5. Growing Affordability Crisis
The nation’s affordability crisis continues to grow, according to reports released throughout the course of the year.
According to Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies’ America’s Rental Housing: Expanding Options for Diverse and Growing Demand report released in December, a record-setting number of renter households faced housing cost burdens in 2014.
Of the nation’s 43 million renter households, nearly half—21.3 million in 2014—faced housing cost burdens, spending more than 30% of income on housing and utility costs. This included a record-setting 11.4 million renter households with severe housing cost burdens, meaning they spend more than 50% of income on housing and utility costs.
In addition, the NLIHC highlighted the mismatch between wages and housing costs in its annual Out of Reach report in May.
With wages remaining stagnant or declining across the county and the federal minimum wage of $7.25, full-time minimum-wage workers are having problems finding modest affordable housing in their communities.
In 2015, an American household must earn $19.35 an hour, more than two and a half times the federal minimum wage, to afford a two-bedroom apartment without spending more than 30% of their income on rent. The national housing wage for a one-bedroom unit is $15.50.
The new Make Room campaign, created this year, is giving a voice to those who are struggling to make rent each month. Enterprise Community Partners, with help from CohnReznick, the MacArthur Foundation, and the Ford Foundation, is creating urgency to residents’ struggles by telling the stories of the families and staging living-room concerts with artists such Carly Rae Jepsen. These videos and stories are posted on the campaign website on the first of each month, typically the day rent is due.