Press Statement from the National Low Income Housing Coalition
As housing costs continue to increase faster than wages, millions of working families will spend the holidays struggling to pay for their homes, while many others will bring in the New Year without a home at all.
Out of Reach: 2004, a report released today by the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) finds that the national Housing Wage for 2004 is $15.37, or $31,970 a year, almost three times the federal minimum wage. The housing wage represents the amount a full-time worker must earn to be able to afford the rent for a modest two-bedroom home while paying no more than 30% of income fro housing. Working families, the elderly, and people with disabilities struggle to pay for their homes and are left to make impossible choices among necessities.
Out of Reach calculates the Housing Wage for every state, region and county in the U.S. and reports that in no community, city, county, or state is housing affordable to low wage workers. Other findings include:
- Families with extremely low incomes (those at 30% or below the area's median income) continue to face the most severe affordability problems. There is not a single metropolitan area where an extremely low income family can be assured of finding a modest two bedroom rental home that is affordable.
- Those families with the most barriers to finding and keeping a modest rental home are those earning the minimum wage. According to the 2004 numbers, housing is out of reach in more counties across the country than ever before, even for a working family with two fulltime minimum wage workers. Renter households in over 990 counties, home to almost 79% of all renter households in the nation, must have at least 80 hours a week of work at the local minimum wage to afford a two bedroom apartment at the local fair market rent.
"Out of Reach shows both the depth and breadth of the housing shortage in our country. The gap between what people earn and what their housing costs is stark," said Sheila Crowley, President of the National Low Income Housing Coalition. "For the one third of the nation paying too much for their homes, the consequences of ends that do not meet are all too real."
The report will be released at 1 p.m. Eastern Standard Time during a conference call with press on Monday, December 20. Speakers on the call will include Crowley and Danilo Pelletiere of the National Low Income Housing Coalition. Both speakers will be available for questions during and after the call.
According to Out of Reach: 2004, the least affordable states and their Housing Wages are:
1. California $21.24
2. Massachusetts $20.93
3. New Jersey $20.35
4. Maryland $18.25
5. New York $18.18
6. Connecticut $17.90
7. Hawaii $17.60
8. Alaska $17.07
9. Nevada $16.92
10. New Hampshire $16.79
The least affordable Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) and their Housing Wages are San Francisco, California ($29.60) and Stamford-Norwalk, Connecticut ($27.63).
Fair Market Rents
Please find out more about the Fair Market Rents in 2005 in Appendix A at <http://www.nlihc.org/oor2004/appendixa.htm>.
Methodology
For each jurisdiction, the report calculates the amount of money a household must earn to afford a rental unit of a range of sizes at the area's Fair Market Rent (FMR), based on the generally accepted affordability standard of paying no more than 30% of income for housing costs. The FMR is the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) best estimate of what a person seeking housing would have to pay for a modest rental unit in the local market. For the majority of jurisdictions the FMR is defined by HUD as "the dollar amount below which 40 percent of the standard quality rental housing units rent." In some metropolitan areas, this is set to the 50th percentile due to generally high costs and high geographic concentrations of affordable housing. (See Appendix B at <http://www.nlihc.org/oor2004/appendixb.htm for more details on methodology and data used.)
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About the National Low Income Housing Coalition: Established in 1974, the National Low Income Housing Coalition/LIHIS is dedicated solely to ending America's affordable housing crisis. NLIHC educates, organizes, and advocates to ensure decent, affordable housing within healthy neighborhoods for everyone. NLIHC provides up-to-date information, formulates policy, and educates the public on housing needs and strategies for solutions. www.nlihc.org.
