Affordable Housing

What is Affordable Housing?

Housing is considered “affordable” based on the median household income for a region. The State Department of Housing and Community Development updates what is considered affordable annually for each county in California to meet increases in cost of living and inflation; more information can be found on state's Housing and Community Development webpage.

Affordable housing rents and purchase prices are based on household size and the Area Median Income. The Area Median Income (AMI) is the midpoint of a region’s income distribution – half of families in a region earn more than the median and half earn less than the median. Levels of affordability are broken out as percentages of the AMI.

The table below illustrates the 2023 levels of affordability by household in Contra Costa County, which includes Lafayette.  The median income for a family of four was $147,900.

Source: CA State Department of Housing and Community Development, and City of Lafayette, 2023

How can I find Affordable Housing?

• To find affordable units in Lafayette, please visit HouseKeys14.

• View the Affordable Housing Worksheet for Lafayette rental and for-sale units. 

• To find affordable units in Contra Costa County, you may visit the County's Affordable Housing Resources webpage.

• To find affordable units throughout the Bay Area, visit Doorway: Bay Area Affordable Housing.

Lafayette is an affluent city.  Why do we need affordable housing?

While many of our citizens make comfortable incomes, the average salaries for many Lafayette community members fall below the median income, especially those in support industries and some employees in our downtown.  For example, the following table illustrates common current wages for workers in a variety of fields in Contra Costa County.

Source: US Census, 2023.

What does the Lafayette General Plan say about affordable housing?

Adopted in 2002, the Lafayette General Plan establishes the following broad housing goals in its Housing Chapter or Housing Element.

Goal H-1               Conserve and improve the existing housing supply to provide adequate, safe, and decent housing for all residents, with emphasis on maintaining the semi-rural character of the City.

Goal H-2               Facilitate and encourage the development of diverse housing types and additional affordable housing units to accommodate a diversity of Lafayette citizens in terms of age and socio-economic background and to meet regional housing needs as quantified in this chapter.

Goal H-3               Expand affordable housing opportunities for persons with special housing needs such as the elderly, developmentally disabled, households with very low to moderate incomes, and first time home buyers.

Goal H-4               Promote housing opportunities for all persons regardless of race, age, gender, sexual orientation, marital status or national origin.

Every jurisdiction in the State of California is required to update its Housing Element  every eight years.  This chapter of the General Plan is the only element that is required to be certified by the state.  It contains detailed demographic information, data on the cost of housing, and documents the need for housing that is affordable to lower-income households.  It includes goals, policies and programs to address housing needs in the community, and sets time lines for the completion of implementing actions. It also includes strategies to meet the Regional Housing Need Allocation or RHNA.

The City of Lafayette’s Housing Element was certified by the State of California on March 26, 2015. In 2020, the City began its update of the Housing Element for the 2023-2031 planning period. More information about the update process can be found at PlanLafayette.org. 

The Regional Housing Need Allocation (RHNA) is the state-mandated process to identify the total number of housing units (by affordability level) that each jurisdiction must accommodate in its Housing Element. The Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) allocates to all jurisdictions the projected housing needs for each Housing Element cycle.  A key component of the Housing Element is the inventory of developable sites including both vacant and underutilized land. The City must ensure that the inventory of sites can accommodate the housing need allocation.

For the period 2014 to 2022, the Regional Housing Need Allocation (RHNA) figures are as follows: