The Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies reports half of the households in the Los Angeles metropolitan area spend 30 percent of their income on rent or mortgage payments, making it the highest rate of 381 U. S. metro areas; and 25 percent spend half of their income on housing costs. Economists use the 30 percent figure as the threshold where housing expense becomes burdensome, and people begin to sacrifice food and medical needs, MHProNews has learned. Median household income has fallen 11 percent since 2005 while household costs are rising, according to latimes.com. As state and federal funding for affordable housing has declined in recent years, the Southern California Association of Nonprofit Housing says Los Angeles County has a shortage of almost 500,000 apartments affordable to low-income residents. ##

(Image credit: rethingkinghousing.ca–affordable modular housing plan)