ANHD 2016 Building the Community Development Movement
The Area Median Income (AMI) Cheat Sheet / Wallet Card You Always Wanted – Just in Time for the Holidays!
A lot of people are talking about affordable housing policy these days. And you can’t have a conversation about affordable housing policy without talking about Area Median Income (AMI) levels.
But what do those AMI levels actually mean? 30% of AMI, 60% of AMI, 120 of AMI%? Throwing those numbers around doesn’t make things clear for most people, unless you can translate that number into the rents and incomes that everyone understands.
ANHD staff (most of us, anyway) use a cheat sheet. Now you can, too! Wow your friends and befuddle your foes with your fluent understanding of what each AMI level actually means for your local community.
This AMI Cheat Sheet/Wallet Card gives you the information you need in a clear, visual form, including how each AMI % translates to:
- A household income amount.
- A monthly rent for that apartment.
- The % of New Yorkers at each AMI level.
- The affordable housing construction category as used by the City
If you are interested in a full analysis of why the federally-set AMI methodology is especially off-base in New York City, read the discussion of how AMIs are determined beginning on page 26 of ANHD 2013 report Real Affordability: An Evaluation of the Bloomberg Housing Program and Recommendations to Strengthen Affordable Housing Policy.
So enjoy ANHD’s gift and leave the AMI follies behind in 2016!
Happy Holidays and New Year – the ANHD team.
Blogger: Barika Williams, Deputy Director, ANHD
Blog team: Benjamin Dulchin, Lena Afridi, Armando Chapellquen, Jonathan Furlong, Moses Gates, Emily Goldstein, Ericka Stallings, Jaime Weisberg, Barika X. Williams. Editors, Anne Troy.