WA Rental Housing "Out of Reach" for Many Who Need It
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April 15, 2009
Seattle, WA - There's no county in Washington State where rental housing is affordable, compared to the wages of people in that county. Released annually by a national housing group, the Housing Out of Reach report for 2009 says the affordability gap isn't closing. That means the average Washington renter must earn about $35,000 a year to comfortably pay the rent on a two-bedroom apartment.
Rachael Myers, executive director of the Washington Low-Income Housing Alliance, says for those who make less, it's tough.
"Across the state, the average that you need to earn to afford just a modest two-bedroom apartment is $16.81 an hour. That means you really need two people earning minimum wage to afford it."
It was a little more than a year ago that Governor Gregoire and legislative leaders said they were making "housing security" a priority, budgeting more money for affordable housing programs for low and middle-income families. But Myers says lawmakers are singing a different tune today.
"The House is considering cutting the Housing Trust Fund by 45 percent; the Senate is considering cutting it by 64 percent. These are really substantial cuts that are probably going to make this problem much worse if they go forward."
Rental rates are high in Washington, according to Myers, partly because there's not enough rental housing to meet the demand. And if the state guts the Housing Trust Fund, which is used to build and restore affordable housing units around the state, she doesn't expect rent prices to come down any time soon.
The report, Housing Out of Reach, is prepared by the National Low-Income Housing Coalition and is available online, at www.nlihc.org.