The need for affordable housing is as urgent of an issue as it has been in many years. In Texas, we are experiencing this crisis even more acutely than the rest of the nation, with our most vulnerable populations having comparatively the fewest affordable homes available to them than the rest of the United States.
The Gap 2024 is the latest report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition and it finds that only 3.7 million affordable and available rental homes exist for the 11 million extremely low-income (ELI) renter households in the U.S., resulting in a shortage of 7.3 million affordable and available rental homes for this income group. This results in 34 affordable and available rental homes for every 100 extremely low-income renter households across the country.
In our state, Texas, that number drops to 25 affordable and available rental homes for every 100 extremely low-income renter household. And in our major metropolitan areas, the numbers plummet to nationwide lows: Austin only has 21 such homes available for every 100 ELI household, Dallas has 17 such homes, Houston has only 15.
There are more than 900,000 extremely low-income renter households in Texas, this is more than a fifth of all renter households in our state. And in spite of these massive numbers, there are only 227,000 rental homes available to them. So what happens to the other 680,000 households who are in need of housing? They are often cost-burdened, using up their incomes with zero margin of error. 91 percent of extremely low-income renter households in Texas are cost burdened, meaning they spend more than 30% of their income on rent, and 79 percent of extremely low-income renter households are severely cost-burdened. This means that nearly 4 out 5 ELI households in Texas spend more than half of their monthly income on rent.
The majority of these populations are those in the work force, seniors, and people with disabilities. The deep shortage of affordable homes to these populations is unacceptable. Since most of these households are spending more than half of their income on rent, this leaves very little money to account for food, clothing, transportation, medical care, and other basic necessities.
Also, given that it is more likely that Black and Latino households are renters than their white counterparts, the inequalities that each of these populations face economically surface yet again in a lack of affordable housing. In fact, NLIHC’s data shows that Black households specifically are more than three times as likely as white households to be extremely low-income renters and Latino households are more than twice as likely as white households to be extremely low-income renters. Black and Latino populations each experience cost-burden and severe cost-burden at higher rates than other populations.
How can we fix this? How do we ensure that low-income households can have affordable and available housing? There are a few ways, but it’s most important to note that the private market cannot do this alone. The rents that extremely low-income renters can afford do not typically cover the cost of developing new housing or even maintaining older housing. And market-based solutions, such as filtering, are what allowed low-income populations to slide into the unaffordable predicament we currently are working to solve. Our affordable housing shortage is a problem that requires a community- and government-wide effort to fix. The Gap Report recommends a few solutions.
- Preserving and expanding the affordable housing stock: Congress must significantly increase federal investments in programs that both preserve and expand the supply of deeply affordable units. The “Housing Crisis Response Act” (H.R.4233), for example, would provide $150 billion for key affordable housing programs, including $65 billion for public housing and $15 billion for the national Housing Trust Fund (HTF).
- Increasing funding for Housing Choice Vouchers: Congress should increase appropriations for the Housing Choice Voucher program, which provides rental assistance to help low-income families access rental housing.
- The “Housing Crisis Response Act” (H.R.4233) would include $25 billion for Housing Choice Vouchers.
- The bipartisan “Family Stability and Opportunity Vouchers Act of 2023” (S.1257 and H.R.3376) would create 250,000 housing vouchers specifically targeted to low-income families with young children and provide mobility counseling services to help families find housing options in neighborhoods of their choice.
- The “Ending Homelessness Act of 2023” (H.R.4232) proposes to establish a universal voucher program that would enable all eligible households to receive rental assistance.
- Ensuring that voucher recipients are protected from discrimination and can use their vouchers: Congress should pass the “Fair Housing Improvement Act of 2023” (S.1267 and H.R.2846), which would prohibit discrimination based on source of income, as well as military and veteran status.
- Creating an emergency stabilization fund: Given the present shortage of affordable and available homes, many low-income renters spend an unsustainable share of their income on housing and in consequence are just one unexpected financial crisis away from housing instability. An emergency assistance fund that provides direct, short-term financial assistance to tenants would mitigate housing instability and the harms that come with it. The “Eviction Crisis Act,” for example, would establish a national housing stabilization fund for renters facing temporary financial setbacks.
The solutions that are required to help solve the affordable housing crisis require our leaders to act and they require the people who elect them to demand real change. Affordable housing must be a cornerstone issue for our leaders who can utilize policy to make a difference. And thankfully, by learning about this data from NLIHC, we are equipped with the knowledge to demand such change.
You can read The Gap 2024 below:
