Affordable Housing Lacking for Many

WASHINGTON (AP) April 20, 2004 - Nowhere in the country could a minimum-wage employee afford to pay rent on a two-bedroom home, an advocacy group said Wednesday. And in three-quarters of the country, even two full-time, minimum-wage jobs couldn't pay for such housing.

The National Low Income Housing Coalition, in its annual "Out of Reach'' report, found that the average U.S. employee must make nearly three times the federal minimum wage, or about $14.66 an hour, to afford a modest two-bedroom rental and still pay for food and other basic needs.

About one-third of the nation's households are renters, said the Washington-based advocacy group. In the four years since the coalition began its study, the gap between wages and rents has widened, both during times of economic expansion and recession.

"Even as the homeownership rate rises, access to good, affordable rental housing diminishes,'' the report said. "Eventually the number of people who succeed as renters will become so small that the pool of potential homeowners will evaporate.''

Sheila Crowley, the coalition's president, said the problem of finding affordable housing is felt throughout the nation.

"Some places are worse than others, but nowhere is housing affordable,'' she said.

The coalition favors increased federal spending on affordable housing and raising the minimum wage to address the issue.

Last year, about 2.2 million workers earned the federal minimum wage of $5.15 an hour or less, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Sen. Paul Sarbanes, the Maryland Democrat who chairs the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, called the lack of affordable housing a national crisis.

"When housing is unaffordable, families are forced to double or triple up, crowding into places meant for far fewer people. They live in substandard housing, or they must forgo other necessities,'' he said in a statement. "Families should not have to choose between rent and food, or rent and medications.''

The coalition's study is based on the Department of Housing and Urban Development's determinations of "fair market rent'' in states, counties and metropolitan areas. Each jurisdiction's "housing wage'' was then established by calculating how much a person would need to earn per hour to pay no more than 30 percent of income for those rents.

HUD considers housing affordable when it costs 30 percent or less of gross income.

The report found that 37 states had housing wages greater than twice the minimum wage; in nine states, the housing wage was three times the minimum wage.

The two-bedroom housing wages in the study ranged from $37.30 in Marin County, Calif., to $7.11 in parts of Alabama, and $5.94 in portions of Puerto Rico. The report pointed out, however, that low housing wages don't always mean affordable housing. In Puerto Rico, for example, the $5.94 housing wage is greater than the median hourly wage.

Hourly wages, in dollars, a full-time worker must earn to afford to rent a modest two-bedroom home, according to the National Low Incoming Housing Coalition:

State Wage

Ala. 9.31

Alaska 16.19

Ariz. 14.49

Ark. 9.02

Calif. 19.69

Colo. 15.99

Conn. 17.03

Del. 13.79

D.C. 19.21

Fla. 13.98

Ga. 13.83

Hawaii 16.74

Idaho 9.87

Ill. 15.48

Ind. 10.93

Iowa 9.96

Kan. 10.65

Ky. 9.56

La. 10.31

Maine 12.37

Md. 16.82

Mass. 21.14

Mich. 12.96

Minn. 14.64

Miss. 9.05

Mo. 10.80

Mont. 10.19

Neb. 10.22

Nev. 15.54

N.H. 15.77

N.J. 18.85

N.M. 11.12

N.Y. 18.24

N.C. 11.57

N.D. 9.83

Ohio 11.79

Okla. 9.94

Ore. 13.18

Penn. 12.90

R.I. 13.21

S.C. 10.50

S.D. 10.44

Tenn. 10.40

Texas 13.18

Utah 13.14

Vt. 13.58

Va. 14.48

Wash. 14.77

W.Va. 8.72

Wis. 11.46

Wyo. 10.20

Nation 14.66