have very different amounts remaining for food, transportation, health care, childcare, education, utilities, and other needs. Housing affordability should therefore be considered alongside income, household size, local costs, transportation, utilities, and other expenses.

Affordability also involves more than the monthly rent or mortgage payment. Other costs may include:

• Utilities
• Property taxes
• Insurance
• Maintenance and repairs
• Association or building fees
• Transportation associated with the location of the housing

Improving affordability may therefore involve increasing housing supply, preserving existing affordable housing, providing rental or homeownership assistance, reducing unnecessary development costs, improving household income and economic security, or using a combination of approaches.

Livability

Affordable housing should also be healthy, safe, accessible, and suitable for the people who live there.

Quality housing should:

• Be in good repair. Plumbing, electrical systems, heating and cooling, doors, windows, stairs, railings, roofs, and other building systems should function properly. Multi-unit buildings should also receive regular cleaning, maintenance, waste removal, and repair.
• Provide adequate space. Housing should provide sufficient living and sleeping space for the people who live there while respecting household preferences and applicable health and safety standards.
• Protect residents from environmental hazards. Housing should address risks such as lead, asbestos, mold, unsafe levels of radon, contaminated water, carbon monoxide, pests, and harmful building materials.
• Support safety and security. Doors, windows, locks, lighting, electrical systems, fire protection, stairs, railings, and emergency systems should be maintained appropriately.
• Be accessible. Housing should support access for people with disabilities and consider how people's mobility, sensory, communication, and other needs may change over time.
• Be located in healthy and connected environments. Affordable housing should not routinely be concentrated near environmental hazards, unsafe infrastructure, or areas isolated from essential resources simply because the land is less expensive.
• Provide reasonable access to community resources. Transportation, employment, schools, food, health care, recreation, childcare, social services, and other resources all influence whether housing works well for residents.

Design

Good housing design responds to the people who will live there, the surrounding community, the climate, available resources, accessibility, and the expected life of the building.

Four useful principles are:

• Housing should meet residents' needs
• Housing should respond thoughtfully to its physical, social, cultural, and historical context
• Housing should contribute positively to the surrounding community
• Housing should be durable and designed for long-term use

Housing should meet residents' needs

Consider:

• Size. Units should provide enough space for the households they are intended to serve.
• Layout. Space should be functional, accessible, and adaptable. Storage, kitchens, bathrooms, entrances, circulation, and other features should reflect how residents actually use the home.
• Shared and outdoor spaces. Where appropriate, housing can include safe outdoor areas, seating, shade, play areas, community rooms, gardens, or other shared spaces identified as useful by residents.
• Location. Housing should be connected, as reasonably possible, with transportation, employment, schools, food, health care, recreation, and other community resources.

Housing should understand and respond to its context

• Design should consider climate, sunlight, shade, wind, drainage, vegetation, topography, environmental hazards, and other characteristics of the site.
• New housing should consider the scale, materials, streets, public spaces, and other features of the surrounding area without requiring every building to look the same.
• Cultural and historical context should be understood through community participation rather than assumptions about how a particular racial, ethnic, or cultural community "should" look. Residents and local organizations can help identify which architectural features, public spaces, history, art, or cultural traditions are meaningful.

Housing should contribute positively to its neighborhood

• Good design, landscaping, maintenance, accessibility, and connections to surrounding streets can contribute to a comfortable and welcoming neighborhood environment.
• Mixed-use development, public spaces, sidewalks, local businesses, and gathering areas may help create opportunities for social interaction and everyday activity.
• New housing can add residents, customers, investment, and activity to an area, but planning should also consider affordability, displacement, and how existing residents and businesses will experience the change.
• Housing improvements can demonstrate continued investment in a neighborhood and support resident-led efforts to maintain and strengthen community spaces. Avoid assuming, however, that a building's appearance determines residents' attitudes or commitment to their community.

Housing should be built to last

Durable housing can reduce repair costs, conserve resources, improve safety, and help preserve affordable housing over time.

