Affordable Housing Statistics

THE UNITED STATES' HOUSING NEED IS GREAT

More than 30 million U.S. households face one or more of the following housing problems:

Cost burdens: paying an excessively large percentage of income on housing costs. More than 13 million households pay more than 50 percent of their income for housing.

Overcrowding: the number of people living in the house is greater than the total number of rooms in the house. About 6.1 million households live in overcrowded conditions.1

Physical inadequacy: severe physical deficiencies, such as having no hot water, no electricity, no toilet, or neither a bathtub nor a shower. One out of every seven poor families lives in severely physically inadequate housing.2

MORE THAN 11 MILLION AMERICANS FACE WORST-CASE NEEDS

According to a report prepared for Congress in 2003 by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), 5.1 million American households face "worst-case housing needs." These families:

• are renters receiving no government assistance;

• make less than 50 percent of the area median income;

• pay more than 50 percent of their income for rent and utilities and/or live in housing with severe physical deficiencies;

• include some 3.6 million children, 1.6 million elderly adults and 1.3 million disabled adults.3

GOVERNMENT AID IS NOT HELPING MOST OF THOSE IN NEED

Of the 30 million households with housing problems, 14.5 million qualify for government aid, yet only 4.1 million are actually receiving any.

In fact, most of the U.S. government's housing subsidies do not benefit the poor. For example, in 1995, homeowners earning more than $100,000 per year received a total of $28.9 billion in federal income tax deductions on mortgage interest payments. By comparison, the entire 1999 budget of HUD was only $25 billion.4

AFFORDABLE HOUSING IS GETTING HARDER TO FIND

For every 100 very low-income renters, only 76 affordable rental units are currently available. Between 1997 and 2001, the number of available units declined 13 percent; there were 1.8 million fewer units that very low-income renters could afford. 5

To afford the fair-market price of the average U.S. two-bedroom rental unit, renters working full-time need to earn at least $15.28 per hour. That's almost three times the current federal minimum wage, and 37 percent more than renters needed to earn in 1999. 6

For the 14.8 million U.S. households that make $10,000 or less per year, a year's rent costs about 70 percent of their annual income.7

More than 2 million housing units have "severe physical problems." This includes 1.4 million that have severe plumbing problems. About 1.6 million have one or more rooms without electrical outlets.8

CITATIONS:

1 Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies, The State of the Nation's Housing 2004.
2 The U.S. Census Bureau's 1993 American Housing Survey.
3 The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Trends in Worst Case Housing 1978-1999 report, December 2003.
4 Dreier, Peter, "The New Politics of Housing," Journal of the American Planning Association, Vol. 63, No. 1, Winter 1997, American Planning Association, Chicago, Ill. Budget Info for HUD.
5 HUD's Trends in Worst Case Housing 1978-1999.
6 The National Low Income Housing Coalition, Out of Reach 2003: America's Housing Wage Climbs.
7 Income and Poverty: American Fact finder.
8 The United Nations Commission On Human Settlements US Habitat II Progress Report, 1997 through 1999.