Creating "truly affordable housing"

It is a global tragedy that all people do not have access to adequate, affordable shelter.  The United Nations estimates over 100 million people worldwide are homeless and at least another 1.1 billion are inadequately housed.  These numbers are alarming in themselves, but they are especially alarming in light of the long history of international declarations aimed at ensuring universal access to adequate, affordable housing - a right that governments have been unable to guarantee or protect.  In developing nations, perhaps an argument can be made that there is not enough wealth to ensure everyone is adequately housed, although that is questionable, but, in developed nations, there is no shortage of national wealth. 

Affordable housing (and all housing needs to be affordable housing) is a planetary birthright.  And yet, in our modern, market-oriented societies, housing is viewed as a commodity.  This view is in stark contrast to the fundamental human experience of housing as a basic need and a foundation of community and sense of belonging. 

Everyone needs affordable housing in order to survive.  In fact, I want to go even further than that and point out that future generations need us to create truly affordable housing so they will be able to survive.  What do I mean by “truly affordable housing”?  I mean housing that is both financially affordable for individual households and socially/environmentally affordable for society in general. 

Housing is financially affordable if it costs no more than a certain percentage of monthly household income (typically 30 – 35 per cent, although these numbers vary depending on the context).  Housing is socially/environmentally affordable if it is consistent with the Brundtland Commission’s definition of sustainable (i.e., it “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”).  Truly affordable housing does not impose a financial, social or environmental cost on future generations that would limit their ability to meet their needs. 

How are we doing so far?