A new HUD study is suggesting that while much of America is focused on getting bigger and better homes, the people on the other end of the spectrum are having a harder time finding and affording decent housing, and the safety nets may be failing.

According to HUD, the number of low-income households not receiving any government housing assistance and either paying more than half their income for housing, or living in severely distressed housing, reached 5.4 million as of 1997 (the most recent data available). That number is 4 percent higher than it was in 1995 and 12 percent higher than it was in 1991.

Making matters worse is that very little affordable housing is being built while aging buildings are being destroyed at an ever faster rate.

"Federal rental assistance is critical for working families with worst case needs, whose incomes are increasingly are consumed by rent, leaving them less able to spend on food, medical care, education, or other necessities," the report concludes.

The report urges Congress to fund roughly 120,000 new incremental Section 8 housing assistance vouchers.

According to the report, the stock of affordable housing is declining, with a 5 percent overall drop from 1991 to 1997 in the number of rental units affordable to families with incomes below 30 percent of area median income.

The report said that of America's 275 million people, about 12.3 million individuals (including children) live in distress housing. That count does not include people considered "homeless."

Perhaps the most chilling findings were that working families appear to be losing their hold on the bottom rung of the housing ladder.

Between 1991 and 1997, worst case needs increased more than three times as quickly for households with full-time earners than for all other very-low-income renters.

Between 1991 and 1997, the number of worst case households with earnings equivalent to full-time work at the minimum wage increased by 28 percent.

"This growth is more than three times the growth rate in worst case needs for all other very-low-income households, which over the same period rose by 8 percent."

The report said 1 in every 3 families who have worst case needs have earnings representing full-time work at or above the minimum wage.

Growth in worst case needs was fastest among working families with children. Between 1995 and 1997 alone the number of worst case working families with children increased by 17 percent, while between 1991 and 1997 the number with needs grew by 29 percent.

The number of rental units affordable to families with incomes below 30 percent of area median income fell by about 370,000 units from 1991 and 1997.

The report said in 1997, for every 100 households with incomes at or below 30 percent of median income, there were only 36 units both affordable to them and available for rent by them.

Published: April 10, 2000

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