For More Information: Kim Schaffer, National Low Income Housing Coalition, 202-662-1530 x230
Housing Affordability Worsens
State of the Nation's Housing 2003 finds 3 in 10 households have affordability problems
By many measures, 2002 was another strong year for housing, but affordability problems continue to plague households, especially those in the lower income brackets, a report released today by the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University finds.
The State of the Nation's Housing 2003 finds that while housing was the one bright spot in an otherwise dismal economy in 2002, three in ten U.S. households have housing affordability problems, with 14.3 million households spending more than half of their income for housing. Between 1997 and 2001, the number of lower-middle and middle-income households spending more than half their incomes on housing surged by more than 700,000. The report attributes these affordability pressures to stagnating income among lower-income households and rising housing costs.
"Once again, the State of the Nation's Housing provides us with a comprehensive and compelling picture of our country's housing conditions," said NLIHC President Sheila Crowley. "It is appalling, but not surprising, that affordability problems for people with the lowest incomes continue to worsen. Without a public investment in housing, the gap between what people earn and what housing costs will continue to grow."
Other findings related to housing affordability include:
# The gap between the number of renter households in the bottom quintile of income and the number of housing units they can afford stands at 2 million. In other words, there are 9.9 million renter households with incomes in the lowest 20 percent of income distribution, yet only 7.9 million units are affordable to these households. Further, 2.7 million of the homes affordable to these lowest income households are occupied by higher income households. (p.28)
# The already scarce supply of smaller, less costly housing is shrinking, with especially sharp losses among two- to four-unit apartment buildings. The Northeast has had a net loss of approximately 264,000 rental units since 1993, while the Midwest lost 240,000. (p.20)
# Only 34 percent of the nation's 9.9 million lowest-income renter households -- those in the bottom fifth of the income distribution -- receive assistance to help offset the gap between what housing costs and what they can afford. (p.4)
The full report includes additional data on housing and the economy; immigrant and minority influences on the housing market; and wealth, income and homeownership disparities. It is available at www.jchs.harvard.edu/publications/markets/son2003.pdf.
More information about the National Low Income Housing Coalition is available at www.nlihc.org.
National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) 1012 Fourteenth Street NW, Suite 610, Washington, D.C. 20005 202/662-1530; Fax 202/393-1973; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Homepage: http://www.nlihc.org/ Current Memo to Members: http://www.nlihc.org/current.htm Join NLIHC: http://www.nlihc.org/about/join.htm *****
***** Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2003 12:13:04 -0400 From: Institute for Public Accuracy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: * Estate Tax * Minimum Wage * Housing Crisis To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] List-Subscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Institute for Public Accuracy 915 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045 (202) 347-0020 * http://www.accuracy.org * [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___________________________________________________
Wednesday, June 18, 2003
Interviews Available: * Estate Tax * Minimum Wage * Housing Crisis
CHUCK COLLINS, [EMAIL PROTECTED], http://www.responsiblewealth.org
Today the House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on a permanent repeal of the estate tax. Collins is co-founder of United for a Fair Economy and co-author, with William Gates Sr., of "Wealth and Our Commonwealth: Why America Should Tax Accumulated Fortunes." Collins said today: "The bill to permanently repeal the federal estate tax will reduce federal revenue by almost $1 trillion over the next 20 years. The estate tax currently affects only millionaires -- people with the richest 2 percent of estates. Nearly half of all estate taxes are paid by the wealthiest 0.1 percent of the American population -- a few thousand families each year. The estate tax is a transfer tax on the unearned inheritance of large amounts of wealth; the bulk of the largest estates are appreciated assets, which have never been taxed. If we tax wages, it is only fair to tax capital gains."
HOLLY SKLAR, [EMAIL PROTECTED], http://www.raisethefloor.org
JUDITH SELZER, (212) 709-4427, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Wednesday, June 25 is the 65th anniversary of the day President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 establishing the first federal minimum wage. Sklar, co-author of the book "Raise The Floor: Wages and Policies That Work For All Of Us," said today: "The minimum wage has been stuck at $5.15 an hour since 1997, amounting to nearly 40 percent less in real terms compared to 1968 -- it would take $8.45 to match the 1968 level in today's dollars. At the Minimum Wage Challenge (which the Ms. Foundation for Women will launch at www.raisethefloor.org on June 25), visitors can contrast today's minimum wage income of $10,712 a year with national Minimum Needs Budgets and their own personalized budgets. At the current rate, a single parent with one child would have to work more than two full-time minimum wage jobs, while a couple with two children would have to work more than three full-time minimum wage jobs to make ends meet.... In a 2002 poll, an overwhelming 77 percent of voters favored increasing the minimum wage from $5.15 to $8 an hour. Moreover, 79 percent favored regularly raising the minimum wage to keep up with inflation."
SHEILA CROWLEY, [EMAIL PROTECTED], http://www.nlihc.org
President of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, Crowley said today: "The 'State of the Nation's Housing' report issued yesterday by the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University finds that ... three in ten U.S. households have housing affordability problems, with 14.3 million households spending more than half of their income for housing.... In a study of maternal health and infant mortality among poor women, the single most important factor as to whether or not poor children lived to one year of age was if their mothers had stable housing during pregnancy and the babies' first year. Clearly, failure to address the affordable housing crisis has far-reaching consequences for the well-being of individual children and the nation as a whole."
For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy: Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167
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Yoshie
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