Chattanooga has been awarded an affordable housing policy prize for a program that gives local developers a tax break in return for reserving units for low-income residents.
The tax break is meant to encourage mixed-income housing. Affordable units are mixed with the market-rate housing supply.
Ivory Innovations, a research foundation based at the University of Utah, granted the award. The Ivory Prize for Housing Affordability can be won in three categories: policy, which Chattanooga won; construction and design; and finance.
“This award underscores a simple idea: Better policy design can unlock affordable housing, even with limited resources,” Nicole Heyman, the city’s policy chief, was quoted as saying in an emailed press release announcing the award. “By pricing affordability clearly, Chattanooga is incentivizing mixed-income housing in places it wasn’t possible before.”