RENTERS NEED HIGHER PAY RISING COSTS MAKE IT HARD FOR WORKERS TO FIND HOUSING.Byline: Gregory J. Wilcox Staff Writer Rising utility and rent costs continue to make it difficult for millions of the nation's workers to afford decent housing, an advocacy group for low-income housing said Monday. As calculated by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, the national housing wage this year is $15.21 an hour, equal to an annual salary of $31,637. That's almost three times the federal minimum wage of $5.15 an hour, said the Washington, D.C.-based group. The housing wage is the amount a person working full-time has to earn to afford a two-bedroom rental unit at fair market rent with no more than 30 percent of the income being spent on shelter. Massachusetts Massachusetts (măsəch  `sĭts), most populous of the New England states of the NE United States. was the least affordable state with a housing wage of
$22.40 an hour followed by California at $21.18.
Seven California metropolitan areas were among the least affordable, but the Los Angeles/Long Beach area was not among them. The Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. housing wage this year is $19.63 an hour, up from $16.63 a year ago. The minimum wage here is $6.75. Sheila Sheila is a common given name for a female, taken from the Gaelic name Síle/Sìle, which is believed to be a Gaelic form of Julia or Cecilia. Like "Cecil" or "Cecilia", the name means "Smart and Wise", from the Latin caecus. Crowley, coalition president, said the Los Angeles area is probably among the nation's 20 least affordable markets. The fair market rent here is $1,021 a month for a two-bedroom unit. Forty percent of the units would be priced below this level and the rest above it, she said. ``The solution is to put money into building housing that is affordable to people in the service sector and the low-wage work force and people who have to live on fixed incomes,'' said Crowley. ``It's a question of if the politicians will do it.'' Tom Bannon, chief executive officer of the California Apartment Association, agrees that affordable housing is a problem. Nor does he think that the gap between the housing wage and pay level of low-income workers will soon narrow. ``The only way that gap will narrow is if the cost of goods and services In economics, economic output is divided into physical goods and intangible services. Consumption of goods and services is assumed to produce utility (unless the "good" is a "bad"). It is often used when referring to a Goods and Services Tax. goes down ... and there is a commitment on the part of local government and the state to provide more housing, and that's not the case,'' he said. Nationally, the housing wage has soared 37 percent since 1999, when a worker had to earn $11.08 an hour to afford fair market rent. The federal minimum wage has not risen in that time. During a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington, Crowley said the situation is not likely to improve soon since the economy is still struggling. And she chided the Bush administration and Congress for not doing more on the affordable housing front. After the coalition issued its report, the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development issued a statement saying the government is committed to providing affordable housing opportunities to more families. ``The department's 2004 budget includes major funding and initiatives that testify To provide evidence as a witness, subject to an oath or affirmation, in order to establish a particular fact or set of facts. Court rules require witnesses to testify about the facts they know that are relevant to the determination of the outcome of the case. to this unwavering commitment,'' the agency said. HUD Hud (h d), a pre-Qur'anic prophet of Islam. Hud unsuccessfully exhorted his South Arabian people, the Ad, to worship the One God. officials also said that they have initiated departmentwide
initiatives to develop tools to measure and reduce the effects of
excessive barriers that restrict the development of affordable housing
at local levels.
Last year, rents rose for all major types of apartments, said a separate study from the Institute of Real Estate Management This article or section needs sources or references that appear in reliable, third-party publications. Alone, primary sources and sources affiliated with the subject of this article are not sufficient for an accurate encyclopedia article. in Chicago. Nationally, rents in low-rise, 12- to 24-unit buildings climbed 16 percent from 2001 levels, the group said. The institute tracks more than 4,500 apartment properties across the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. and Canada. Elevator elevator, in machinery elevator, in machinery, device for transporting people or goods from one level to another. The term is applied to the enclosed structures as well as the open platforms used to provide vertical transportation in buildings, large ships, building rents rose 5.3 percent, low-rise buildings with 25 or more units rose 4.1 percent and rents in garden buildings (This section would benefit from more material on garden buildings in China and Japan) Arguably, the oldest fragment of a garden building is at Pasargadae in Iran. It was an encampment garden and the building was a pavilion dwelling for Cyrus the Great. climbed 1.6 percent. The lowest vacancy VACANCY. A place which is empty. The term is principally applied to cases where an office is not filled. 2. By the constitution of the United States, the president has the power to fill up vacancies that may happen during the recess of the senate. and rent-loss level in the United States occurred in Los Angeles, where a median vacancy and rent loss of 4 percent or less of gross income was reported for three of the building types examined, the group said. ``From a market perspective, L.A. is doing better than the rest of the state,'' Bannon said. Gregory J. Wilcox, (818) 713-3743 greg.wilcox(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): 2 boxes Box: (1) A LIVING WAGE (2) HIGH-PRICED STATES Source: National Low Income Housing Coalition |
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