America's Poorest People Running Out Of Places To Live: Study

The poorest people in America are running out of places to live.

In every state in the country, there are people looking for cheap rental housing -- and in every state, there aren't enough units available, according to a report released Wednesday by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, a nonprofit organization.

"The existence of the gap is not a matter of debate," the report notes.

The findings highlight the increasingly desperate situation of people who work but don't earn much, and who are finding themselves priced out of the rental market as more and more Americans look for alternatives to traditional homeownership.

For every 100 households that earn less than one-third of the median income for their region, according to the report, there are only 30 affordable and available rental units -- meaning, places to live that aren't dilapidated, prohibitively expensive, too far from public transportation, or already occupied by someone earning a higher salary.

There might be more affordable housing options available for the poor if the housing market and the economy overall weren't so weak. Since the recession took hold, though, many people have found themselves lacking the money or the credit to make a major purchase like a house.

Meanwhile, nearly five years of slumping prices has led many financially stable people to rent temporary accommodations instead of buying a home that might only keep declining in value. In a sign of the swelling demand for rental property, apartment vacancies had fallen to their lowest level in a decade by late 2011.

That's bad news for cash-strapped Americans who have traditionally depended on the rental market to keep a roof over their heads. In the absence of affordable rental units, a growing number of people are doubling up with friends and family, and analysts say the national homelessness rate is poised to begin climbing soon as federal funding for housing programs dries up.

In general, a wide swath of the population is living in financially precarious circumstances, with one in every five households saying they sometimes struggle to afford food, and nearly half of all households just one emergency away from falling below the poverty line.

Comments

[fistofthejedi]

10:07 PM on 03/03/2012

And its going to get worse as more and more people begin to live on this earth.

[themodernleader]

12:20 AM on 03/02/2012

Around here the school elite, the municipal government elite, the political elite, the township and county elite; finally, the massive state government elite have cradle to death benefits of their employment and most drive late model or new cars.  Meanwhile the property taxes are causing our private employed and unemployed citizens to abandon their homes.  Money is drying up as the mandarin government employees refuse to sacrifice with lower salaries and benefits to relieve the local taxpayers.  The prevailing mood is everyone for himself.  What's mine is mine.  To hell with everyone else.  Citizenship and sense of duty for the common weal is at an all time low.

[Grannyover70]

11:14 AM on 03/02/2012

You are targeting the wrong people. This is what the Koch Bros., et al want you to believe.

[themodernleader]

06:37 PM on 03/02/2012

   My property taxes are increasing over 10% a year.  People are abandoning their homes because of high taxes added on to prohibitive mortgages.  Public unions have turned governments into inward looking organizations of self-serving  public servants instead of properly, efficiently carrying out their mandated purposes.  Public unions are an enemy of self-governance.  Private unions are indispensable  to protecting the employees from exploitation.  Public unions use political pressure to exploit the public taxpayers.

[Gary Strawley]

04:13 AM on 03/01/2012

Wait till the gop gets done!!!

[mater]

05:28 AM on 02/29/2012

Here's a hideous sci-fi vision---the govt "provides" housing for all the disenfranchised people. Then, they can't be accused of shipping them off anywhere--they're "helping" them. As to all the amenities for survival, who knows. But the banks who refused to work something out with the homeowners who lost their homes--they aren't going to care. Who will care? I would crazy love to be wrong. But the homeless on the streets are "unsightly". And after the govt slashes and burns social security, medicare, food stamps, clinics, and more, there will be millions more without any means at all to live. Then, with the droughts, fires, tornadoes, floods of spring and summer, making more land uninhabitable, and the fracking and pipeline work ruining water and land, there is no place to GO.

[Happylib]

11:09 PM on 02/20/2012

The corporate-owned apartments I live in have all kinds of schemes to squeeze every penny from the residents. They reduce any kind of consumer choice and force us to use one cable company and they force this thing called Valet Trash on us. This scam is 35.00 a month for someone to pick up one bag of trash on our porch five days a week. The dumpster is approximately 10 feet from my apartment. You move in, pay all the deposits, and then the schemes begin. To move would be so costly that I continue to pay for the trash scam, never use it, use the forced cable company even though it is 50% more than other companies. The United States of Corporate America is here, folks. You might as well figure out how to fit in and walk the walk. It will not change. The right has won and the propagandized sheep are too many.

[Fancy Cat]

12:05 AM on 03/01/2012

Nope it will not continue. Jobs are never coming back due to technology taking them and it will get worse. Look up the resource based economy and the Venus Project for the direction we are moving in. The Zeitgeist Movement and others like it support the RBE. This can't continue and it is not going to.

