The Missing Middle

HouseKeys specializes in affordable housing that is made possible by Local Government Housing Policies.  These are sometimes called “Inclusionary Housing” policies.  This differs from popular federal and state programs that are primarily rental programs and where program providers compete to attract subsidies by creating housing units at the deepest levels of affordability.  The “missing middle” is a term that has been talked about recently for those households that earn too much to qualify for state and federal programs with deeper income levels, but who don’t earn enough to safely afford to rent or purchase at the higher market-rate prices.

The Policy Waterfall

It’s important to understand that, as a housing program applicant, you are participating in a policy process that starts at the federal level.  The state seeks federal dollars to help with community and economic development, and the local governments are either incentivized or required to create land use policy that ensures that housing options are made available to an economically diverse citizenry. In addition to the economic diversity of their housing, local governments are evaluated based on their ability to produce their “fair share” of housing to keep up with the population growth of the state. Developers who want to build new housing in these communities, compensate the municipality by paying fees and by making affordability commitments to set aside units for income-eligible households.  The units that you see marketed on the HouseKeys platform are called “Opportunities”, and they are the result of these land use policies and commitments by private developers.

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