Rent burdens for low-income families getting worse in major cities

A recent report by New York University’s Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy (funded by Capital One Financial Corp) examined the rental housing markets for the central cities in the 11 most populous metropolitan areas in the United States. The report paints a pretty bleak picture for low-income renters in these cities. Here are a few of the key findings [italics mine]:

In all 11 cities except Atlanta, [from 2006-2013] the growth in supply of rental housing was not enough to keep up with rising renter population.

The median rent grew faster than inflation in almost all of the 11 cities in this study [from 2006-2013].

In five cities, the median rent also grew substantially faster than the median renter income [New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC]. In three cities, rents and incomes grew at about the same pace [Atlanta, Dallas, and Miami]. In the remaining three cities [Boston, Chicago, and Houston], incomes grew substantially faster than rents.

Every city in this study saw its share of low-income renters who were severely rent burdened increase between 2006 and 2013. This increase occurred even as rates of severe rent burden were already very high among this population. [Severely rent burden was defined as paying 50% or more of income in rent].

The lack of affordable housing in many of these cities is well known. But a look at the rates of severe rent burden among low-income households in these cities is incredible. In Los Angeles and Chicago, 78% of low-income households pay more than 50% of their income in rent. And in New York City, 71% do.

The report concludes:

In 2013, more than three-fifths of [low-income] renters were severely rent burdened in all 11 cities; such rent burdens leave low-income renters with little income left for other necessary expenses like food, education, and transportation. And in all 11 cities, these renters became only more likely to be severely rent burdened between 2006 and 2013. Furthermore, the extreme scarcity of units affordable to low-income renters means that they have little recourse to get out from under such crushing rent burdens. Many such renters are trapped in housing units with rents that eat up sizable portions of their incomes.

This nicely sums up the uphill battle facing policymakers trying to address poverty and low income in central cities.