• Use durable materials appropriate to the climate and expected use.
• Consider maintenance requirements as well as the initial cost of materials.
• Use appropriate construction techniques and quality-control practices.
• Design high-use areas, entrances, shared spaces, and building systems for the amount and type of use they are expected to receive.

Building materials and technologies change over time. Evaluate durability, maintenance, health effects, environmental impact, repairability, and total cost rather than assuming that a newer or more expensive material is automatically better.

Environmental responsibility

Environmentally responsible housing uses energy, water, land, and materials efficiently while supporting healthy indoor environments and reducing harmful effects on surrounding communities and ecosystems.

Strategies may include:

• Using durable, lower-toxicity, recycled, renewable, or responsibly sourced building materials where appropriate
• Designing buildings in response to climate, sunlight, shade, wind, vegetation, and site conditions
• Using effective insulation, energy-efficient windows, and other building-envelope strategies while providing adequate ventilation and moisture control
• Providing appropriate natural or mechanical ventilation and allowing residents reasonable control of their indoor environment
• Reducing energy use through efficient lighting, appliances, heating and cooling systems, building design, and renewable-energy technologies where appropriate
• Using cool roofs, green roofs, shade, stormwater management, rainwater collection, or other strategies appropriate to the building and climate
• Conserving water through efficient fixtures, landscaping, water reuse where safe and permitted, and other conservation measures
• Locating housing near public transportation, services, and everyday destinations when possible
• Providing safe, accessible connections for walking, bicycling, and other forms of mobility
• Reducing unnecessary disturbance to soil, vegetation, wetlands, waterways, habitat, and other important site features
• Protecting water supplies, managing construction waste responsibly, and reducing harmful materials and pollution
• Reclaiming brownfields. Former industrial or commercial sites may sometimes be cleaned and safely reused for housing or other community purposes. Appropriate environmental assessment, remediation, regulation, and long-term monitoring are important when contamination is present.
• Reusing existing buildings. Mills, warehouses, schools, offices, and other structures may sometimes be adapted for housing, preserving existing resources and community history.
• Rehabilitating vacant or deteriorated buildings. Structurally sound buildings may be restored for housing rather than demolished, reducing waste while returning unused properties to productive use.
• Infilling. Building on vacant or underused sites within already-developed areas can make use of existing infrastructure and reduce pressure to develop open land.
• Preserving shared open space. Development can sometimes cluster housing so that a larger portion of a site remains available as shared green or open space.

Social and community effects

Housing policy and development can influence social connection, access to opportunity, residential stability, segregation, displacement, and community identity.

Communities should avoid assuming that the goal is to change the aspirations, behavior, or culture of residents with lower incomes. Instead, the focus should be on whether people have meaningful housing choices, whether different communities have equitable access to resources and opportunity, and whether housing development supports stability and belonging.

Approaches may include:

• Mixed-income development. Housing may include units available at several income levels. Successful mixed-income development should provide comparable quality, meaningful affordability, resident protections, accessible shared spaces, and equal treatment regardless of how a household's unit is financed.
• Mixed-use development. Housing may be combined with stores, services, offices, recreation, or other community uses. This can make everyday destinations more accessible and create more activity throughout the day.
• Housing for older adults and people with disabilities. Housing may include accessible design, supportive services, transportation, emergency-response systems, social opportunities, or other features that help residents live as independently as they choose.
• Co-housing and other shared-community models. Households maintain private living space while sharing selected common areas, facilities, responsibilities, or activities. Residents typically participate in decisions about how the community operates.
• Expanding housing choice across neighborhoods. Affordable housing can be developed and preserved in areas with strong access to employment, transportation, education, recreation, health care, and other resources while investment also continues in communities that have historically received fewer resources.

Finding the resources and support for getting it done

Improving housing quality often requires funding, land, policy decisions, technical expertise, community participation, and long-term coordination.

Useful partners may include residents, housing organizations, developers, architects, contractors, lenders, funders, public agencies, community organizations, disability organizations, neighborhood groups, and others affected by the project.

