This report on question of gender  in addressing the affordable housing issues. The report lays out a brief history of affordable housing, and uses a gender lens to look at state and federal housing policy in the public and private sectors. Attention is especially focused on looking across the gender spectrum to show groups that are disproportionately unprotected by current housing policy: women who are poor or near poor, veterans, formerly incarcerated people and gender nonconforming youth. In addition, the report offers basic definitions of housing terminology and classifications and a selection of the different types of housing available in the U.S.

Social and economic stability, pursued by generations of American families, includes some very basic elements: a secure roof over one’s head, enough money left over for food, clothing and other necessities, and perhaps a few occasional luxuries. Yet today, millions of Americans live in housing they cannot afford, and as a result they must struggle to make ends meet. An affordable unit, typically defined, is one that costs its occupants no more than 30 percent of their total income. A unit that requires its occupants to spend more than this represents a housing cost burden, and a unit that consumes more than 50 percent of occupants’ total income represents a severe housing cost burden.