According to a new report by the Homes for All Campaign of Right to the City, the United States is in a new phase of the housing crisis.
The report, Rise of the Renter Nation: Solutions to the Housing Affordability Crisis lays out the facts of how our nation’s housing crisis is really a tenant crisis. Key highlights from the report include:
- We are in the midst of an affordability and gentrification crisis: Incomes have remained relatively stagnant since 2000, but rent and housing costs are on the rise.
- While the rental market is soaring, homeownership is dwindling in America. The vast majority of the net increase in renters over the next decade will be people of color, with Latinos alone accounting for more than half of the total.
- Corporations like The Blackstone Group L.P. (NYSE:BX) and American Homes4Rent have spent approximately $20 Billion dollars buying up single family homes in the last 2 years, a key cause of skyrocketing housing prices, especially in low income communities.
- Solutions to begin addressing the crisis include funding the National Housing Trust Fund and passing the Renter’s Bill of Rights legislation in cities across America.
Find out more:
- READ Rise of the Renter Nation Executive Summary
- STAND-BY for the full report, which will be available soon from Right to the City’s Homes for All campaign website
- TAKE PART in the Homes for All National Month of Action — check on past and upcoming events in cities across the country
San Francisco’s public radio/TV station reported in March that you need to earn $29.83 to afford a one-bedroom apartment here:
http://blogs.kqed.org/newsfix/2014/03/27/how-much-to-afford-a-1-bedroom-apartment-in-san-francisco/
But San Francisco’s overall median rental rate for a one-bedroom in the month of January was $2,813:
http://sf.curbed.com/archives/2014/02/13/the_median_rental_rate_of_1_and_2bedroom_apartments_by_neighborhood.php
Which means, to me, that the $29.83 isn’t enough for that one-bedroom apartment.
Yes, the devil is in the details, but the bottom line is, as they say, the rent is too damn high.