It's the inflation in-your-little-corner of the world that matters:
Affordable-housing shortage overtaking working families
By Haya El Nasser
USA TODAY
WASHINGTON -- Despite economic prosperity, one out of 10 working
families earning as much as $70,000 a year in some cities can't afford
decent housing without spending more than half their income, according to a
report out today.
Because wages are not keeping up with skyrocketing housing prices and
because there is not enough affordable housing being built, a growing
number of moderate-income families face a housing crisis, says the report
by The Center for Housing Policy.
''Even families who work and play by the rules don't have a decent place to
live,'' says Michael Stegman, professor at the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill and lead author of the study. ''Policymakers have to
understand this is a very serious problem.''
The report by the non-profit research arm of the National Housing
Conference, a housing affordability advocacy group, is the first to look at the
housing problems of moderate-income working families instead of the poor
and unemployed.
''Most analysis focuses on housing issues for very low-income families,''
says Margery Austin Turner, a housing expert at the Urban Institute. ''This
says that even if a family is working, they can't afford the basic element of a
decent quality of life.''
The research focused on working families in 17 metropolitan areas that earn
from the full-time minimum wage of $10,700 a year to 120% of the median
income where they live (half of families earn more than the median income,
half earn less). In the San Francisco area, for example, 120% of the annual
median income is more than $70,000.
Nationally, the most up-to-date numbers in 1997 showed that 3 million
families, or about 10%, have critical housing needs. That's 17% more than in
1995.
Stegman, a former official at the Department of Housing and Urban
Development, says recent anecdotal evidence of teachers and firefighters
who can't afford to live in the communities they serve showed that the
problem is only getting worse. ''The market is catering to people who can
afford more,'' he says. Anti-sprawl measures that restrict construction
contribute to the problem.
The government and private sector need to do more to help the working
class, Stegman says. He suggests property tax breaks and subsidized
mortgages, which now are available only to the very poor.
The study, which looked at renters and homeowners, shows:
* 76% of the 3 million moderate-income families who are in a housing bind
spend more than half of their incomes on housing; the rest live in
substandard housing.
* Slightly more than half of these families live in the suburbs; more than half
own their homes.
* The supply of affordable housing is tight in some markets. In Boston,
almost 31,000 families could afford to buy a $100,000-$125,000 home in
1998, but only 1,255 homes in that price range were available. |