[Gary Strawley]

04:17 AM on 03/01/2012

YES!!! the corporations own the gop congress so they will aways rop you by law!!!

[sarahg1243]

12:02 PM on 04/12/2012

Elite, wealthy, corporatists own the ENTIRE congress, pal, not just republicans. When are Americans going to get it in their heads that the entire government is bought and paid for by this robber-baron cast that is dominating and controlling this country and its people?? Republicans and democrats are both rotten to the core and are totally int he service of elites.

[Grannyover70]

06:21 PM on 02/20/2012

One person making near minimum wage cannot afford rent in this area; two people
with one child cannot afford rent, either. If they have one car (no public transportation)
they have to figure out how to get both people to work and the child to the sitter and
reverse the procedure later. Can't you see that that leads to hopelessness?

One couple had a small apartment and a new manager increased the rent by $200 overnight.
The cost was already too much. That is why more people have to live with their parent.

Maybe we need rent controls again, or better yet higher minimum wages. It has been
proven that minimum wages do not cause less employment, nor is it true that only
teenagers have low-paying jobs. Anyone can look around and see this problem if
they care to open their eyes and brain.

[AvgJoeBlow]

09:43 AM on 02/29/2012

I here you, sure seems to me we are pursuing the Mexican model, than look to the Germans.
Yeh, American Exceptionalism.

[Fancy Cat]

12:06 AM on 03/01/2012

Look at my post above. One day you will not have to use money at all and no barter. Resource based economy.

[Charles Deihl]

04:57 PM on 02/20/2012

A couple with 2 children 5 months old & 12 yrs old,can't get Housing cause it was shut down in Monroe County Pa along with Section 8.They lost their Home to Forecloser & are waiting to be Evicted.Father only makes $10.25 a hour. They applied for Help,but was turned down.And with all the up front fees to Rent they can't afford first payment.There are MANY other PEOPLE out there in this same Boat.So when is enough going to be enough and OUR so-called Elected Officials start doing their JOBS of Looking out for the Interest of the PEOPLE ? !!!!

[AvgJoeBlow]

09:44 AM on 02/29/2012

Out of sight, out of mind only works so long.

[RightRealDeal]

01:38 PM on 02/20/2012

Property and local taxes are out of control. Most don't mention those but local gov't's spend far too much.

[muck-raker]

08:04 AM on 02/20/2012

today many municipalities and counties are raising RE taxes to make up for their spending beyond original budget...

[mater]

05:32 AM on 02/29/2012

And school districts and shrieking parents are leading THAT charge! Instead of kids learning with all that they currently have, there's always more to want , at the expense and pressure to a limited group of homeowners who have been pressured as not "loving the children, who are our future" BS over and over again. When states find out they have a surprise surplus, they don't throw it back into school districts to offset the tax burdens, they keep it and use it as a "cushion".

[tjconkster]

11:33 PM on 02/19/2012

Whatever happened to the Rent is too Damn Party? That guy cracked me up..but he made a good point...

http://www.rentistoodamnhigh.org/

[Tricia W]

07:47 PM on 02/19/2012

The GOP has the rarefied view that all economic growth is good
and will help the poor.
.
AKA: “a glorified version of trickle down economics.”
.
and they call it: "rain".

[kenl77]

12:31 PM on 02/19/2012

The poor in third world cites used to live on cardboard covered sidewalks, except in colder climates where they did not live at all.

Now that some of these homesless have jobs outsourced from America, they live in warehouses making making starvation wages.

Americans had better pray that climate change isn't a hoax. They'll need warmer weather on those sidewalks.

[Kenz300]

12:05 PM on 02/19/2012

With all these foreclosed and bank owned homes you would think that they would be rented out rather than allowed to sit empty and deteriorate.

[FOXYROSE]

10:41 AM on 02/19/2012

It's not just supply and demand that is raising rental rates; property taxes, insurance and repairs all play into the cost of rentals - that cost has gone up considerably over the years.

[kimahely]

12:08 PM on 02/19/2012

You hit the nail on the head ! My taxes have more than doubled in 5 years!

[FOXYROSE]

04:49 PM on 02/19/2012

I live in Upstate NY and my property taxes are choaking me!

[El Chingaso]

04:09 PM on 02/19/2012

No kidding. Net income from rentals is also on skid row -- even with properties that contain 100% equity.

[FOXYROSE]

04:53 PM on 02/19/2012

With a shrinking middle class and growing poor, things are only going to get worse. The Gov gives and takes away w/o understanding the end game and how it effects people and the economy. We have lawyers running the Gov not economists, look at the mess they have made. They are either dumb or corrupt or both.

[stargazer13]

08:45 AM on 02/19/2012

because we won't let them live in all those empty house,s

duh !!