Housing Terms & Definitions

  • An independent dwelling on the same lot as a single-family home. ADUs can be detached from or attached to the primary home.

  • Affordable housing means that the combined cost of rental and utility costs or combined mortgage, property taxes, and required insurance do not surpass more than 30% of a household’s gross annual income.

  • AMI is the median income for households and varies depending on household size and geographic area.
  • This statistical measure—literally the income of the household in the exact middle of all households when distributed from lowest to highest— is a better measure than the average, which can be skewed by very low or very high incomes.
  • The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) establishes the AMI each year.

  • Refers to housing that has some kind of public subsidy or financing that enables it to serve lower-income people.
  • “Publicly assisted housing” is interchangeable with “publicly supported housing.” Generally, the ability to rent units in publicly assisted housing will be restricted to households below a certain income.

  • Cost burden occurs when a household or individual spends more than 30% of their income on housing. When a household or individual experiences cost burden, the housing is not considered “affordable.”
  • Severe cost burden occurs when a household or individual spends more than 50% of their income on housing.

  • Includes those without a fixed place to sleep at night, those who lose housing and have no stable housing options, families facing consistent instability, those fleeing domestic violence with no permanent housing, and those who sleep in unsheltered places that threaten their own health and safety, such as streets, parks, forests, cars, or abandoned buildings.
  • The technical definition of homelessness can vary by federal programs.

  • Households are the people occupying a housing unit and can include related family members and unrelated people.

  • HCVs are rental assistance subsidies. HCVs typically refer to the program funded by the federal government and are also known as Section 8. State and local voucher programs also exist.
  • HCVs are administered by public housing agencies. Their use is not limited to subsidized housing; HCV holders may use vouchers anywhere a landlord accepts housing vouchers.

  • Accounts for those who have moved to Delaware from another state or country. Population measures net gain and accounts for those moving in and out of the state, births, and deaths.

  • Many for-profit and nonprofit-developed rental properties use these federal tax credits, which allow large corporations, institutions, pension funds, and insurance companies to invest in the housing as a method to gain tax credits and reduce their income tax obligations.

  • The range of housing types between single-family detached houses and mid-to-high-rise apartment buildings.
  • Examples include duplexes, triplexes, townhomes, and more. In this context, “middle” references the size and type of a home, relative to its location – in the middle – on a housing scale spectrum.

  • Consists of a householder living alone (a one-person household) or where the householder shares the home exclusively with people to whom they are not related.

  • Evaluates the likelihood that renters at varying income levels can become homeowners while contributing 30% or less of their income to housing payments. The gaps show the proportion of affordable homes to renters by income bracket.

  • Defined by the U.S. Census Bureau as household income that is unable to cover basic needs. This poverty threshold varies by household size and number of children; households under the inflation-adjusted threshold are considered to be in poverty.

  • Maintained by a government entity to provide affordable housing for low-income residents.

  • A local authority that receives funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to administer programs, often providing subsidies and low rent or free public housing to qualified people. Jurisdictions can vary, but can include a specific municipality or county.
  • Delaware has five PHAs: Delaware State Housing Authority (DSHA), Dover Housing Authority, New Castle County Housing Authority, Newark Housing Authority, and Wilmington Housing Authority.

  • A program funded by HUD for low-income individuals with disabilities.

  • Units that are vacant for seasonal and recreational use that are rented, leased, or occupied for compensation for less than 30 days.

  • Units in which a family unit lives. They include detached (do not share a wall) and attached units, where the home may share a wall that extends from ground to roof.

  • Include those which have been rented or sold but the new renters or owners have not moved in, units that are for rent or for sale, for seasonal/recreational use, and for migrant workers who are not currently occupying the unit.

  • Generally considered housing affordable to persons below 100% AMI that meets the needs of wage and service industry workers.

Housing Disaster Terms

Below are high-level definitions of critical terms used in housing recovery planning and brief explanations of their significance within the Disaster Housing Strategy.

