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Abstract
Across the United States, state and local governments are becoming increasingly aware of the need to provide affordable housing to their communities. Affordable housing is widely defined as housing that costs a family no more than 30 to 35 percent of their annual income, including costs for taxes and utilities. Historically, the federal government has been the foremost enactor of policy to promote housing for low to mid-income individuals. Recently, however, local governments are utilizing inclusionary zoning (IZ) programs to provide a sustainable source of low-income housing. The local government of Athens-Clarke County (ACC), Georgia has been one of many in the southeast to add to these efforts. In 2002, an HED study of Athens-Clarke County found that while there exists no real shortage of housing units in Athens, the affordability of these units continues to be a struggle for those earning 30 percent or less of the median family income in the area. Furthermore, the type of new development experienced in Athens has been largely student driven, leading to households clustered together by economic class, and often race, limiting their housing mobility. This paper seeks to examine the use of IZ programs across the country and more specifically in the southeast. Combining an examination of the current literature on IZ practices and using ACC as a case study, implications of adopting IZ ordinances are examined. Subsequently, implications for policy makers are discussed.