The 2018 Gap Report & Reflection

Each year, the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) comes out with the Gap Report, which studies the shortage of affordable homes and those who seek them. It should come as no surprise that the United States lacks enough affordable housing options for low income households by 7.2 million. The Gap Report continues that, “even with these housing challenges, three out of four low income households in need of housing assistance are denied federal help” due to the overall lack of funding.

Overall, the data the NLIHC has presented indicates that the United States continues to experience a large shortage of affordable homes for the lowest income renters.

The Gap Report offers extensive insights into why the discrepancy is so severe. Partly, many of the homes that affordable to lower income households are instead occupied by households that earn a higher income. As such, if a higher income household rents a home, it is then unavailable to a lower income household, and the pattern continues.

Another aspect of the issue is simply that the rent rates lower income households can afford do not outweigh the costs of building affordable developments. Developers then turn to marketing to higher earning households to make a profit. Additional homes do become affordable as they age, but not at the rates needed to account for all of the low income families who qualify for them.
There is also not enough federal housing assistance, and those that do exist are becoming stricter with work requirements and time limits.

In short, the Gap Report has concluded that the affordable housing crisis is systemic and in need of great repair through legislation. Investing in affordable housing will prove beneficial in so many ways, as a stable home environment is one of the key factors to raising household who can fully thrive in their performance, whether that is at school or work. The whole household will be physically and mentally better for it.

To learn more about affordable housing and how affordable housing organizations are working to close the gap, visit EAH Housing.

Originally published to the EAH blog on January 18, 2019.