The number of very poor families struggling to pay their monthly rent and living in substandard housing increased between 2013 and 2015, according to a report by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
In 2015, 8.3 million very low-income unassisted families paid more than half their monthly income for rent, lived in severely substandard housing, or both. HUD refers to this as “worst case housing needs.” HUD Secretary Ben Carson said the increase is the result of an affordable housing crisis in the United States.
“Two years ago, our nation was still feeling the aftershocks of our housing recession with rents growing faster than many families’ incomes,” Carson said. “After years of trying to keep up with rising rents, it’s time we take a more holistic look at how government at every level, working with the private market and others, can ease the pressure being felt by too many un-assisted renters. Today’s affordable rental housing crisis requires that we take a more business-like approach on how the public sector can reduce the regulatory barriers so the private markets can produce more housing for more families.”
Demand for affordable housing is growing faster than the construction of homes working families can afford to rent, especially in high-cost areas of the country. The Trump Administration is seeking to stimulate the production and preservation of affordable housing by pursuing housing finance reform, which would unwind the Federal government’s role in the private mortgage market to ease the stress on rental markets.
HUD’s report finds that housing needs cut across all regions of the country and include all racial and ethnic groups, regardless of whether they live in cities, suburbs or rural areas. In addition, HUD concluded that large numbers of worst case needs were also found across various household types including families with children, senior citizens, and persons with disabilities.
The prevalence of worst case needs during 2015 was 47 percent for Hispanic renters, 45 percent for non-Hispanic White renters, 37 percent for non-Hispanic Black renters, and 41 percent for others.
Regionally, the South and West were home to most very low-income renters. By metropolitan type, worst case needs were most prevalent in densely populated urban suburbs, followed by central cities.
While the number of worst case housing needs increased from 2013, the number remains lower than the nearly 8.5 million households that fell into this category in 2011. Looking at the long-term trend line, the number of households with worst case needs has increased by 66 percent since 2001, with historic increases occurring between 2007 and 2011 when the combination of mortgage foreclosures, widespread unemployment, and shrinking renter incomes dramatically expanded severe housing problems.
While incomes continued to rise between 2013 and 2015, rents also increased nearly as fast. For the poorest renters, however, growth in rental costs outpaced income gains.