Why improve the quality of housing?

Housing influences health, economic security, education, transportation, safety, community connection, and quality of life. Improving housing can create benefits for residents and communities, although those benefits depend on how development is planned and who is able to remain in or access the improved housing.

• It can improve health and quality of life. Safe, well-maintained housing can reduce exposure to environmental hazards, provide stability, and create more comfortable living conditions.
• It can strengthen household financial stability. Affordable housing can leave households with more resources for food, health care, transportation, education, childcare, savings, and other needs.
• It can demonstrate continued investment in a community. Repairing housing and infrastructure can strengthen existing neighborhoods when improvements are planned with residents and do not unnecessarily displace them.
• It can reduce environmental impact. Energy-efficient, durable, climate-responsive housing can reduce resource use and operating costs while improving indoor comfort and health.
• Good construction can reduce long-term maintenance and repair needs. Durable materials, preventative maintenance, and quality construction may reduce future costs for owners, residents, and public agencies.
• Housing location can expand access to opportunity. Housing connected to employment, education, transportation, childcare, health care, and other resources can make participation in community and economic life easier.
• It can reuse existing land and buildings. Rehabilitation, infill development, adaptive reuse, and other approaches can preserve existing resources while reducing pressure to develop open land.
• It can preserve and modernize existing housing. Some buildings can be repaired or adapted rather than replaced. Others may need substantial reconstruction or replacement when they can no longer be maintained safely.
• It can help communities prepare for changing housing needs. Population changes, household size, aging, disability, migration, employment patterns, climate conditions, and other factors can affect what kinds of housing are needed.
• It supports dignity and well-being. People benefit from having housing that protects them from the elements, supports privacy and safety, and provides a stable place to live.

Housing improvement can also increase property values and attract investment. Those outcomes may benefit property owners and local governments, but they can create challenges if rents, taxes, or other costs rise faster than existing residents can afford. Housing strategies should therefore consider displacement and housing stability alongside investment.

When should you improve the quality of housing?

Housing quality should be monitored and improved over time rather than addressed only after conditions become severe.

Some particularly useful opportunities include:

• When community planning or development is underway. Comprehensive plans, neighborhood plans, transportation projects, redevelopment, infrastructure improvements, and major private development can provide opportunities to consider affordability, accessibility, housing supply, environmental responsibility, and displacement.
• When assessments identify unmet housing needs. Housing-condition data, resident surveys, homelessness data, rent or home-price changes, waiting lists, code complaints, overcrowding, eviction patterns, or other information may show where additional action is needed.
• When housing conditions create urgent health or safety concerns. Building failures, loss of heating or cooling, environmental hazards, displacement, homelessness, extreme weather, or other emergencies may require immediate action as well as longer-term solutions.
• Before a crisis develops. Communities do not have to wait for housing conditions to reach an emergency. Regular planning and maintenance can identify shortages, deterioration, accessibility needs, or affordability pressures early.
• When funding or other resources become available. Public, philanthropic, nonprofit, or private resources may provide opportunities to preserve, rehabilitate, or develop housing.

Who should be involved in improving the quality of housing?

Quality housing is more likely to meet community needs when the people who will live in it and the people affected by development have meaningful opportunities to participate throughout planning, design, implementation, and evaluation.

Possible participants include:

