Rental Housing Supply for Our Most Vulnerable Families
The National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) has released The Gap, its annual report on rental housing affordability and availability for the nation’s extremely low-income households. These are households at or below poverty level or 30% of area median income, whichever is higher. Using the American Community Survey Public Use Microdata Sample, The Gap examines affordable housing supply and describes the demographics, disability status, employment status, and other characteristics of extremely low-income renters. The national shortage of affordable rental housing affects these vulnerable households the most.
According to the authors’ findings, not a single state has an adequate supply of rental housing affordable to the lowest-income renters. Some of the most populous states, such as California, Texas, and Florida, have the lowest supply of affordable and available housing, with fewer than 30 available and affordable units for every 100 extremely low-income renter households
In addition to housing supply, The Gap also looks at housing cost burden, the proportion of household income that must be used for housing expenses such as rent and utilities. Households that spend more than 30% of their income for housing-related costs are considered cost-burdened. Unsurprisingly, the report found housing cost burden is highest for extremely low-income households. More than 9 million extremely low-income households are cost burdened and 7.6 million are severely cost-burdened, paying more than 50% of income for housing costs. That accounts for 70% of all extremely low-income households, showing these renters are significantly more likely than higher-income households to be severely cost-burdened.
The report’s affordability analysis draws on data from 2019 and shows that, even before the effects of the pandemic were felt, lack of affordable rental housing was already an emergency for millions of families. The Gap illustrates that the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing economic fallout on the lowest-wage workers and lowest-income households have been profound. Job losses and have left many households unable to afford even the modest rents they previously paid and many renters expect to be evicted when eviction moratoriums are no longer in place.
The Gap concludes with a discussion of federal policy solutions for the lowest-income renters. These include short-term solutions such as extending eviction moratoriums and providing emergency rental assistance. They also include long-term solutions like a permanent National Housing Stabilization Fund and expansion of the Housing Choice Voucher program.