{"id":6013,"date":"2024-02-03T04:27:13","date_gmt":"2024-02-03T04:27:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/?p=6013"},"modified":"2024-02-13T04:51:44","modified_gmt":"2024-02-13T04:51:44","slug":"harvard-report-blacks-latinos-hit-hardest-by-all-time-high-rental-costs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/?p=6013","title":{"rendered":"Harvard Report: Blacks, Latinos Hit Hardest By All-Time High Rental Costs"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>More Than 12M Families Now Pay Half Their Income on Housing<\/h2>\n<p>by\u00a0<span class=\"author vcard\"><a class=\"url fn n\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtoninformer.com\/author\/charlene-crowell-special-to-the-informer\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Charlene Crowell, Special to The Informer<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p>A new report on rental housing from Harvard\u2019s Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS) makes clear why so many people are dissatisfied with the nation\u2019s economy. Released in late January, the report \u2014\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.jchs.harvard.edu\/americas-rental-housing-2024\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">\u201cAmerica\u2019s Rental Housing 2024\u201d<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 documents how ever-rising rental costs are burdening people in every state of the country.<\/p>\n<p>In 2022, a record high of 22.4 million cost-burdened renter households rose by two million families since 2019. Affordable housing should cost no\u00a0more than 30% of total household income.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMedian rents have risen nearly continuously since 2001<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>in inflation-adjusted terms and are 21 percent higher as of 2022,\u201d states\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.jchs.harvard.edu\/americas-rental-housing-2024\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">JCHS<\/a>. \u201cMeanwhile, renters\u2019 incomes have risen just 2 percent during the same period. \u2026 Among cost-burdened households, 12.1 million had housing costs that consumed more than half of their income, an all-time high for severe burdens.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1 \">\n<div class=\"newspack_global_ad scaip-1 fixed-height\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-caf9af3267-0\">At the same time, eviction filings have returned to pre-pandemic levels in 2023 as relief measures expired. A record-setting 653,100 people were unhoused on a given night in January 2023, an increase of nearly 71,000 people in just one year. Once more, Blacks and Latinos are disproportionately affected. Black people are 37% of all unhoused people but just 13% of the U.S. population; while Latinos, representing 28% of homeless people are less than 20% of the population.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Ironically, according to the report, cost-burdened renters include people with full-time jobs with a span of incomes that some may find surprising.<\/p>\n<p>While all income groups had increasing cost-burden rates from 2019 to 2022, middle-income renters making $45,000 to $74,999 saw their cost-burdened share rise the fastest with a 5.4 percentage point increase to 41%. Additionally, 8 million cost-burdened households were headed by a full-time, year-round worker.<\/p>\n<p>Among the 14.6 million renter households comprising the working poor \u2014 those earning $30,000 or less each year \u2014 had median cash savings of just $300 and total net wealth of only $3,200. They were also the most likely to live in substandard housing with multiple problems such as structural deficiencies, a lack of upkeep, or the inconsistent provision of basic features such as hot and cold running water, heat, and electricity. Households with lower incomes and households of color are disproportionately exposed to substandard conditions.<\/p>\n<p>Long-standing federal programs like HUD\u2019s Housing Voucher Program, better known as Section 8, were intended to provide sanitary, standard housing for low and middle-income families. But today\u2019s reality reveals a much different experience.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-2 \">\n<div class=\"newspack_global_ad scaip-2 fixed-height\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-2bd992b9b0-0\">In 2022, HUD\u2019s Housing Choice Vouchers assisted 2.3 million households, covering the difference between 30% of a household\u2019s income and their area\u2019s fair market rent. Their usage, however, depends upon participation by private-market landlords, who are not required to accept the vouchers in most places. Additionally, program rules and timelines discourage some landlords from participating. According to the report, 40% of people who receive a voucher are unable to secure a signed lease in the allotted time.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cNationwide, states and cities also generate about $3 billion annually through housing trust funds to meet local housing needs,\u201d states the report. \u201cAll of these efforts are crucial but fall short of the growing need. \u2026 In 2022, just 7.2 million units had contract rents under $600 \u2014 the maximum amount affordable to the 26 percent of renters with annual incomes under $24,000. This marks a loss of 2.1 million units since 2012, when adjusting for inflation. The spike in asking rents during the pandemic accelerated the trend, with more than half a million low-rent units lost just between 2019 and 2022.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For Diane Yentl, president and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, the nation\u2019s dearth of affordable housing is at a crisis level.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWithout affordable, available housing options and higher incomes, more than 10 million of America\u2019s lowest-income households, disproportionately people of color, pay at least half their income on rent and utilities,\u201d said\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/nlihc.org\/news\/nlihc-statement-congresss-bipartisan-tax-proposal\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Yentl<\/a>\u00a0in a recent statement. \u201cWith so much money going to keep a roof over their heads, renters with the lowest incomes are forced to live precariously, always one unexpected expense \u2014 for a broken-down car or unreimbursed medical bill \u2014 away from housing instability, eviction, and, in the worst cases, homelessness.\u00a0Yet Congress only provides housing assistance to\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbpp.org\/research\/housing\/federal-housing-spending-is-poorly-matched-to-need\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">one in four<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0eligible households.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The JCHS report reached a similar conclusion:<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-3 \">\n<div class=\"newspack_global_ad scaip-3 fixed-height\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-dc2e0e383b-0\">\u201cThe instability caused by a lack of affordable housing bleeds over to other public spending, threatening the well-being of millions of people. \u2026 With housing challenges growing ever more severe, now is the time to make a fuller commitment to ensuring that all people living in the U.S. have a decent, safe, and affordable place to call home.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Source: Published without changes from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtoninformer.com\/affordable-housing-crisis-2024\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Washington Informer Newspaper<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>More Than 12M Families Now Pay Half Their Income on Housing by\u00a0Charlene Crowell, Special to The Informer A<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6017,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-regular-column"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6013"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6013\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6016,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6013\/revisions\/6016"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}