Why affordable housing is important

As a Realtor®, you know how housing impacts lives beyond just having a roof above one’s head.

Affordable housing is a necessity, as the cost of high rent impacts all areas of low-income families’ lives, according to the recently released An Opportunity Agenda for Renters by the Center for American Progress. After the expense of rent, the average low-income severely-burdened renter household has around $15 per day to budget. This includes food, transportation, healthcare and other day-to-day necessities.

On the other hand, a low-income renter household who lives in more affordable housing is able to spend “two-thirds more on food, double the amount on health care, and nearly triple the amount on transportation as its severely rent-burdened counterpart,” according to the report.

Those households that have affordable housing have an increased ability to invest in children, and are less likely to move involuntarily move, which is usually beneficial to a child and their performance in school.

The absence of affordable housing among low-income families parallels with worse performance in school across all age groups. For the older children in the household, it can also mean more behavior problems.

Today, 13.8 million Americans reside in high-poverty neighborhoods, where nearly half of residents are poor, almost twice the number in 2000.

One in six low-income children under the age of 6 live in a high-poverty neighborhood. For African Americans, the rate is considerably higher.

“Communities of concentrated poverty often lack amenities such as high-quality schools, day care options, parks and access to job markets. Instead, these communities are often violent, stressful and environmentally hazardous,” stated the report.

Spending 30 percent of one’s income on rent is considered affordable. Half of all renters spend more than 30 percent. More than one-quarter spend more than 50 percent of their income on housing. The percentage of people spending more than 30 percent of their incoming on housing has continued to increase over the past 10 years.

A study from Enterprise Community Partners and the Harvard University Joint Center for Housing Studies estimates that the number of households spending 50 percent or more of their income on rent will increase at least 11 percent (from 11.8 million to 13.1 million) by 2025.

Among low-income residents, for every 100 households, there are only 28 affordable and available homes. The availability of affordable homes has continued to decrease over the past decade.

“Stable, affordable housing positively affects health—both by promoting residential stability and by freeing resources for food and health care expenses,” stated the report.