For low-wage earners, rent money still out of reach

Workers caught in the maw of this year's layoff frenzy have one set of problems. Those clinging to jobs that barely cover the rising costs of living have another.

Blame the tenacity of the real estate market. During the 1990s boom, firefighters, police officers, and teachers were among those priced out of the communities they served.

Today, the focus has shifted to those even further down the economic ladder. Soaring national housing costs and a tight "affordable housing" rental market have conspired to create serious challenges for low-wage laborers.

A report released in October by the Washington-based National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) revealed that nowhere in the US can minimum-wage workers afford what the Department of Housing and Urban Development estimates to be fair-market rental costs for a modest two-bedroom housing unit in their communities.

The report, "Out of Reach," found that in order to afford the median fair-market rent for a two-bedroom rental unit, a worker would have to earn a "housing wage" of $13.87 - or 269 percent of the federal minimum wage.

The housing wage represents what a full-time worker would have to earn per hour to afford the fair-market rent for a housing unit while paying no more than 30 percent of his or her income.

In 64 percent of states, 63 percent of metropolitan areas, and 33 percent of counties, the housing wage was found to be at least twice the prevailing minimum wage. In 2000, roughly 2.7 million Americans earned minimum wage, which, on a federal level, has remained at $5.15 since 1997.

According to the report, California, New Jersey, Massachusetts, New York, Colorado, and Illinois have the distinction of being in the Top 10 of the nation's least-affordable states.

"The reality is that there's a persistent and extensive gap between earnings at the low end of the wage scale and basic housing costs," says Sheila Crowley, president of NLIHC. "And rental rates aren't going to go down in the near future, because there's still a severe shortage of housing [along with] high demand."

Ultimately, says Ms. Crowley, many low-wage workers fall out of housing and into homelessness, particularly during an economic recession.

Recognizing this, President Bush and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Mel Martinez late last month announced more than $1 billion in grants to provide housing and support services to help hundreds of thousands of Americans find emergency shelter and transitional housing.

Low-wage workers, experts point out, are among the least likely to have personal investments or new career options. And they now face widespread layoffs.

Tom Snyder, the assistant to President of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union (HERE) estimates that 40 to 50 percent of its members have been laid off in Washington, D.C., and just under 40 percent were laid off in New York City.

In response to the situation, HERE has set up food drives and established "one-stop" relief centers to distribute supplies and to assist unemployed union members with obtaining unemployment and emergency housing assistance.

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