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Raphael Bostic, assistant secretary for policy development and research at HUD reports that so-called "Worst Case Housing Needs" rose dramatically between 2007 and 2009.
Worst case needs households are defined as very low-income renters who do not receive government housing assistance and who either paid more than one-half of their income for rent or lived in severely inadequate conditions, or both....
High rents in proportion to renter incomes are an increasingly dominant cause of worst case needs....
The past ten years have been brutal on very low-income families:
Since 2001, the number of cases has increased by almost 42 percent, now representing more than 6 percent of all households. Because of these dramatic increases, 41 percent of the 17.12 million very low-income American renters had worst case needs in 2009.
And the main cause? Income cannot keep pace with housing costs:
Most of these renters had severe rent burdens, paying more than one-half of their income for rent, with inadequate housing alone accounting for only 3 percent of cases.
Compounding the problem is a phenomenon HUD calls competition - nearly half of all housing units that are affordable for very low-income families are occupied by higher income renters. Therefore:
As a result of this competition and because a substantial proportion of available units are nto in standard or adequate physical condition, only 32 units of adequate, affordable rental housing are available for every 100 extremely low-income renters. For very low-income renters, 60 adequate units are available per 100 renters.
My conclusion: We are losing ground in the struggle to eliminate poverty housing and homelessness.
To see the entire report, go to the HUD website: http://bit.ly/hEpS7z.
