Return on Investment for Affordable Housing

A member, who hasn’t been as active in workforce housing policy, requested information recently on how different communities calculate the value of a dollar spent on housing.  Turns out communities ask this very question in different ways and come up with different metrics.  Below are a variety of documents highlighting how different communities ask and answer this question of the “value” or Return on Investment for Affordable Housing.

• Trust for Community Housing – Telluride Region measures the replacement cost for an employee by a local employer, and through various metrics of how “Affordable Housing Helps the Community” including achieving more spending locally, and reduced vehicle miles.
• Vail Indeed Program – The Town of Vail figures a $3,239 annual return per unit divided by the average cost of a Deed Restriction acquired through the program then uses a three bottom line “multiplier” to estimate an annual return of $312,467 per unit.
• Town of Silverthorne looks at it in terms of the cost of serving additional units for utilities and other services, and estimates “new household spending,” based on a number of data points.
• State of Housing Report– Town of Breckenridge notes that “workforce housing contributes approximately $15M to the town economy.”
• m – The Town of Vail figures a $3,239 annual return per unit divided by the average cost of a Deed Restriction acquired through the program then uses a three bottom line “multiplier” to estimate an annual return of $312,467 per unit.
• Town of Silverthorne looks at it in terms of the cost of serving additional units for utilities and other services, and estimates “new household spending,” based on a number of data points.
• State of Housing Report– Town of Breckenridge notes that “workforce housing contributes approximately $15M to the town economy.”

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