Introduction Affordable housing is one of the clearest tests of whether cities can deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals. SDG 11 calls for access to adequate, safe, and affordable housing and basic services, and for the upgrading of slums. But housing is not only about shelter. It is about health, climate resilience, access to jobs, household stability, gender equality, and urban productivity. The UN-Habitat World Cities Report 2026 confirms the urgency: the housing crisis is now global, structural, and deeply connected to urban inequality. The central question is therefore not only how to finance housing as shelter but how to leverage housing investments to advance livability, public health, economic opportunities, and overall human well-being. The Affordable Housing Programmatic Approach Working Paper (2026–2030), published by the Asian Development Bank, proposes a practical framework to move from individual housing projects toward a more integrated approach. It draws lessons from the bank’s earlier and recent housing operations. The working paper is not an ADB strategy or policy; rather, it is intended to encourage dialogue and help inform future country engagement and project development. The working paper is useful beyond ADB as it points to a wider lesson for governments, development partners, financial institutions, and city leaders: affordable housing is a system. It requires coordination across land, infrastructure, finance, construction, regulation, subsidies, climate considerations, and social policy. This article expounds on the programmatic approach highlighted in the ADB publication. It discusses four proposed areas in which governments, development institutions, financial institutions, and private sector partners could support affordable housing: scaling up affordable rental housing; expanding inclusive household housing finance; supporting post-disaster reconstruction; and catalyzing affordable homeownership supply through construction finance. Housing Gap The scale of the housing challenge is larger than previously captured in many sector discussions. UN-Habitat’s World Cities Report 2026: The Global Housing Crisis: Pathways to Action estimates that up to 3.4 billion people worldwide lack access to secure, safe, and adequate housing, including more than 1 billion people living in informal settlements and slums. These households often face insecure tenure, overcrowding, exposure to environmental hazards, and limited access to basic services. The crisis is also worsening in absolute terms. The global housing deficit increased from 251 million units in 2010 to 288 million in 2023, according to the UN-Habitat report. This means the world is falling further behind despite decades of policy commitments, urban programs, and housing finance interventions. The health implications are equally important. The World Health Organization’s Housing and Health Guidelines show that poor housing conditions—such as overcrowding, unsafe indoor temperatures, injury hazards, and lack of accessibility—can directly affect health and well-being. Housing quality therefore shapes public health outcomes, especially for children, older people, persons with disabilities, and low-income households. Housing also matters for climate action. The buildings and construction sector consumes about 32% of global energy and contributes around 34% of global carbon dioxide emissions, according to the UN Environment Programme’s Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction 2024/2025. This means housing programs cannot be separated from energy efficiency, low-carbon materials, water efficiency, passive cooling, climate-resilient design, and safer siting. Need for a Systemic Shift Many housing responses still treat the housing problem too narrowly. Some focus mainly on household finance. Others focus mainly on public housing construction. Others emphasize private developers, land, subsidies, or slum upgrading. Each of these entry points is important, but none is sufficient on its own. Housing finance can help households purchase, build, improve, or retrofit their homes. But if the market does not produce enough affordable, well-located, serviced, and resilient housing, finance will not translate into adequate housing outcomes. Similarly, public or private supply programs cannot scale if households cannot access suitable finance. Rental housing can serve people who are not mortgage-ready, but rental systems need good regulation, asset management, tenant protection, and long-term operations and maintenance. Post-disaster reconstruction can rebuild homes, but it must also reduce future vulnerability. This is why demand-side and supply-side interventions must come together. Urban development institutions have an important role to play in this shift. As the urban agenda expands, housing is increasingly being recognized as a platform that links infrastructure, land, finance, climate resilience, social inclusion, and private sector participation. A Proposed Programmatic Approach: Four Areas for Engagement ADB’s Affordable Housing Programmatic Approach Working Paper (2026–2030) responds to this broader agenda by proposing four possible areas for engagement. Their relevance and design would depend on country conditions, government priorities, market readiness, and further project-level assessment. Scaling up affordable rental housing Affordable rental housing can support households that are not ready for homeownership, including migrants, young workers, industrial workers, students, working women, and low-income urban households. Possible interventions could include: public rental and social rental programs: supporting government initiatives through sovereign financing and technical assistance to strengthen program design, targeting, and delivery systems; rental models based on public–private partnerships: leveraging private sector capital, efficiency, and innovation for affordable rental housing, with the public sector providing the enabling environment and incentives to the private sector; investment platforms to mobilize private capital for rental supply: providing catalytic risk capital (equity, debt, or blended instruments) into affordable rental (and ownership) projects for alternative investment funds to crowd in private capital; and rental market reforms and policy frameworks: balanced landlord–tenant frameworks, bringing vacant and underutilized homes into the rental market, and well-targeted rental assistance to help low-income households afford formal rental housing without distorting supply incentives. Expanding inclusive household housing financeHousehold finance can help underserved households access mortgages, micro-mortgages, home improvement loans, self-construction finance, and resilience retrofits. It can be implemented through three complementary tracks: strengthening housing finance market infrastructure: supporting reforms to help develop the enabling ecosystem that makes long-term, affordable household