- How many hours must minimum-wage earners work to afford rent?, By Jolie Lee, March 24, 2014, USA Today: “Minimum-wage employees must work on average 2.6 full-time jobs to afford a decent two-bedroom apartment in the USA without paying more than 30% of their income, according to a report released Monday from the National Low Income Housing Coalition based on federal data. Perhaps more surprising is that the inability to afford rent is not limited to big cities with high housing costs…”
- More Americans are renting: why the cost is so high, By Mark Trumbull, March 24, 2014, Christian Science Monitor: “For most Americans, there seem to be two types of rental housing in the US these days: pricey and unaffordable. That’s a glib way of summarizing a troubling trend. Despite a sharp plunge in home prices and the conversion of many properties from ‘owned’ to ‘rented,’ the typical family looking to rent has to pay more than 30 percent of its income for a typical apartment, according to an annual survey released Monday. For the 1 in 4 renters who have very low incomes, moreover, it’s common to spend more than half their earnings on rent…”
- California second least affordable state for renters, study says, By Andrew Khouri, March 25, 2014, Los Angeles Times: “California renters must earn more than triple the minimum wage to afford a two-bedroom apartment, underscoring a housing shortage throughout the state, a new report said. A worker earning the minimum wage — $8 per hour in California — would have to toil away for 130 hours a week to afford a two-bedroom, the National Low Income Housing Coalition said Monday. Across the nation, minimum wage workers can’t afford a one- or two-bedroom apartment at fair market rent, the group said. The coalition’s president, Sheila Crowley, said raising the federal minimum wage would ease the burden…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty