Report: Affordable Housing a Crisis Nationwide

A report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) assesses the availability of affordable housing units in various states, placing Texas close to the bottom of the list with 29 units for every extremely 100 low-income households, compared to the national average of 36. According to the NLIHC, “no state or metropolitan area has an ‘adequate supply of rental housing for the lowest-income renters.’”

As reported by Chandler France, “Nationwide, there’s a shortage of more than 7 million affordable and available rental homes for extremely low-income households, defined as those at or below 30% of the area median income.” The worst housing shortage can be found in the Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise metropolitan area, where only 13 affordable units exist for every 100 extremely low-income households. 

Focusing on Texas, France notes: “Of the 50 largest metropolitan areas in the country, three of the top 10 metros with the most severe housing shortages are in Texas, the report shows.” Texas’s worst affordable housing shortage is in the Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land metro area. “The Southeast Texas metro also has the largest gap between the number of these earners and the number of affordable units for them, with a shortage of 173,455 homes.”