Their latest update in 2013 brings a little good news, primarily related to veterans experiencing homelessness, but paints a bleaker picture for those of us trying to find affordable housing for families.
NLIHC Executive Director Barbara Poppe shared that,
"The most recent national report on homelessness found that as a country we are making progress on ending chronic and Veterans homelessness, yet the number of persons in families experiencing homelessness increased. An increasingly tight rental market and the drop in the number of affordable rental units available to extremely low income households is the greatest barrier to achieving our vision that 'no one should experience homelessness, no one should be without a safe, stable place to call home.'”
Amen.
The Housing Wage: Our Industry Decoder
May 25, 2011
By Danilo Pelletiere
Danilo Pelletiere is the Research Director and Chief Economist for the National Low Income Housing Coalition.For most “housers,” immersed as we are in the deep details of the world of housing and housing policy, a quick, easy to understand and convincing elevator speech isn’t easy to come by.
As a group, we produce a lot of reports on the need for affordable housing. Within these reports are a lot of numbers arranged in a lot of tables, charts and maps. They break down various housing problems by various measures of tenure, cost, location, income and other household characteristics.
To us, the need for this analysis is clear. Housing markets and housing problems vary over time. Similarly, homes, financing and assistance come in bewildering variations to serve varying needs. But this barrage of numbers and policies can be confusing. In response, longtime antipoverty advocate and National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) founder Cushing Dolbeare developed the Housing Wage.
The Housing Wage boils down important concepts – income, housing costs, quality, and location – to a single number. This year the National Housing Wage is $18.46. On average, nationwide a household has to earn at least this amount an hour, working 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, to afford a modest two-bedroom apartment at HUD’s Fair Market Rent, which includes utilities.
The report Out of Reach provides Housing Wages for every metropolitan area and rural county in the country as well as states and combined non-metropolitan areas.
The
Housing Wage puts the mismatch between what people earn and the price
of a modest home into perspective. There is not a state in the country
where the two-bedroom fair market rent is affordable to someone earning
the minimum wage. In fact, there is not a county nationwide where the
full-time minimum wage can secure a two-bedroom apartment.
Expensive coastal cities tend to have the highest Housing Wages, e.g., the top five are San Francisco, $35.25; Stamford, Conn., $34.83; Santa Cruz, Calif., $33.27; Honolulu, $32.73; and San Jose, $32.73.
While these cities are known for being “unaffordable,” the areas with the lowest housing costs may not be any better for the majority of renters. For example, in San Francisco the average renter in that city is estimated to make 75% of what is needed ($26.40). But in Flint, Mich., with a declining population and falling home prices, the average renter earns $9.45 an hour, 78% of the city’s Housing Wage ($12.08). In Michigan’s rural areas, the relationship is worse; the average renter’s wage ($8.39) is just 70% of the Housing Wage ($12.15). Affordable housing is not a coastal or a big city issue. It is a national issue.
These kinds of wage comparisons provide a simple summary of the more complex information needed to understand housing markets, housing choices and the nation’s lack of affordable housing. Most non-housers will likely still have a lot of questions such as: What about other size apartments? What about multiple wage earners? What is the Fair Market Rent? What is the definition of affordable and modest? Fortunately, Out of Reach provides data and related explanations to help address all these topics, too. But if people are asking these questions, you are past the elevator speech.
These are some talking points from Out of Reach that can also be replicated at the local level
- The national two-bedroom Fair Market Rent (FMR) is $960 per month.
- A household must earn $18.46 an hour or $38,400 annually in order to afford that FMR.
- In 2011, the estimated average wage for renters in the United States is just $13.52, a significant decline from $14.44 in 2010 and well below the Housing Wage.
- Lowest income households working at the federal minimum wage of $7.25 would have to work 85 hours each week, more than two full time jobs, to afford the national average FMR for a one-bedroom home.
