“The Out of Reach Report” is out, released jointly by the National Low-Income Housing Coalition, a research and advocacy organization dedicated to achieving affordable and decent homes for the lowest-incoming folks among us. The report has some very troubling revelations in it, not the least of which is that minimum-wage workers cannot afford rent in any of the fifty United States. To help unpack the report and its findings, Newell invited Housing NOLA Executive Director Andreanecia Morris onto the show Wednesday morning.
“Obviously that headline about minimum-wage workers not being able to afford rent anywhere in America has some underlying assumptions, can you put that in context for us?” Newell began.
“We use a calculation called cost burden here to determine what’s affordable for someone,” Morris said. “Housing that you spend 30% of your gross income on, before taxes, is what is considered affordable. That’s a lot of money for a lot of people, because nobody is taking home their gross income. When you do the math, with 30% of 7 to 10 dollars an hour, that’s what tells us what people can afford. Compare that to the average rents in each city and state, and figure out how much money you need to make using that 30% number, and that’s how you get what we call the ‘housing wage.’ That’s how much money you need to make, spending 30% of your gross on housing, which includes all housing costs including rent, utilities, mortgage, insurances, taxes, etc.”
“And the months-long pandemic has really revealed the underbelly of the challenge that folks have, and it really highlights this issue, doesn’t it?” Newell continued.
“That’s right. At a time when health is housing, where we’re telling people to stay home, people need to be able to do that. And we need to help our essential workers, those who are putting their lives on the line to make sure we’re still fed and watered and allowing the rest of us to work from home. People picking up garbage, grocery store clerks and the rest aren’t making that housing wage. They’re not making a living wage. It’s just not enough to keep them stable.”“This says full time Louisiana workers need to make a minimum of $17.48 an hour, or about $36,000 a year,” Newell said. “Since I come from that world and I’m very familiar with wages in that sector, it struck me that most law enforcement departments don't pay $36,000 a year to start, and probably most departments, you’d work five years before you even got close to that!”
“This is why it’s so important for people to see what these numbers mean - this is an issue for all of us, and a reason for all of us to be concerned,” Morris said. “The folks who are essential to our society and our way of life have to be able to be stable, find apartments and buy houses. With the pandemic, we’ve got people whose hours have been cut, might have lost their jobs and are looking for a new one and getting ready for a new kind of economy. This report is saying, this is what this new economy needs to be paying.”
