Achieving Lasting Affordability through Inclusionary Housing
Case study
Report
This report from the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy analyzes 20 inclusionary housing programs to examine strategies for preserving affordable homes over multiple generations.

This Resource at a Glance
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11 File
Key take-aways:
- Achieving lasting affordability requires strong legal mechanisms, carefully designed resale restrictions, pre-purchase and post-purchase stewardship practices, and strategic partnerships.
- Inclusionary properties are sometimes lost due to illegal sales, foreclosure, or lax rental management practices.
- Nearly 500 cities and towns across the Unites States have inclusionary housing policies in place.
This research, which includes a first-of-its-kind national inventory of inclusionary housing programs, seeks to identify the characteristics that successful programs share across different legal, economic, and political climates.
Are inclusionary housing programs a good tool for permanent affordability? The authors found that many inclusionary housing programs require long-term affordability periods. For the 307 programs for which affordability period data was available:
- 84 percent of homeownership inclusionary housing programs and 80 percent of rental programs require units to remain affordable for at least 30 years
- One-third of inclusionary housing programs require 99-year or perpetual affordability for rental and/or for-sale housing