Last week, the National Low Income Housing Coalition released its annual report “Out of Reach” with a detailed picture of national, state-by-state, and local housing markets. This invaluable report has told us for years that affordable rental housing is scarce. Using a measure called the “housing wage,” NLIHC reports state-by state and county-by county “the full-time hourly wage one would need to earn in order to pay what HUD estimates to be the Fair Market Rent (FMR) for an apartment, spending no more than 30% of income on housing costs.”
Look to today’s Star-Tribune for an excellent article connecting the local data to the daily struggle to find housing: ‘A housing crisis for the working poor.’ The article reports:
Given Twin Cities rent levels, a person needs to earn $17.29 an hour to spend 30 percent of income on a “modest two-bedroom” apartment … The mean renter’s wage in the Twin Cities is $14.54 an hour, according to the coalition. Statewide, the income needed for a two-bedroom apartment is $15.50 an hour while the mean renter’s hourly wage is $12.66.
The Star-Tribune article interviews a very determined renter and a number of local housing advocates. Sara Wenzel of St. Stephen’s Housing Services notes that the people she helps routinely spend 50 to 60 percent of what they earn to rent basic, safe property.
Check out “Out of Reach’s” Minnesota data or look into information on housing in your county.
Here are just a few items I found interesting from a national perspective:
- There are 9.2 million extremely low-income renters (those earning 30% or less of their area’s median family income) but only 6.1 million units affordable at that income level. Worse still, if you look at apartments that are both affordable and available, the number shrinks to a mere 3.4 million units.
- Recent HUD data shows a 25% increase from 2005 to 2009 in the percentage of movers who joined an existing household, or “doubled up.”
- As of 2008, 71% of extremely low-income renter households spent more than half of their income on rent.
