Report Demonstrates Need For Housing Initiatives

The Coalition’s report, titled Out of Reach 2000, concludes that in virtually every state and every metropolitan area, a large percentage of low-income Americans – especially those earning only the minimum wage – are unable to afford decent rental housing. The report’s authors found that there is no single U.S. jurisdiction where minimum wage workers can afford the rent for a typical apartment in their communities. According to the report, in order to afford a typical rent for a two-bedroom rental unit in the U.S., a worker would have to earn $12.47 per hour, more than twice the current federal minimum wage of $5.15 per hour. In other words, a worker earning minimum wage would have to work 97 hours a week to afford the typical rent for a two-bedroom rental unit.