"Affordable" can mean a lot of things. Usually the official definition is housing that costs less than 30% of the income of someone at some multiple of the loca

"Affordable" can mean a lot of things. Usually the official definition is housing that costs less than 30% of the income of someone at some multiple of the local poverty income level. Housing can meet that bar in a number of ways: rising incomes, smaller/less equipped units, no parking, public subsidy for rent, public subsidy for land or development fees, etc. Due to the terrible experience with public housing across the USA in the 1950s-1980s, most governments avoid owning the units if they can avoid it.