News
Affordable Housing Losing Affordability
March 15, 2012
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| Developers, lenders, investors and voters can help solve this problem: full-time minimum wage workers seeking to rent a two-bedroom apartment (and spend 30% of their income), are out of luck in most US communities, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition?s latest report. NLIHC senior researcher Megan Bolton says if Congress funds the National Housing Trust Fund it established ?08, it would help alleviate the shortage in the supply of lower-cost rental housing. The problem wasn't always so severe. Since ?05, four million more people have flooded the rental market, raising the renter population to 38.5 million. Increased demand has led to higher rents. And higher unemployment has put market-rate apartments out of the reach of more people. |
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| Meanwhile, the supply of affordable housing is shrinking as old units deteriorate and go out of service and new production declines. The situation was different prior to the ?70s,when the federal government developed low cost housing and most households with one wage earner could afford a two-bedroom, Megan says. Another concern is that as rents continue to rise,owners of buildings that are Section 8 subsidized may opt out of the program so they can charge more for their apartments. For now, the states where a person would have to earn at least $20/hour to afford a two-bedroom apartment at fair market rent are: California, New Jersey, Maryland, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Virginia, and District of Columbia. As the map shows, in DC, a minimum wage earner has to work 140 hours/week to make the rent on a two-bedroom. Click the map above for a closer view. |
