Inclusionary housing: what it is and how to apply for the units

Inclusionary housing is the set of lower-priced homes a city makes developers include in new buildings. To get one, you usually apply on the city's housing website, not at the building. Many are given out by lottery, a random drawing. Check the income limit, the most a household your size can earn and still qualify, then apply before the deadline.

What does inclusionary housing mean?

Inclusionary housing means some homes in a new building must rent or sell for less than market price, to households that earn under a set amount. The city attaches this condition when a developer builds, and the city sets the rules for who can get those homes.

The result is a mixed building. Somerville, Massachusetts says its inclusionary homes are spread through market-rate buildings, where other homes rent at full price, and share the same rooftop decks, gyms and other amenities. Somerville's page also says these homes are not public housing, which means apartments owned and run by a local housing office.

You'll see several names for the same idea: inclusionary zoning, inclusionary housing, an inclusionary policy or ordinance (a city law), or "below market rate" homes. Zoning is the rule. Housing is the homes it creates.

How do the rules work?

Each city decides which buildings the rule covers and what the developer must do.

Boston replaced its older policy with new zoning rules for projects filed from October 1, 2024. So the share of lower-priced homes in a Boston building depends on when it was filed.

What do the homes cost and who qualifies?

Each city sets its income limits as a share of the area median income, the middle income in the area, and different cities pick different levels.

• Cambridge's rental applicant pool is for households between 50 percent and 80 percent of the area median income.
• Somerville's rentals are set at 50 percent, 80 percent and 110 percent. Its homes for sale are set at 80 percent, 110 percent and 140 percent.
• San Francisco's homes are for renters and buyers with low, moderate and middle incomes, and each listing names its percent.

The city sets each home's rent or price below market, based on those income levels. In San Francisco, renters and buyers must meet the income limit and the program's other rules before they move in. They must also live in the home as their main home and can't rent it out on short-term rental sites.

To see what counts as income, read how to qualify for affordable housing.

How are inclusionary homes given out?

Many are given out by lottery. San Francisco says its application process includes a public lottery, and some rentals also have a waitlist, a list you join now for an apartment that comes free later. In New York, new buildings offer their lower-rent apartments by lottery on Housing Connect, the city's housing website, which our New York City housing lottery guide explains. Somerville holds lotteries to choose households.

Other places keep a waitlist. Cambridge keeps a rental applicant pool and sorts it into groups by household size. It also gives preference, meaning it looks first, to Cambridge residents, households with children, households with an emergency housing need and people who work in Cambridge. Within each group, applications are lined up in the order they arrived. Our guide to how housing lotteries work explains the drawing itself.

A worked example

Say a city requires 20 percent of a new 100-apartment building to be affordable. That's 20 income-restricted apartments and 80 at market rent.

Say 1,500 households that qualify apply for the 20 apartments. If everyone had the same chance, about 1 in 75 would be picked. Preferences, such as putting people who live in the city first, change the order in which applications are looked at. A household that is picked still has to prove its income before it signs a lease.

Where can you find inclusionary homes?

Each city posts its own. San Francisco posts its rentals on DAHLIA, its housing website, and New York uses Housing Connect. Cambridge and Somerville run their own lists. In Illinois, the nonprofit Community Partners for Affordable Housing (CPAH) runs the inclusionary waitlist for Deerfield, Evanston, Highland Park and Northbrook. Its first form, the pre-application, only checks whether you can join that waitlist; it isn't an application for a particular apartment.

In Washington's East King County, cities work together through A Regional Coalition for Housing (ARCH). ARCH creates its homes for sale mainly through inclusionary rules and incentive programs, which reward builders for including lower-priced homes. To hear about new homes and how to apply, join the mailing list on ARCH's upcoming homes page.

Our local pages show what you can apply for in San Francisco, Greater Boston, New York City and Massachusetts. Check each listing's deadline before you start.

How do you apply?

1. Find the city's housing website or list, not just the building's website. San Francisco rentals are on DAHLIA, and New York apartments are on Housing Connect. Cambridge, Somerville and CPAH each run their own lists. In Boston, start with our Greater Boston page.
2. Read the income limit for your household size. It's on the listing or the city's chart.
3. Join the city's email list. Somerville emails people on its affordable housing alerts list when its rental waitlist opens again, so a missed email can mean a missed chance to apply.
4. Gather your paperwork. Cities check your income and your savings and other assets, so expect to show proof of both. Buyers need more. Somerville asks buyers for a first-time buyer class and a letter from a lender saying how much it will lend.
5. Apply before the deadline, then wait. In a lottery, applying on the last day gives you the same chance as applying on the first.

What happens after you're picked?

Being picked isn't the same as being approved. In Somerville, households prove their income and assets first, then rent or buy under long-term limits.

For buyers, those limits matter. ARCH uses covenants: rules written into the home's deed, the legal record of who owns it, that you and every later owner must follow. ARCH says they keep prices affordable long term and require owners to live in the home. Somerville says its homes stay affordable when they are resold. Before you buy, ask for the restriction document, the legal paper that sets the resale price and other rules for the home. Read what it says about the resale price, renting out the home and refinancing, which means replacing your mortgage with a new one.

To see which open listings fit your household, use the qualify check or browse open listings. If you're buying in California, read our guide to California first-time buyer programs.