The city is required by state law to provide affordable housing for all income groups - very low, low, moderate and upper income. Generally, the market is meeting the affordable housing need for upper income households in Carlsbad. The city, however, must establish programs and/or laws to require and/or provide affordable housing for low and moderate income households within Carlsbad because the market is not doing it.

Inclusionary Housing Ordinance
The City of Carlsbad has several programs which have been designed to increase affordable housing opportunities for lower income households. The signature program is Carlsbad's mandatory inclusionary housing program. This program requires housing developers to provide 15 percent of their total units as affordable to low income households. Since this requirement was set forth by ordinance in 1993, the city has experienced the successful construction of nearly 2000 units of housing affordable to low, very low and extremely low income households.