• Developers. Developers contribute knowledge about financing, land, construction, design, permitting, schedules, and project feasibility.
• Lenders and financial institutions. Financing strongly affects whether projects and homeownership opportunities are possible. Lending practices should be transparent, responsible, and consistent with applicable fair-lending requirements.
• Local and state officials and public agencies. Public institutions may control zoning, permitting, infrastructure, public land, funding, building standards, housing programs, or other parts of the development process.
• Funders. Government agencies, foundations, financial institutions, nonprofit organizations, and other funders may provide grants, loans, subsidies, guarantees, or other support.
• Neighbors and surrounding communities. People already living or working nearby can identify transportation, infrastructure, school, environmental, cultural, and other local considerations.
• Current and prospective residents. People who will live in the housing can identify priorities related to design, accessibility, affordability, shared spaces, transportation, services, security, and daily use.
• Housing and community organizations. Tenant organizations, neighborhood groups, housing nonprofits, homelessness organizations, disability organizations, community development organizations, and others may contribute lived and professional knowledge.
• Architects, planners, engineers, contractors, and other technical professionals. These participants can help translate resident and community priorities into safe, durable, accessible, and feasible designs.
• Media and community communication organizations. These organizations can help the public understand housing conditions and proposed projects while maintaining their independent editorial roles.

Participation should not be treated primarily as a way to turn critics into supporters. People may raise legitimate concerns about affordability, displacement, traffic, accessibility, public costs, environmental effects, or other issues. Those concerns can improve a project when they are examined seriously.

How do you improve the quality of housing?

Communities have many tools for improving housing, including planning, rehabilitation, new development, public investment, incentives, regulations, financing, land policy, tenant protections, partnerships, and community-led development.

The appropriate combination depends on local housing conditions, laws, resources, land availability, market conditions, resident priorities, and the type of housing being considered.

Individuals can contribute by learning about local housing conditions, participating in planning processes, joining housing or neighborhood organizations, sharing reliable information, attending public meetings, and supporting community-led housing efforts.

When public policy is involved, learn which agency or governing body has authority, what formal process applies, and how community members can participate. Keep attention on the housing issue, evidence, community experience, and practical alternatives rather than relying primarily on personal influence.

General guidelines

• Conduct an assessment of community housing needs and assets. Examine housing supply, cost, condition, accessibility, vacancies, homelessness and housing instability, transportation, environmental conditions, infrastructure, displacement pressures, available land, existing buildings, community organizations, and resident priorities. Ask people experiencing the housing conditions directly what works, what creates barriers, and what they need.
• Encourage meaningful participation. Residents, neighbors, developers, architects, public agencies, service organizations, and others can contribute different kinds of knowledge. Participation should begin early enough to influence important decisions rather than occurring only after major plans have already been completed.
• Consider inclusion and community context. Examine who currently lives in the area, who may be able to access the new housing, whether existing residents are at risk of displacement, how the project reflects community priorities, and how people with different backgrounds and needs can participate fully.
• Strive for equity. Affordable housing should receive the same attention to health, safety, accessibility, durability, design quality, and community connection as other housing.
• Consider the impact of development on surrounding infrastructure and services. Examine schools, childcare, transportation, utilities, parks, health care, food access, recreation, emergency services, traffic, walking and bicycling connections, and other community resources.
• Plan housing around residents' needs. Resident participation can help identify which features are essential, which are less important, and how limited resources can be used most effectively.
• Consider a range of housing models. Adaptive reuse, cooperative housing, community land trusts, accessory units, mixed-use development, shared-equity homeownership, infill, supportive housing, and other models may fit different community needs.
• Plan fair and accessible outreach. Provide clear information about eligibility, applications, rents or purchase costs, accessibility, financing, and available assistance. Outreach and screening practices should be transparent, nondiscriminatory, and accessible in relevant languages and formats.

Provide incentives for housing development and preservation

Governments may use incentives when they want to encourage housing that meets identified community goals. The types and availability of incentives vary by jurisdiction.