finance feasible; expanding lending for underserved households via financial intermediaries: scaling credit lines and risk-sharing/structured finance facilities to housing finance companies, nonbank financial institutions, and banks; supporting microfinance institutions to grow home improvement finance suited to irregular income profiles; and embedding inclusion targets and affordability/quality criteria in financial intermediation loan facilities; and mobilizing long-term local-currency funding: supporting mortgage liquidity/refinancing mechanisms through financial intermediary lending and long-term funding channels, including local-currency capital markets. Supporting post-disaster reconstruction Post-disaster reconstruction can turn recovery into an opportunity to rebuild safer homes and stronger communities, particularly as climate-related and geophysical risks intensify. This requires supporting post-disaster housing reconstruction through a “build back better” approach to ensure that reconstructed homes and settlements are more resilient, safer, and more inclusive. Support can include emergency assistance loans, contingent disaster financing, and results-based support tied to resilient standards. Through technical assistance and public- and private-sector financing, governments and development partners could also develop frameworks and financial products—including insurance, disaster relief funds, and other risk-financing mechanisms—to protect household assets and strengthen recovery capacity. Catalyzing affordable homeownership supply through construction financeConstruction finance can help address the supply-side bottleneck by supporting public agencies, private developers, and financial intermediaries that produce affordable homes. Depending on the country context, possible approaches may include: private developers and private-led delivery: providing construction and working capital facilities (including revolving structures where suitable) to private developers; may also include support for capital market instruments such as green or thematic bonds; public developers and nonmarket housing providers: supporting public housing agencies, municipal developers, and other nonmarket providers that deliver subsidized or price-controlled ownership housing for priority groups and vulnerable populations, aligned with national housing strategies; resettling vulnerable households from disaster-prone areas (pre-disaster); indirect (intermediated) construction finance for both public and private delivery via financial intermediaries, funds, and liquidity platforms: deploying financial intermediation modalities that channel long-term capital to developers; can include credit lines and/or financial intermediation loan structures through participating financial institutions and dedicated affordable housing facilities or funds that on-lend to developers; and housing policy and urban planning support to unlock affordable housing supply (national and subnational): providing upstream policy, regulatory, and planning support to governments and subnational entities to expand the pipeline of financeable affordable housing. The working paper also proposes four cross-cutting principles that could guide interventions across these areas: green and climate-resilient housing, social inclusion, infrastructure and services embedded in housing, and technology, data, and innovation. The proposed areas are not intended as a comprehensive prescription. Their application would vary according to local housing needs, institutional capacity, market conditions, and the respective roles of governments, communities, financial institutions, and development partners. Implications The main implication for the SDGs is clear: affordable housing should be treated as foundational infrastructure for green, inclusive, resilient, and competitive city development. Progress toward SDG 11 will require more than building units or expanding mortgages. It will require housing that is affordable, serviced, green, resilient, inclusive, and connected to livelihoods. For policymakers and project officers, three actions are especially important. First, diagnose both demand and supply constraints before designing interventions. Second, ensure every housing program is linked to basic infrastructure, climate resilience, and inclusion outcomes. Third, use public finance strategically to mobilize private capital where appropriate, while protecting affordability and reaching underserved groups. The UN-Habitat report also reinforces that housing policy must look beyond homeownership to include rental housing, cooperatives, community-led approaches, upgrading, and other locally grounded solutions. This aligns with the core message of the ADB working paper: the goal is not simply more housing finance or more housing construction. The goal is better housing outcomes—homes that give people a safer, healthier, and more resilient platform for life. Resources J. Balani, T. Kopelman, and S. Sampath. 2026. Affordable Housing Programmatic Approach Working Paper (2026–2030). ADB Sustainable Development Working Paper Series. No. 120. Asian Development Bank. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Sustainable Development Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities. United Nations Environment Programme and Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction. 2025. Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction 2024/2025: Not Just Another Brick in the Wall. United Nations Human Settlements Programme. 2026. World Cities Report 2026: The Global Housing Crisis: Pathways to Action. World Health Organization. 2018. WHO Housing and Health Guidelines. Ask the Experts Norio Saito Senior Director, Water and Urban Development, Sectors Department 2, Asian Development Bank Norio Saito has more than 32 years of professional experience across Asia, including 18 years in ADB, primarily in urban development, water and sanitation management, climate change, environmental analysis, and implementing public-private partnerships. He has a PhD in environmental science from Ibaraki University, Japan; a master of environmental management from Duke University, USA; and a bachelor of science in geography from the University of Tokyo, Japan. Satoshi Ishii Director, Water and Urban Development, Sectors Department 2, Asian Development Bank Satoshi Ishii previously served as ADB’s Viet Nam urban–water sector focal. He is an environmental engineer and urban sector expert with more than 18 years of experience, including 15 years with development finance institutions. His areas of expertise include infrastructure finance, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and environmental pollution control and management. Prior to joining ADB in 2009, he worked for the Japan International Cooperation Agency/Japan Bank for International Cooperation, the United Nations, and the University of Tokyo. Leave your question or comment in the section below: View the discussion thread.