An eye opening article was just published, referring to an onslaught of people that are being referred to as the “Newly Poor”.
Gary Madden, the director of San Bernardino County 2-1-1, states this….”We’re on track for about 70,000 calls this year for people needing some kind of assistance,” said Madden, adding that 60 to 65 percent of those calls are for people unable to pay for basic needs, such as utilities, food or rent or mortgage payments.
A new study released by Washington, D.C.-based group that favors increased government activity to help low-income earners afford housing concludes that life could get harder for those who already have trouble paying rent. “Competition — not just for rental housing, but for low-cost rental housing — could become particularly fierce because an estimated 40 percent of the households displaced by foreclosure are renters,” is one finding of the National Low Income Housing Coalition’s new report, which was released Tuesday. The report, titled “Out of Reach 2009”.
Besides the Coalition’s assertion that an influx of newly foreclosed-upon renters will make it hard for many people to find a place to live, the organization also reports that many people simply do not earn enough to afford an apartment.
The Coalition reports that the 2009 “fair market rent” for a two bedroom Inland Empire apartment is $1,125. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development defines fair market rent as “the dollar amount below which 40 percent of the standard-quality rental housing units are rented.”
The figure includes utilities like gas and electrical bills but not telephone, cable television or Internet expenses.
The Coalition estimates that an Inland Empire resident needs to earn $21.63 per hour to pay fair market rent in a two-bedroom apartment without spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing.
However, the estimated mean renter wage in the Inland Empire is only $11.49, according to the Coalition.
The organization further reports that 60 percent of Inland Empire renters earning the median regional renter household income of $36,656 cannot afford to rent a two-bedroom apartment in the Inland Empire unless household members work 75 hours per week.
Danna Fischer, the Coalition’s legislative director and a former Freddie Mac senior director, maintained that her group’s report illustrates a need for increased government efforts to build housing and subsidize rents for low income Americans.
…..So that’s the basic article.
Call me crazy, but I think asking the government to build housing and subsidizes renters is flat out Stupid, and for “Danna Fischer”…this suggestion is job security!
Do we really need to “build” more housing???? If asking the government is a viable solution, let’s mandate banks that received Government subsidies use their REO inventory as rentals and make the rents affordable for the average wage earner that has lost their home!
http://www.nlihc.org/oor/oor2009/oor2009pub.pdf