Possible approaches include:

• Tax incentives. Tax reductions, credits, abatements, or other tax policies may be used to support qualifying affordable housing, rehabilitation, accessibility, energy efficiency, or other community goals.
• Subsidies and financial assistance. Public resources may support renters, homeowners, developers, rehabilitation, land costs, infrastructure, or other components of housing affordability.
• Grant funding. Governments, foundations, nonprofits, and other funders may provide grants for construction, preservation, rehabilitation, planning, accessibility, energy improvements, or community development.
• Public land. Publicly owned property may sometimes be used for affordable or community-serving housing under appropriate public processes and conditions.
• Infrastructure support. Public agencies may invest in roads, sidewalks, transit, water, sewer, utilities, parks, or other infrastructure connected with housing development.
• Efficient permitting and review. Clear, coordinated, and timely review processes can reduce unnecessary delays while maintaining health, safety, accessibility, environmental, and community protections.
• Project coordination. Communities may assign staff or provide technical assistance to help housing projects navigate permitting, financing, infrastructure, and other public processes.
• Flexible development standards. Where permitted and appropriate, communities may adjust requirements involving density, height, parking, setbacks, or other development standards when doing so advances housing goals without creating unacceptable health, safety, accessibility, environmental, or community impacts.
• Place-based development incentives. Some jurisdictions provide additional support for investment in areas identified for housing, infrastructure, or economic development. Program names and requirements change over time, so use current official guidance.

Connect public incentives with clear community benefits

When public resources are used to support private development, agreements can clarify what the community receives in return and how requirements will be monitored.

Depending on local law and the project, these might include:

• A specified number or percentage of homes affordable to households at identified income levels
• Environmental or energy-performance standards
• Agreed construction, durability, accessibility, or design requirements
• Cleanup and safe reuse of a contaminated site
• Protection of environmentally sensitive land or other important site features
• Long-term affordability requirements or other mechanisms designed to preserve affordability over time
• Housing contributions connected with larger development agreements where allowed by law
• Development in areas identified through community planning
• Connections to public transportation or other mobility options
• Infrastructure, parks, trees, sidewalks, or other improvements connected with the project

Requirements should be clear before development begins and should include appropriate monitoring and accountability.

Use regulations and development standards where appropriate

Housing regulations can establish minimum standards and help communities manage development. They can also add cost or complexity, so requirements should be reviewed periodically to determine whether they remain necessary and effective.

Depending on local and state law, policy approaches may include:

• Inclusionary housing policies. Some jurisdictions require or encourage a portion of housing in certain developments to be affordable to households at specified income levels.
• Development fees or housing contributions. Some jurisdictions use fees or other requirements associated with development to help address infrastructure or housing needs created by growth.
• Dedicated housing revenue. Where authorized, public revenue may be directed toward affordable housing, rehabilitation, land acquisition, rental assistance, or other housing purposes.
• Building and environmental standards. Communities may require energy, safety, accessibility, environmental, resilience, or other standards appropriate to the project and jurisdiction.

Communities should evaluate both the intended benefits and possible effects of housing regulations, including how they influence construction costs, housing supply, accessibility, environmental quality, and affordability.

Use public resources to support housing

Local, state, Tribal, territorial, and federal governments may support housing through construction, preservation, rental assistance, financing, land, infrastructure, grants, tax policy, or partnerships.

• Publicly supported housing. Public agencies and their partners can provide housing affordable to households that the private market does not adequately serve. Quality depends on adequate funding, responsive management, maintenance, resident participation, safety, accessibility, and accountability.
• Community land trusts. Community land trusts can hold land for affordable housing or other community purposes while using ownership structures designed to preserve affordability over time.
• Use of public land. Publicly owned property may be made available for housing when doing so aligns with community plans and applicable public processes.

Expand access to responsible financing and housing information

Financing can be a significant barrier to homeownership, rehabilitation, and affordable-housing development.

• Work with lenders and community financial institutions. Communities can encourage transparent, responsible, and fair lending and can connect residents and developers with financing programs appropriate to their circumstances.
• Help buyers understand current financing options. Federal, state, local, Tribal, nonprofit, and lender programs may provide mortgage insurance, down-payment assistance, rehabilitation financing, counseling, or other support. Because programs and eligibility change, use current official information.
• Provide voluntary housing and financial education. Housing counseling can help people understand leases, mortgages, interest rates, closing costs, credit, maintenance expenses, available assistance, tenant or borrower rights, and the long-term costs associated with housing decisions.

