Policy makers have created various incentives for housing developers to build more affordable homes in high-cost neighborhoods. The goal of these efforts is to address growing income segregation in America’s cities that leaves the most vulnerable families with limited access to good schools. One of those policies is inclusionary zoning, which mandates or encourages developers to build a proportion of homes in market-rate developments that are sold or rented at below-market rates. More than 500 localities in the United States have inclusionary zoning policies. The oldest and largest is in Montgomery County, Maryland.

Although most inclusionary zoning programs tend to serve small numbers of families, they do appear to successfully target those most in need, low-income families. Six of the eleven inclusionary zoning programs examined serve only households earning 80 percent or less of the area median income (AMI). Inclusionary zoning policies also appear to provide low-income families access to more economically diverse places. The large majority of the homes (three-fourths) were in low-poverty neighborhoods—a much higher proportion than the 8-34 percent of homes in low-poverty neighborhoods accessed through other affordable housing programs.