According to the report, of the nearly 43.2 million renter households in the U.S. in 2014; 10.4 million of them were ELI or Extremely Low Income. The report indicates the following facts:
- 4 million ELI renter households accounted for 24% of all renter households and 9% of all U.S. households.
- The U.S has a shortage of 7.2 million affordable rental units available to ELI renter households. There were 31 affordable and available units per 100 ELI renter households.
- For the 4.1 million deeply low income (DLI) renter households, those with incomes at 15% or less of AMI, there was a shortage of 3.4 million affordable and available rental units. There were only 17 affordable and available rental units per 100 DLI households.
- Seventy-five percent of ELI renter households and 93% of DLI renter households were severely cost-burdened, spending more than half of their income on rent and utilities.
- In every state, at least 55% of ELI renters spent more than half of their income on rent and utilities.
- Among the 50 metropolitan areas with the largest number of renter households, the shortage of units affordable and available to ELI households ranged from 21,073 in Fresno, CA to 609,731 in New York, NY-NJ-PA metropolitan area
In the reports About NLHIC section, the organization describes itself as follows:
“The National Low Income Housing Coalition is dedicated solely to achieving socially just public policy that assures people with the lowest incomes in the United States have affordable and decent homes.
Founded in 1974 by Cushing N. Dolbeare, NLIHC educates, organizes and advocates to ensure decent, affordable housing for everyone.
Our goals are to preserve existing federally assisted homes and housing resources, expand the supply of low income housing, and establish housing stability as the primary purpose of federal low income housing policy.”
The Daily Business News notes that what’s absent from their report is a single mention of “manufactured homes,” “modular homes,” or “prefab homes.”
While that oversight ought to be troubling to manufactured or modular housing professionals – as well as solution-oriented policy advocates and public officials – it also represents opportunities in disguise for all those groups, and those they hope to serve with quality, affordable homes.
As stated in the report:
“The metropolitan areas with the least adequate supply for ELI renters were Orlando, FL and Las Vegas, NV, with 15 affordable and available units for every 100 ELI renter households.”
From the investment standpoint these figures represent a great void waiting to be filled.
The recently passed legislation that President Obama signed into law, permitting manufactured homes to be purchased with Section 8 vouchers is one of several possible avenues that industry professionals ought to explore and pursue in the effort to grow production and sales.
The report highlights the fact that affordable housing represents the most significant sector of unmet needs. Manufactured homes undoubtedly offers a viable solution.
The full NLIHC report, complete with charts and graphs, is available here as a download. ##
(Image credits, NLIHC report)
Submitted to the Daily Business News by Frank Griffin, for MHProNews.