Education should expand people's information and options rather than imply that housing instability results from residents lacking basic life skills. High housing costs, low wages, discrimination, limited supply, disability, health expenses, predatory lending, job loss, and other structural and individual circumstances can all affect housing stability.

Residents should not be required to adopt a particular lifestyle, culture, or set of social behaviors in order to be treated as capable members of a new housing community.

• Use self-help and shared-equity approaches where appropriate. Some programs allow prospective homeowners to contribute labor to construction or rehabilitation as one part of reducing costs. Participation, accessibility, safety, and the amount of labor required should be considered carefully so that these models do not exclude people who cannot perform construction work.

Cooperative housing offers another model. Residents may collectively own or govern a multi-unit property and establish agreements about decision-making, maintenance, finances, shared spaces, and what happens when a resident leaves. Clear governance and participation expectations are important.

Join in a collaborative development process

Housing development benefits from collaboration among people who bring different kinds of knowledge.

Residents and neighbors can explain how the area functions in everyday life. Architects and planners can translate priorities into design. Contractors and suppliers can explain construction and maintenance implications. Developers and lenders can contribute financing and project-management knowledge. Public officials and agencies can clarify infrastructure, permitting, legal, and funding requirements.

Collaboration does not mean that everyone must agree or that participation should be used simply to build support for a predetermined project. A meaningful process allows plans to change when residents, technical experts, or other participants identify better alternatives or important unintended consequences.

Participate in housing policy and community decision-making

Affordable housing often depends on public and private funding, land-use decisions, infrastructure, financing, and community support. Residents and organizations can participate in those decisions through established planning, budgeting, regulatory, administrative, and civic processes.

Public education can help people understand housing conditions, available alternatives, costs, benefits, and tradeoffs. Media and community communication, public meetings, neighborhood organizations, resident associations, research, and accessible information can all contribute to informed participation.

Organizations may also use research into foundations, public programs, financial institutions, nonprofit partners, and other funding sources when developing housing initiatives.

Policy and funding discussions should clearly distinguish evidence, community experience, proposed recommendations, costs, and uncertainties. People affected by a proposed housing decision should have meaningful opportunities to participate without being expected to support a predetermined outcome.

Continue monitoring housing needs and quality

Housing conditions change over time. Buildings age, household needs shift, rents and ownership costs change, populations grow or decline, environmental conditions change, and new technologies and housing models become available.

Continue asking:

• Is housing safe, healthy, and well maintained?
• Is it affordable to the households it is intended to serve?
• Are accessibility needs being met?
• Are residents able to remain in their homes and communities if they want to?
• Are some neighborhoods experiencing greater environmental or infrastructure burdens than others?
• Are public investments and housing opportunities distributed fairly?
• Do residents have meaningful ways to raise concerns and influence decisions?
• Are affordability requirements being maintained over time?
• Are new housing needs emerging?

The goal is not simply to produce more housing units. It is to create and maintain housing that supports stability, health, accessibility, dignity, opportunity, and community life.

In Summary

Improving housing quality means more than making housing less expensive. Quality housing should be affordable, safe, healthy, accessible, durable, environmentally responsible, and connected with the resources people need in everyday life.

Housing strategies may include preserving and rehabilitating existing homes, building new housing, adapting unused buildings, supporting mixed-income and mixed-use development, expanding responsible financing, investing public resources, improving infrastructure, preserving long-term affordability, and using incentives or regulations where appropriate.

Housing development also has broader community effects. Investment can improve buildings and infrastructure, but it can also increase costs or contribute to displacement if existing residents are not considered. Planning should therefore examine both benefits and burdens and include residents early enough for their participation to influence important decisions.

Strong housing efforts bring together current and prospective residents, neighbors, community organizations, developers, lenders, public agencies, funders, and technical professionals. No single participant has all the knowledge needed to determine what good housing should look like.

The long-term goal is to create communities where people with different incomes, ages, abilities, household structures, and backgrounds have meaningful housing choices and can live in homes that support their health, stability, dignity, and quality of life.