America's Rental Housing 2011

Rental housing is a necessary choice for low-income families who need affordable homes on flexible terms. A report, published in April 2011 by the MacArthur Foundation and the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University, finds affordable rental housing threatened by escalating rent and falling vacancy rates.

 Since the mid 1990s, more than 700,000 federally subsidized rentals have been lost. The brunt of these losses was caused either by demolition, or owner decision to turn the units into market-rate rentals. Today, 10.1 million households spend more than half their income on rent and utilities. Approximately 26 percent of renters spend between 30 and 50 percent on rent and utilities. Housing cost burdens are concentrated among those with the lowest household income distribution, but the last decade has also seen an increase in more lower-middle income renters and more middle-income renters shouldering severe housing cost burdens.

The report notes that growth in the housing industry does not necessarily translate to positive outcomes for low-income families. Falling vacancy rates and rent increases in markets across the country indicate that the housing industry is steadily gaining strength. However, this good news for the housing industry has the potential to hurt the most vulnerable families.

Read the report.