The National Low-Income Housing Coalition recently released its annual report, The Gap: A Shortage of Affordable Homes. This year’s report finds that the lowest-income renters in the U.S. face a shortage of 7.3 million affordable and available rental homes. Between 2019 and 2021, this shortage increased by more than 500,000 rental homes, as the number of renters with extremely low incomes increased while the supply of housing affordable to them declined.
In Massachusetts, the numbers are no less grim:
The # of extremely low income renter households: 313,607
The # of affordable and available rental homes per 100 extremely low income renter households: 44
The % of extremely low income renter households with severe cost burden: 64%
You can see more detail here.
The report calls for greater federal investment in the preservation and expansion of the affordable housing stock, more Housing Choice Vouchers, a national housing stabilization fund for renters who experience an unexpected short-term financial shock, and federal tenant protections. Read the report here.
On a state level, we urge our state legislators to enact the Network’s legislative priorities and budget requests to address this ongoing crisis.
