One question that often comes up is "How do I say this in Spanish when it's not in the dictionary?" This Q-and-A from a question received via email illustrates some concepts that may be helpful.
Question: My question is how do you sy "community housing" in Spanish? I cannot seem to find any two translations that agree on how to say these words.
Answer: Surprisingly, there may be no simple answer to your question. One of the reasons is that a phrase such as "community housing" comes awfully close to being jargon. It's a phrase that isn't likely to be understood well by all people - it's unclear to me even after some brief research precisely what you mean by the phrase, although I assume has to do with housing for those in need. "Community housing" is a kind of idiom in that you don't know what the phrase means simply by knowing what the individual words mean (and it might mean something different to an urban planner than it does to someone who lives in it, and it could have different meanings in different types of communities).
If I were translating the phrase for publication, I'd probably translate it directly as a calque, ending up with the phrase vivienda comunitaria. Out of context, the phrase probably wouldn't have a lot more meaning to the average Spanish speaker than does the concept "community housing" to many English speakers, but it uses familiar words and could be explained as needed. Indeed, a web search indicates that vivienda comunitaria is used fairly often, primarily by websites based in the U.S. or Spain.
Another approach would be to try translating the concept - possibilities include vivienda para los pobres (housing for the needy) and vivienda asequible (affordable housing). Depending on the context and the audience, these things might work fine. Translating from one language to another is often as much art as science.
Questions of comments? See the blog post about community housing.
