I 
111TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 5824 
To require the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to establish 
a process for incorporating transportation costs associated with the loca-
tion of housing into affordability measures and standards, and to develop 
a transportation affordability index to measure and disclose the transpor-
tation costs associated with the location of a home. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 22, 2010 
Mr. BLUMENAUER (for himself, Mr. PERLMUTTER, Mr. CONNOLLY of Vir-
ginia, Mr. MCDERMOTT, Mr. CLEAVER, Mr. SIRES, Ms. WATSON, Mr. 
MORAN of Virginia, Mr. COHEN, and Ms. TITUS) introduced the following 
bill; which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services 
A BILL 
To require the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development 
to establish a process for incorporating transportation 
costs associated with the location of housing into afford-
ability measures and standards, and to develop a trans-
portation affordability index to measure and disclose the 
transportation costs associated with the location of a 
home. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Transportation and 
Housing Affordability Transparency Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES. 
(a) FINDINGS.—The Congress finds the following: 
(1) The average family spends about half of its 
income on transportation and housing costs. 
(2) Housing affordability has traditionally been 
measured as the extent to which a household’s in-
come can cover the purchase price of a home or the 
monthly rent. 
(3) Households in location-efficient commu-
nities can experience substantial savings on trans-
portation costs as a result of lower car ownership, 
higher transit usage, and more accessible amenities 
such as stores and restaurants within walking dis-
tance. 
(4) In certain auto-dependent areas, transpor-
tation costs can be very high, leaving families with 
less money for housing, food, healthcare, and other 
important expenses. 
(5) Currently, transportation costs and savings 
are not taken into account in government afford-
ability measures and standards, and information is 
not generally available to consumers looking to pur-
chase homes. 
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(6) Low-income housing tax credits, downpay-
ment assistance grants, and rental assistance under 
section 8 of the United States Housing Act of 1937, 
for example, are all awarded and used without re-
gard to this transportation cost burden. 
(7) A community’s location, character, and de-
sign can contribute to overall affordability of the 
community more than household size and income. 
(8) Households with annual incomes between 
$20,000 and $35,000 and located far from job cen-
ters spend 70 percent of their incomes on housing 
and transportation combined. 
(9) Studies have shown that 63 percent of fed-
erally assisted housing units located within one-half 
mile of public transit may no longer be affordable to 
low- and moderate-income families by 2012. At the 
same time, of the more than 250,000 affordable 
apartments within one-half mile of public transit in 
20 metropolitan areas studied, more than two-thirds 
of the Federal subsidies that keep these apartments 
affordable will expire within the next 5 years. 
(10) Existing and future affordable housing 
stock should be taken into account by local agencies 
when planning economic development and transit 
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projects, to ensure that the combined housing and 
transportation costs remain affordable. 
(11) The preservation of existing affordable 
housing stock, particularly if it is located within one- 
half mile of public transit or other neighborhood 
amenities, should be a priority for local, State, and 
Federal agencies. 
(12) Potential homebuyers should have infor-
mation about the transportation costs associated 
with their housing choices to enable fully informed 
decisionmaking. 
(13) Incorporating transportation costs into af-
fordability measures can enable stakeholders, citi-
zens, and decisionmakers at all levels of government 
coordinate and target investment decisions, strate-
gies, and plans to lower transportation burdens. 
(b) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this Act are as fol-
lows: 
(1) To provide consumers with information 
about the costs of housing based on its location. 
(2) To recognize transportation costs as a key 
element of housing affordability. 
(3) To ensure transparency in housing and 
transportation costs for consumers, housing pro-
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viders, local and regional planning agencies, Federal 
agencies, and other stakeholders. 
(4) To enable the Department of Housing and 
Urban Development, as appropriate, to incorporate 
transportation costs associated with the location of 
housing, including neighborhood characteristics such 
as density, walkability, the availability of quality 
transit service, and convenient access to amenities, 
into affordability measures and standards. 
(5) To help communities recognize the impor-
tance of providing transportation and housing 
choices for their residents. 
SEC. 3. TRANSPORTATION AFFORDABILITY INDEX. 
(a) DEVELOPMENT.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of Housing 
and Urban Development shall, through a public 
process, develop a transportation affordability index 
that measures the transportation costs associated 
with the location of a home, both on a neighborhood 
and regional basis. 
(2) AGREEMENTS.—In developing the index, 
the Secretary may enter into agreements with exist-
ing entities for access to, and may rely upon, pre-
viously developed databases, consistent with Federal 
procurement guidelines. 
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(3) ADDITIONAL LOCATION-SPECIFIC COSTS.— 
The Secretary shall conduct research and analysis as 
to other location-specific costs associated with a 
home and determine the feasibility of including such 
costs into the index to be developed under this sub-
section. 
(b) PARTICIPATION.—In developing the transpor-
tation affordability index, the Secretary shall consult with 
the Secretary of Transportation, the Administrator of the 
Environmental Protection Agency, the Rural Housing 
Service of the Department of Agriculture, real estate, de-
velopment, housing, and transportation professionals, local 
and State governments, low-income housing advocates, re-
searchers, and other appropriate parties. 
(c) FACTORS.—The transportation affordability index 
developed under this section for a household, property, 
community, or region shall take into consideration appro-
priate factors, including at least the following factors: 
(1) Location and, to the extent practicable, fre-
quency of service for bus, rail, light rail, streetcar, 
ferry service, and other public transportation options 
within 1⁄4, 1⁄2, and 1 mile of the property. The Sec-
retary shall consult with the Secretary of Transpor-
tation on ways to better incorporate the frequency of 
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bus, transit and other public transportation options 
into the index. 
(2) If available, the average daily vehicle miles 
traveled for the census block group in which the 
property is located. 
(3) The availability within, and accessibility to, 
services within 1⁄2 mile of the property, including 
grocery stores, parks, bicycle lanes or paths or other 
bicycle facilities, community centers, restaurants, 
coffee shops, medical facilities, laundry/cleaners, li-
braries, schools, plazas/town squares, banks, and day 
care facilities, and other services. 
(4) Proximity of the property to local and re-
gional employment centers. 
(5) Net residential density, as measured by 
households per residential acre. 
(6) Any other factor that the Secretary deter-
mines would help improve the availability of infor-
mation about transportation costs of housing 
(d) AVAILABILITY.—Upon development of the trans-
portation affordability index under this section, the Sec-
retary shall make the index— 
(1) publicly available through the Internet; 
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(2) available to Multiple Listing Services for 
real estate in a format that provides for incorpora-
tion into such Services; 
(3) available to regional and metropolitan plan-
ning organizations for use in regional transportation 
plans and models; 
(4) available to local housing and planning 
agencies for possible use in developing Consolidated 
Plans for formula grant programs of the Depart-
ment of Housing and Urban Development; 
(5) available to States, local governments, non-
profit organizations, and other entities that provide 
financial literacy counseling to households; and 
(6) available to transportation management 
agencies and other entities that engage in transpor-
tation demand management programs. 
(e) REPORT
TO CONGRESS; WORKSHOPS; PILOT 
PROJECTS.—The Secretary shall— 
(1) provide a report to the Congress, not later 
than 120 days of the date of the enactment of this 
Act, that identifies in detail— 
(A) the opportunities for, and the barriers 
to, the development of the transportation af-
fordability index and related housing afford-
ability measures; 
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