ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the many ways in which different financial mechanisms, many of which have already been mentioned in condition pages, can be used separately or in combination to make various types of housing affordable to populations in need. The 23 Ohio cities numbers make it easy to understand why so many communities use their home funds for low-cost activities such as down payment assistance or fix-up grants to elderly home owners, where an expenditure of $5,000 per unit or even less can make a difference. Where dealing with affordable housing for owner-occupancy, one must work backward from the monthly carrying cost or principal, insurance, taxes, and insurance (PITI) to establish an affordable house price. When the public housing program was created in the 1930s, the government set the affordability threshold at 20, not 30 percent. Any situation where any of the unreasonable assumptions are used can create future difficulties for the home buyer.