  • Hazard events become disasters when they have significant social, economic, or environmental impacts.
  • The threshold for when a hazard becomes a disaster depends entirely on the scale and severity of the event; the unique characteristics, vulnerabilities, and resources of an impacted area; and the overall economic, social, and political context of the disaster.

  • Refers to proactive, pre-disaster measures that mitigate the potential impact of a disaster event.
  • Preparedness activities include creating emergency plans, distributing emergency kits, conducting drills and trainings, establishing channels of communication among government, organizations, and residents.
  • Social preparedness can include having planning, training, financial, and community education or community involvement components.

  • Refers to the organized efforts and actions taken to address the immediate needs of individuals and communities affected by a catastrophic event or emergency. It involves a range of activities aimed at mitigating the impact of the disaster, providing immediate assistance to survivors, and facilitating the recovery process.
  • Efforts typically include search and rescue operations, emergency medical care, shelter and short-term housing provision, food and water distribution, and the restoration of essential services and infrastructure.

  • Physical conditions or events that have the potential to cause fatalities, injuries, property damage, infrastructure damage, agricultural loss, damage to the environment, interruption of business, or other types of losses.
  • Hazards can include “natural” or environmental events like hurricanes, flash floods, rockslides, and earthquakes, as well as “man-made” events like chemical spills, infrastructure failures, and explosions.

  • Housing that disaster survivors can occupy in the time between leaving an emergency shelter and returning to their long-term (permanent) homes.

  • Activities begin during and after initial response and include intermediate and long-term activities focused on restoring the built, economic, social, cultural and natural environment in ways that prevent or mitigate (reduce) impacts from disasters.
  • Long-term recovery begins months or years after a major disaster is declared and ramps up as response, relief, and short-term funding and activities taper off. Long-term recovery activities may include:
    • Rebuilding and redeveloping housing and public infrastructure
    • Long-term financial assistance for households, businesses, and local governments
    • Economic and workforce development programs
    • Restoring natural and cultural resources
    • Redesign of local codes and ordinances to mitigate damage from future events
    • Community development initiatives

  • When the president declares a major disaster, that announcement triggers the immediate release of some types of federal emergency funding and makes it possible for Congress to allocate funds for long-term recovery related to that event in the future. What constitutes a major disaster may shift depending on a variety of factors, but for the purposes of releasing federal aid, the United States government defines a major disaster as:
  • “Any natural catastrophe (including any hurricane, tornado, storm, high water, wind driven water, tidal wave, tsunami, earthquake, volcanic eruption, landslide, mudslide, snowstorm, or drought), or, regardless of cause, any fire, flood, or explosion, in any part of the United States, which in the determination of the President causes damage of sufficient severity and magnitude to warrant major disaster assistance…to supplement the efforts and available resources of States, local governments, and disaster relief organizations in alleviating the damage, loss, hardship, or suffering caused thereby.”
  • In other words, a significant or severe disaster can become a major disaster when a jurisdiction (a City, County, Tribal Government, State, or Territory) is unable to respond to or recover from a disaster on its own.

  • Long-term/permanent housing is the ultimate goal of the Disaster Housing Strategy, when impacted residents move back into repaired homes or attain another form of long-term housing.
  • This phase includes the rehabilitation and reconstruction of impacted homes and new construction to address housing supply loss from the disaster. Long-term recovery can begin months or years after a major disaster is declared and ramps up as response, relief, and short-term funding and activities taper off.

  • Sheltering occurs in the days immediately before and after a disaster and provides residents whose homes were impacted with a safe place to receive shelter, food, and other supportive services.
  • After a disaster, shelters may be open for a day up to a couple of weeks, depending on the size of the disaster, number of impacted residents, and availability of interim housing.

  • Short-term recovery activities focus on stabilizing a post-disaster situation, ensuring the safety of survivors, and paving the way for long-term restoration and reconstruction. Short-term recovery activities might include debris removal, interim housing assistance, emergency repairs, establishing reliable sources of food, water, and medical care, and the restoration of critical services such as electricity, transportation, and communication networks.