The nation has a shortage of 7 million rental homes that are affordable and available to extremely low-income renters whose household incomes are at or below the poverty guideline or 30% of their area median income, reports the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC).
Among states, the supply of affordable and available rental homes ranges from only 18 for every 100 extremely low-income renter households in Nevada to 61 in West Virginia. Among the 50 largest metropolitan areas in the U.S, the supply ranges from 13 affordable and available rental homes for every 100 extremely low-income renter households in Las Vegas to 50 in Providence, Rhode Island, according to NLIHC’s “The Gap: A Shortage of Affordable Homes” report.
No state has an adequate supply of affordable and available homes for extremely low-income renters.
Overall, 7.8 million of the nation’s 11 million extremely low-income renter households are severely housing cost-burdened, spending more than half of their incomes on rent and utilities. They account for 72% of all severely housing cost-burdened renters in the U.S.
People of color are much more likely than white people to be renters and have extremely low incomes. Twenty percent of Black households, 18% of American Indian or Alaska Native households, 15% of Latino households, and 10% of Asian households are extremely low-income renters. Only 6% of white non-Latino households are extremely low-income renters.
Researchers also cite the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic during the past two years, with nearly 8 million renters reporting that they were behind on rent in January 2021 and 5.5 million renter households still behind in March 2022.
Still, the situation could have been worse if the federal government had not taken action with an eviction moratorium and emergency rental assistance, the NLIHC stated.
Now, a sustained commitment to affordable housing is needed, including retaining the housing investments that were included in the Build Back Better bill, which stalled in the Senate last year, according to the report.