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4. Affordability and Displacement Everett Housing Action Plan 47 Support for Affordable Housing Meeting the goals under the Housing Action Plan to enhance local affordability will require additional resources and incentives to provide support in a competitive market. Policies to promote housing affordability usually focus on three major types of approaches:  Developing new affordable units can be granted subsidies through different programs. This may include both projects that are completely affordable, as well as mixed-income projects that have both market-rate and affordable units.  Support can also be provided to preserving and maintaining existing units. While this can include resources for the ongoing maintenance of income-restricted housing managed by different agencies and non-profits, it can also include incentives to the owners to naturally occurring affordable units that are available on the private market.  Finally, financial assistance can be granted to individual households that may have short-term or ongoing challenges with housing costs. This is often directed at providing support to households that may be at risk for homelessness to make sure they can be kept in housing. Different programs that promote affordable housing can also be organized according to how they grant these benefits:  Indirect incentives can be granted to new development, mainly through changes in development regulations to allow more flexibility with projects that provide affordable housing to the community. This would include such incentives as development bonuses that allow additional density on a site in exchange for affordable units, or tax exemptions that waive property taxes. While the City does not pay for these incentives directly, they can reduce the costs of building and operating affordable housing units.  The City can also provide more direct support for capital expenditures, including the acquisition, construction, and rehabilitation of affordable units. This support is usually provided to government agencies and nonprofit housing organizations that manage affordable housing in the community.  Finally, direct support for housing costs can be provided where funds are used to help address the gap between the costs that households can face versus the financial resources they have available. While this can include rent support, this can also involve grants and loans to low-income homeowners to help them maintain their property. Finally, affordable housing policies can differ with respect to what types of housing are promoted. While many policies focus on rental properties, discussions of affordability may also include homeownership. Overall, however, the resources available to the City alone are not enough to manage all the housing affordability issues in the community. Because of this, the City needs to focus on ways to leverage available resources and cooperate with local and regional partners to provide more affordable and attainable housing options.