Sunday’s Washington Post featured an article that told a story that many people in the DC area are all too familiar with ‘housing costs are eating up far too much of people’s paychecks. The Post’s analysis found that one on five renters in the DC area and one in seven homeowners spent more than half of their income on housing in 2009. But the article also showed that the high housing costs are placing the greatest burden on the area’s low- and moderate-income residents, something DCFPI’s own analysis finds.
In fact, the Post article showed that more than 7 in ten DC residents earning between $20,000 and $35,000 pay more than 30 percent of their income towards housing. This means that these families have scarce resources to pay for other basic necessities like food, clothing, and transportation. Even for DC residents earning $35,000 to $50,000, nearly 5 in 10 pay more than 30 percent of incomes toward rent. This means that a majority of low- and moderate-income families struggle with DC’s very high housing costs.
It isn’t surprising that so many people are facing such huge housing cost burdens when you consider the fact the DC has lost nearly one-third of its low-cost rental housing, and nearly two-thirds of its low-cost homeownership units in the last 10 years, a fact the Post article also pointed out. To make matters worse, at the very same time that the need for affordable housing is rising, funding for the creation and preservation of affordable housing in DC has dried up during the recession.
The District is getting ready to close a $188 million gap for FY 2011 and has an even bigger gap to close in FY 2012. Considering the severe burden housing costs are placing on DC’s low- and moderate-income residents, the District should do all it can to ensure affordable housing opportunities are not further cut in the future.
