In The NewsTabor president Bob Thomas interviewed - "Many here struggling to pay rent"Report says average Lancaster County renter must work 49 hours per week to afford a 2-bedroom apartment. Wednesday, April 22, 2009 By CHAD UMBLE While the plight of homeowners has been well publicized, renters are also struggling in this recession. And in Lancaster County, a squeeze on those who don't own their homes is part of a national trend that is making rentals harder to afford, according to a national report released last week. The average renter in Lancaster County can't pay for a two-bedroom apartment without exceeding the federal government's 30 percent-of-income standard for housing costs, according to the report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition. The mean hourly wage for renters in Lancaster County is $12.20, but it would take a wage of $14.83 to afford the market rate of $771 a month for a two-bedroom apartment, the report said. "There has long been a significant gap between what is available in affordable housing and the demand for it," said Bob Thomas, president of Tabor Community Services, a nonprofit housing and financial counseling organization. Thomas said his group is seeing heavy demand for rental assistance, and rental prices are rising as former homeowners are now competing for apartments. The federal government considers housing affordable when it costs 30 percent or less of a person's gross income, an amount called the "housing wage." The National Low Income Housing Coalition's report pegs Pennsylvania's median household income at $13.40 an hour, about $2 an hour less than needed for a modest unit. At that level, almost half of workers in the state can't afford at two-bedroom unit at the market rate, the report says. "Every year it is becoming more difficult for hard-working, low-wage families as well as seniors and disabled on fixed incomes to find decent homes they can afford in Pennsylvania," Liz Hersh, of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, said in a statement. For its study, the housing group used federal data to compare wages in different parts of the country to average rents, seeing whether the numbers add up to something renters can afford. It's often a stretch. Nationally, the average two-bedroom apartment costs $928 a month, and with the average national wage at $14.69, someone would have to work 49 hours a week to afford that apartment, the report says. Pennsylvania's housing cost is lower than the national average, the report says. California and Hawaii are the most expensive. In Lancaster County, a housing wage $2.63 more an hour than the average renter earns, means they'd have to work 49 hours per week to afford the average two-bedroom apartment here. Thomas said a housing trust fund, which is being considered by the state Legislature, would be a welcome boost for the 29 percent of households in Lancaster County that rent. Such a fund would help pay for the development, rehabilitation and preservation of housing for low-income families. "The expansion of affordable housing really does require some kind of subsidy," Thomas said. The National Low Income Housing Coalition's report, "Out of Reach 2009," is available on its Web site, www.nlihc.org. Staff writer Chad Umble can be reached at cumble@LNPnews.com or 481-6031. |
