NLIHC Report: Wages Don’t Cover the Cost of Housing in Every Corner of the Country

Dr. Bambie Hayes-Brown, president and CEO of Georgia Advancing Communities Together, Inc., writes for the SaportaReport to spread awareness about "Out of Reach 2022: The High Cost of Housing," published by the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) at the end of July.

“The report highlights the mismatch between the wages people earn and the price of decent rental housing in every state, metropolitan area, and county in the U.S.,” explains Hayes-Brown. “The report also calculates the ‘Housing Wage’ a full-time worker must earn to afford a rental home without spending more than 30% of their income on housing costs.”

As for the report’s findings: “This year’s national Housing Wage is $25.82 per hour for a modest two-bedroom home at fair market rent and $21.25 per hour for a modest one-bedroom home,” writes Hayes-Brown. In no state, metropolitan area, or county, in the country can a resident making minimum wage afford a modest two-bedroom house, “and these workers cannot afford modest one-bedroom apartments in 91% of U.S. counties.”

Writing from Georgia, Hayes-Brown focuses on specifics from the Georgia economy before producing a call to action for affordable housing production. Investments, according to Hayes-Brown, should include:

• Expanding the national Housing Trust Fund.
• Establishing local and a state housing trust funds.
• Expanding access to rental assistance to every eligible household in need. Creating a permanent national housing stabilization fund.
• Strengthening and enforcing renter protections.
• More data on the state oof the housing market in Georgia, and those policy recommendations listed above, are found in the source article below.

More data on the state oof the housing market in Georgia, and those policy recommendations listed above, are found in the source article below.