High quality, affordable housing is fundamental to the economic and physical well being of families, communities, and the nation. Despite its importance, a “perfect storm” of factors over the last several years has led to near crisis-level shortages of affordable housing. Among these factors are formerly pro-growth local governments that have become slow-growth, NIMBYs (Not-In-My-Backyard sentiments by neighbors of proposed housing developments) who resist development, rapid price increases in housing across much of the country in the first half of this decade, and declines in federal resources for affordable housing. Most recently, the problems in the subprime mortgage market have limited access to loans even for borrowers with good credit histories. Each party in a development proposal has legitimate concerns: local budgets are strained, causing challenges in how to finance the education of current schoolchildren, much less new ones who may occupy new developments. Likewise, NIMBYs often have legitimate concerns about traffic and environmental impact. The people who need the affordable housing also have a legitimate claim, however, and the lack of housing is leading to consequences for both households and local and regional economies that may become increasingly severe. The most obvious of these is that many families pay disproportionate shares of their income for housing, leading to financial stress. Lower-income families have long struggled to find housing that fits their budgets; the difference now is that the need for affordable housing exists nearly across the income spectrum and includes families earning up to 120 percent of the area median income and even higher in very high cost areas such as Southern California. The extent of the problem calls for new solutions, and the good news shared in this report is that new solutions are rapidly being generated and adopted at the local level.