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Livable and sustainable communities are safe and healthy. They offer residents choices in where to live and how to get around.

Planning refers to how policymakers design, regulate, and manage the built environment. Land-use, zoning, and developer requirements and incentives help planners guide development patterns.

Extreme weather conditions, natural disasters, and health emergencies can devastate communities. They can destroy housing, transportation networks, businesses, and institutions.

Redevelopment reuses previously developed land to catalyze new economic growth. It can provide new housing options or community amenities.

When done well, community planning spurs economic development that helps all members of a community thrive.

Enhancing livable communities—through projects to improve transportation options, ensure more affordable and accessible housing, and build and maintain public spaces such as parks—requires both ade

Housing costs determine whether individuals and families can live in a neighborhood without sacrificing other basic necessities, such as food and health care.

A range of programs exists to address the lack of affordable housing. These programs are not nearly enough to meet the demand from those who are housing cost-burdened.

Almost 20 million households headed by someone age 50 and over are housing cost-burdened. That is, they spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing.

On an average night in 2022, more than 580,000 adults and children experienced homelessness in the U.S.