Every summer, the National Low Income Housing Coalition publishes its Out Of Reach report, which explores and analyzes the affordable and available housing for low wage workers across the United States. In compiling this data, they construct what they call a “housing wage,” or the hourly wage a full-time worker must earn to afford a modest rental home without spending more than 30% of their income on housing costs in a given county, metropolitan area, or state.
This year’s national Housing Wage for 2026 is $34.73 per hour for a modest two-bedroom rental home and $29.19 for a modest one-bedroom. In Texas, it may appear as if we are doing better than the national average with figures stating that our state’s housing wage for a two-bedroom rental home is $29.93, but examined more closely, glaring issues emerge. Texas has 4,113,561 renter households across all kinds of cities and counties, including rural, urban, suburban and in between. While the housing wage for our state is $29.93, the average renter in Texas only makes $26.09. Our state is also one of the 20 states in our country that still allows for the lowest minimum wage of $7.25.
As we zoom into our major cities, costs dramatically rise for renters. In the Houston metropolitan area, the housing wage for a two-bedroom rental home is $30.25, in the Fort Worth metropolitan area it’s $33.13, in the Midland metropolitan area it’s $34.23, in the Austin metropolitan area it’s $35.62, and in the Dallas Metropolitan area the housing wage is $37.13. In a state where nearly 2 of every 5 Texan is a renter, far too many of us can barely afford to live in our homes, let alone allow for an emergency expense.
Nearly half of workers that comprise the majority of the workforce in the United States are low-wage workers. As Out Of Reach 2026 states “Of the 25 most common occupations in the U.S., 17 pay median wages below the Housing Wage for a one-bedroom rental home and 18 pay below the Housing Wage for a two-bedroom rental home. These 18 occupations employ more than 74 million people— nearly half of the entire U.S. workforce. Millions of workers who keep local economies functioning are unable to afford modest rental housing in the communities where they work.”
Hourly wages also vary along racial/ethnic and gender lines. We see that earners who are Black and Latino workers face larger gaps between their wages and the cost of rental housing than faced by white workers. Nationally, the median wage of a full-time white worker is enough to afford a one-bedroom apartment at Fair Market Rent, while the median wages of Black and Latino workers fall short by $6.47 and $6.90, respectively. And women earn less than their male counterparts and face more difficulty affording rental housing, particularly Black and Latina women. Black women earning the median wage for their race and gender make $21.94 per hour, which is $1.70 (7%) less than Black men and $10.17 (32%) less than white men. Latina women earn $3.12 (13%) less than Latino men and $11.40 (36%) less than white men.
This lack of affordable housing affecting millions of households nationwide would appear to be something that federal leaders would work to solve. However, very recent cuts and changes under the Trump Administration’s second term have exacerbated the conditions for low-wage workers in particular.
Proposed budgets for Fiscal Year 2026 (FY26) earlier this year would have originally seen a 44% cut to essential housing programs. However, advocates fought hard and were able to not only avoid planned cuts, but to minorly increase housing program funding. But with FY27 soon on the horizon, the cuts are back in the proposed budget with a congressional fight looming. This, compounded with the cuts to other essential lifelines such as SNAP and healthcare programs, the average Texan renter household has experienced more belt-tightening in the past 18 months than in many years.
However, Texans have much to look forward to in legislation which aims to fight back against these severe cuts. We’ve already experienced some success with the passage of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act in July 2026, and there are more bills in Congress designed to help renters and low-income households.
The “American Housing and Economic Mobility Act” would invest $445 billion over 10 years in the national Housing Trust Fund to build, repair, and operate nearly two million homes affordable to the lowest-income renters. The “Family Stability and Opportunity Vouchers Act” is a bipartisan bill that would provide 250,000 new housing vouchers, along with counseling services to help families with young children move to neighborhoods with strong schools, jobs, and essential resources. And lastly, the “Eviction Crisis Act” would create a national housing stabilization fund to provide temporary assistance to renters facing financial emergencies and temporary housing instability.
It’s perhaps a more difficult time for low wage workers now than in near memory. However, this is the time that we must fight harder for low-income households, to ensure that they not just get by or survive, but are set up for a future to thrive.
You can read Out of Reach 2026 embedded below or at NLIHC.org/oor.
