The purpose of this research is to explore community participation as a contributor to affordable housing for low-income people in Dhaka. The research, based on interviews and household survey data aims at finding out the determining factors of community participation in affordable housing. A mixed-method is used to collect data as it is considered suitable for gathering information from different groups of participants including households in slums, government officials, NGO executives, researchers, and community leaders. Housing remains a problem for the low-income population in Dhaka. There is no new housing development targeted at the poor by the private sector. There is recurrent slum eviction by the government with no resettlement plan and without security of tenure, and no comprehensive policy support for the development of the housing for the poor. Housing options for low-income people are currently limited to affordable shelters in informal settlements. The current housing approaches of the government for the poor seem to have failed in terms of reaching the poor, meeting the affordability levels, and quantity of housing compared to demand due to a number of factors such as lack of beneficiary participation, lack of resources and coordination and communication among actors. This calls for a new approach that can address the problems of the current top-down policy.