National Center for Sustainable Transportation

This paper studies the intersection of policies promoting affordable housing, transit-oriented developments (TODs), and the reduction of vehicle miles traveled (VMT) in metropolitan areas. In particular, this paper focuses on the following questions: 1. Does locating affordable units in TODs increase or decrease VMT and thus emissions? 2. Is affordable housing in TODs still affordable in the long-term, i.e., beyond the expiration of the first minimum affordability period? 3. Do the benefits of affordable housing near transit outweigh the frequently higher costs of development in TODs? 4. What policy recommendations emerge from the analysis?

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