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The Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University released its annual report, “The State of the Nation’s Housing: 2001,” in June.
According to the report, the lack of affordable housing is beginning to affect not only very low-income households but moderate-income households as well. Following are other noteworthy observations:
• At today’s fair market rental prices, in no state can a two-worker household earning the minimum wage afford a typical two-bedroom apartment according to federal guidelines.
• At the end of the 1990s, twomillion households lived in houseswith serious structural problems.
• In 1999, 700,000 of the United States’ 6.4 million moderate-income renters paid more than30 percent of their incomes for housing—almost a third more than in 1997.
• Federal government programs such as public housing, rent subsidies and vouchers renters can use toward qualified units have been unable
to keep up with the growing need for affordable housing.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reports that in some large cities, families must wait 10 years or more for an available unit. For more information on the Joint Center for Housing Studies, or to read “State of the Nation’s Housing: 2001” online, visit www.gsd.harvard.edu/jcenter/.
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