Affordability is the extent to which cost of living is sustainable for a household, as measured by its cost relative to the amount that the purchaser is able to pay. Affordability is difficult to achieve for so many families in Austin—and more so in District 3 as policy is often based on a median income that is skewed heavily upward from what we’re seeing in our district. Teachers, students, retirees, service/retail staff, healthcare workers, and others who frame the infrastructure of our economic engine deserve to live in the communities they enrich through their work, and policy must work backward from that paradigm, both from a cost reduction perspective and from a workforce development angle.