For the online .pdf version of their print report click here--->http://nlihc.org/sites/default/files/oor/2014OOR.pdf
The NLIHC released its annual report. Some highlights:
Quote:
In the United States, the 2014 two-bedroom Housing Wage is $18.92. This national average is more than two-and-a-half times the federal minimum wage, and 52% higher than it was in 2000. In no state can a full-time minimum wage worker afford a one-bedroom or a two-bedroom rental unit at Fair Market Rent
Quote:
For every 100 extremely low income (ELI) renter households, there are just 31 affordable and available units.
Quote:
Although nearly a third (28%) of renter households live below the federal poverty line and a quarter of renters are ELI, most newly constructed units are for high income households, while older units are being upgraded to serve a higher income market. Only 34% of new units in 2011 were affordable to the median income renter. Meanwhile, over 12.8% of the nation’s supply of low cost housing, or 650,000 units, have been permanently lost since 2001. The supply of subsidized rental housing is also steadily shrinking, with a loss of 10,000 public housing units each year.
Quote:
three in four (75%) ELI renters spend over 50% of their income on housing costs.
Quote:
While ELI renter households may qualify for federal and local subsidy programs, housing assistance programs are oversubscribed and three-quarters of eligible households go unassisted. Low income households desperately in need of housing find themselves on years-long waiting lists, or find that waiting lists for affordable housing in their area are closed entirely. For example, in April 2013, the DC Housing Authority decided to close its waiting list of nearly 70,000 applicants when the average wait time for a studio apartment was 39 years and 28 years for a one-bedroom unit.
Quote:
About 8.3 million individuals receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI) because they are elderly, blind, or have another disability, and have few economic resources. The maximum federal monthly SSI payment is $721 in 2014. On this income, an SSI recipient can afford rent of only $216 a month. There is not a single county in the U.S. where even a modest efficiency apartment is affordable for an individual receiving the maximum federal SSI benefit.
Quote:
On average, it takes 2.6 full-time minimum wage jobs to afford a modest two-bedroom unit in the United States.
Quote:
The national 2014 two bedroom Housing Wage is nearly $9 higher than the proposed $10.10 federal minimum wage.
Summaries by state are on pages 16-17; details by county/major metropolitan area are listed by state beginning on page 18 with Alabama. If you're in the US, check out your neck of the woods.
Before you are tempted to dismiss this as some liberal/democrat/socialist propaganda, check out where all of their info came from (page 10 for a brief overview; the appendices for detailed info and methodology).
_________________
"The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently" -Nietzsche
15 Apr 2014, 1:44 pm
