Lasting Affordability Is the Path to Resilience

These six housing investment strategies will incorporate lasting affordability, racial equity, and resilience into COVID-19 recovery plans.

2 minute read

August 19, 2020, 6:00 AM PDT

By Shelterforce


Affordable Housing

David Joseph Photography / Flickr

During the past few months, local governments have—by necessity—focused on urgent COVID-19 housing responses including eviction moratoriums and emergency rental assistance. Attention must now turn to longer-term COVID recovery strategies. Housing with lasting affordability should be an indispensable feature of any local COVID recovery plan, especially for municipalities that strive for racial equity and resilience. A few municipalities, like Baltimore, are heading proactively in this direction by investing in lasting affordability. It’s time the rest of us do the same.

Lasting affordability is achieved through legal restrictions on land or property that guarantee affordable rents and home prices for low- and moderate-income households for at least 40 years. The term “lasting affordability” also carries an implicit intention for—and mechanisms to support—affordable rents and home prices in perpetuity. Lasting, perpetual, or permanent affordability can be implemented in both rental and ownership housing in any state, although legal guidelines and restrictions slightly vary. Models to achieve this include shared-equity homeownership, community land trusts (CLTs), inclusionary housing policies, limited-equity cooperatives, and deed-restricted housing programs.

Building homes with lasting affordability and converting existing buildings to perpetual affordability must happen incrementally. Housing is one of several urgent public investments facing cash-strapped government agencies. Furthermore, increasing national racial equity and resilience requires an intersectional, cross-sectoral, coordinated approach of which housing is only one piece. That said, too often long-term policy solutions are deprioritized and we focus on those that solve immediate problems, treat a symptom, or earn a vote. Grounded Solutions put forward the following recommendations for new housing investment strategies that will incorporate lasting affordability, racial equity, and resilience into COVID-19 recovery plans.

First ....

Monday, August 3, 2020 in Shelterforce Magazine

portrait of professional woman

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

Cover CM Credits, Earn Certificates, Push Your Career Forward

Logo for Planetizen Federal Action Tracker with black and white image of U.S. Capitol with water ripple overlay.

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker

A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

July 16, 2025 - Diana Ionescu

Green vintage Chicago streetcar from the 1940s parked at the Illinois Railroad Museum in 1988.

Chicago’s Ghost Rails

Just beneath the surface of the modern city lie the remnants of its expansive early 20th-century streetcar system.

July 13, 2025 - WTTV

Blue and silver Amtrak train with vibrant green and yellow foliage in background.

Amtrak Cutting Jobs, Funding to High-Speed Rail

The agency plans to cut 10 percent of its workforce and has confirmed it will not fund new high-speed rail projects.

July 14, 2025 - Smart Cities Dive

Worker in yellow safety vest and hard hat looks up at servers in data center.

Ohio Forces Data Centers to Prepay for Power

Utilities are calling on states to hold data center operators responsible for new energy demands to prevent leaving consumers on the hook for their bills.

July 18 - Inside Climate News

Former MARTA CEO Collie Greenwood standing in front of MARTA HQ with blurred MARTA sign visible in background.

MARTA CEO Steps Down Amid Citizenship Concerns

MARTA’s board announced Thursday that its chief, who is from Canada, is resigning due to questions about his immigration status.

July 18 - WABE

Rendering of proposed protected bikeway in Santa Clara, California.

Silicon Valley ‘Bike Superhighway’ Awarded $14M State Grant

A Caltrans grant brings the 10-mile Central Bikeway project connecting Santa Clara and East San Jose closer to fruition.

July 17 - San José Spotlight