Mapping the Real Cost of Public Housing—Transportation Included

In 2006, the Brookings Institution worked with the Center for Transit Oriented Development and the Center for Neighborhood Technology to study the transportation patterns of the U.S.’s low-income population. Until then, many researchers and policymakers had assumed that larger and wealthier households owned more vehicles—and more expensive ones—and drove more miles overall. But the 2006 study found that transportation methods had less to do with household income and more to do the neighborhoods in which those households were. The researchers concluded:

To regular readers of this site, these conclusions are chock full of “duh.” Of course transportation costs are highly dependent on where one lives. But transportation costs are not always considered in discussions of affordable housing. As defined by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, affordable housing costs less than 30 percent of a household’s income. But when necessary transportation costs—gas prices, car maintenance, monthly transit passes, etc.—are added into the mix, those percentages go way, way up.