States, Don’t Give up on MDUs

A plea for states to not give up on the opportunity to use Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program non-deployment funds to bring better wired-broadband to affordable housing multi-dwelling units (MDUs). Landlords of affordable housing MDUs face a chicken-and-egg dilemma—many affordable housing MDUs don’t have good broadband because the tenants can’t afford to pay market rates for broadband. The affordable rates needed for success will vary according to the incomes of tenants. In the MDUs that serve residents with the lowest incomes, prices will have to be in the range of $10 to $15 per month. There are affordable housing MDUs where incomes are higher, but generally still not high enough for tenants to afford normal market rates for broadband.