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Shelter is a basic human need. But there are many people who are not homeless who still have serious housing problems. These families live in substandard housing; spend large portions of their income on rent, leaving little for other necessities; or are forced to move several times per year due to rising costs, horrendous physical conditions, or problems with landlords.
Without stable, affordable
housing, people are hard pressed to succeed in jobs, education,
or raising a family. Substandard conditions cause chronic health problems.
High
rent means less money for childcare, food, and transportation. Children
entering and leaving classrooms in the middle of the year face serious education
challenges; they receive no consistent attention by teachers who know their
history and are constantly out of step with the experiences of their peers.
Frequent moves also make saving and financial planning difficult and reduce
the ability of families to form community support systems.
Housing that is reliably affordable over the long term can allow families to turn their attention to other parts of their lives, from jobs to schooling to family. It provides a foundation from which people can improve their lives.
A stock of permanently affordable housing helps a community too. It reduces rapid turnover, ensures that a community doesn't lose its civically active but less well-off members, and allows schools and businesses to develop a steady clientele.
Some housing is "affordable" as a result of market conditions. Affordability at one point in time is not enough, however, because conditions can shift rapidly, and have major impacts on the housing market.
Once a disinvested neighborhood is
"discovered," for example, it faces an influx of people who 
can
usually pay more than the current residents. Once there is enough new investment
to make the area more attractive, the housing market starts getting tight,
and prices start to rise.
Since a poor neighborhood often has more renters than owners, and often has many renters who are renting month-to-month with no lease, they are immediately vulnerable to rapid price increases. Those who have leases will face large increases at lease renewal, and perhaps harassment aimed at replacing them with higher income tenants.
As prices rise, even low-income homeowners may feel the pressure in the form of increase property taxes, especially if they are living on a fixed income.
Neighborhoods that face this cycle without a stock of housing that has some sort of restrictions keeping it affordable can experience large amounts of displacement, a change in character, and a loss of community. Permanently affordable housing can slow such dramatic shifts in population, and allow long-time residents to remain and take advantage of the benefits - jobs, better schools, nicer parks, etc. - of an improving neighborhood.
Out of Reach: America's Growing Wage-Rent Disparity from the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
A Report on Worst Case Housing Needs from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University (Publisher of State of the Nation's Housing )
Kids Mobility Project Report from the Family Housing Fund.
Dealing with Neighborhood Change: A Primer on Gentrification and Policy Choices from the Brookings Institution Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy and PolicyLink, April 2001. (Please note! This is a direct link to download a PDF document.)
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