All people need quality housing they can afford and the ability to access a variety of opportunities outside their home — education, employment, shopping, recreation, etc. Transportation is the connection between home and outside opportunity. Ideally, quality affordable housing will be near everything residents need and desire. Though the reality is that even the best-planned affordable housing endeavor cannot hope to be near all opportunities.
Therefore, the availability and quality of affordable transportation, such as walking, biking, riding transit or carpooling, must be taken into consideration when determining if housing is truly affordable.
High-quality, affordable transportation near affordable housing enables people to get to the places they need to go regardless of means, ability or circumstances — such as when someone else needs the family car, the car breaks down or is flooded, or to save money.
Use LINK Houston’s Housing+Transportation Decision-maker Scorecard to improve practice at your organization by:
- Selecting better sites through early consideration of the quality of affordable transportation.
- Increasing functionality of affordable housing by evaluating and implementing transportation improvements.