Recession Continues to Push Rental Housing Further “Out of Reach” for Low Income Americans

Ohio’s high cost of housing highlighted in 2010 housing affordability report

Washington, DC – April 21, 2010 – (RealEstateRama) — According to a national report released today that provides data on the cost of rental housing for every county, metropolitan area and state in the nation, the Housing Wage for Ohio is $13.39. The Housing Wage is the hourly wage a tenant must earn – working 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year – to be able to afford rent and utilities in the private housing market. Ohio’s Housing Wage has increased 29% since 2000.

The report, Out of Reach 2010, was jointly released by the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC), a Washington, DC-based housing policy organization, and the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio (COHHIO). The report provides the Housing Wage and other data for every state, metropolitan area, combined non metropolitan area, and county in the country.

“Again the Out of Reach data demonstrates how increasingly difficult it is for low income families to find decent homes they can afford to rent in Ohio,” said COHHIO Executive Director Bill Faith. “The recession, coupled with an increase in landlord foreclosures, has made a bad situation worse. We must act now to ensure that low income families in need have access to the safe and affordable housing, and that those who are evicted in the event of their landlord’s foreclosure are protected.”

Faith said that roughly 30 percent of all foreclosures are on non-owner occupied residential properties. The cost of displacement per renter family is $2,500 through loss of security deposit, last month’s rent, and relocation expenses. “Through no fault of their own, renters are being asked to pay a high price for their landlords’ foreclosures,” Faith said. “They are innocent bystanders in this process, and are the least likely to be able afford it. They must be protected.”

COHHIO supports House Bill 9, a measure that would require the landlord to provide notice of the foreclosure process and sheriff sale to the tenant, allow tenancy to survive the foreclosure, and convert the existing agreement to a month-to-month tenancy. HB 9 passed the Ohio House last year, and is currently under consideration in the Ohio Senate.

According to the Out of Reach data, an estimated 43% of renters in Ohio do not earn enough to afford a twobedroom unit at the Fair Market Rent. “Increasingly, housing for low income Ohioans is out of reach,” said Faith. “But to work hard, pay your rent, and then be evicted because your landlord is in foreclosure? That’s just plain wrong, and we have the ability to change that dynamic.”

For more information on the Out of Reach research project, visit http://www.nlihc.org/oor/oor2010/

For more information contact:
Suzanne Gravette Acker,
614-280-1984
suzannegacker (at) columbus.rr (dot) com