By my friend Joe Castro
July 15,http://www.destinysbridge.com/ 2013 · by DB · in Uncategorized The mean (arithmetic average) hourly earnings needed for a small family to afford a two-bedroom apartment at FMR (Fair Market Rental) in New Jersey by early 2013 was $24.84 (& rising), according to a report entitled `Out of Reach 2013′, issued by NLIHC (the National Low Income Housing Coalition).
The average hourly earnings for New Jersey workers was $16.77. Hence, a `breadwinner’ would need to work 59 hours a week, 52 weeks a year (generally, two or three part-time jobs) to afford a modest apartment for his/her family. At $10/hr., the recently rejected level which would have returned the federal minimum wage to its purchasing power of the 1960s/1970s, that breadwinner would need to work about 99 hrs./wk (for ex. 14 hrs./day, 7 days a week), all 52 weeks of the year! At the minimum wage of $7.25, that person would theoretically work the impossible schedule of 137 hours a week(!), 52 weeks a year. That would be an average of nearly 20 hours a day, 7 days a week! A single individual worker earning average hourly wages would have a difficult time affording even a studio apartment; anyone earning the minimum wage would be unable to rent even a studio apartment at FMR. (for ex., $7.25/hr. x 25hrs./wk. x two(2)jobs = $362.50/wk. x 4.3 wks./mo. = approx. $1,559/mo. before withholding taxes, or approx. $1,200. after withholdings – which cannot even cover the cost of rent, food, clothing, & transportation to & from job/s, not to mention healthcare or the many other necessary expenses.
So there is obviously a great need for housing which is affordable to people of the ELI (extremely low income) category.’
The current model for Destiny’s Bridge, involving `tiny houses’ on small parcels of subdivided land, could be affordable even to someone who works for the minimum wage.
