CORRESPONDENCE - WS-1 OPPOSITION

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cost burdened. Those with children present are more frequently bur- dened, perhaps reflecting the more limited hours that parents are available to work. For these reasons, single parents have the highest cost -burdened share (63 percent) of any household type, well above that for married or partnered parents (39 percent). Finally, 55 percent of renter households that have a member with a disability have cost burdens, compared with 45 percent of those with no disabilities. Rental cost burdens can be particularly detrimental to households with disabilities in that high housing costs may constrain their ability to pay for medical and other essential needs. THE LOW -COS] HOUSING DEFICIT The prevalence of cost burdens among lower-income renters is due in part to a shortage of low-cost housing in the private market. To be low cost, housing must be affordable at the 30 -percent -of -income standard to very low-income renters (earning up to 50 percent of area median income). HUD's Worst Case Housing Needs 2017 Report to Congress docu- ments the growing gap between supply of and demand for low-cost rentals. Worst case needs are defined as the number of very low- income renters who are severely cost burdened or living in inad- equate housing. After a slight dip from 8.5 million in 2011 to 7.7 The Most Populous Counties Face the Largest Shortfalls in Affordable Supply Average Number of Units per 100 Extremely Low Income Renters 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 More it.... 590.009 250,000 Miele 100,099-249,099 orange 99,999 County Population Affordable Units N Market Fate 3 HUD Assisted 11 USDA Assisted ® Unaffordable, Inadagome, or Unavailable Nates'. Affordable Is defined as costing no more than 20% of Income for households with axrremely law Incomes learning up to 30% of area median. Adequate units have caroplete bathrooms, running water electricity, and no sign of major disrepair Available units are net occupied by higher income households. Source JCHS tabulations of Urban Institute, Mapping America's Rental Housing Crisis, 2017. million in 2013, the number of renter households with worst case needs increased to 8.3 million in 2015. Nearly all of these cases (98 percent) arise from lower-income households having to pay more than half their incomes for housing costs rather than from prob- lems of housing adequacy. Some of the pressures on the low-cost supply arise from the fact that households with moderate or even high incomes occupy the units that low-income renters could afford. HUD estimates that 93 units are affordable for every 100 very low-income renters, but of these, only 54 are both available and adequate. For extremely low-income renters, the supply of affordable housing nationally is just 66 units per 100 renters, with only 33 of those units meeting the available and adequate criteria. HUD adjusts incomes based on household size to determine afford- ability and eligibility for housing subsidies. Given that the median income of very low-income families nationally was $28,400 in 2015, a very low-income family of four could afford to pay $710 per month for rent. This number, however, is much lower in some counties. Moreover, the median family of four with extremely low income could afford only $430 in monthly housing costs. Recent data from the Urban Institute confirms the shortage of pri- vately owned affordable rental housing (also known as naturally H ZE Maintaining the Stocic of Rental Housing Depends Largely on Preservation Share, of Affordable Rental Stools in 2013 Constructed or Added after 1985 23% Preserved from 1985 Stack 32% Converted Owner -Occupied or Seasonal 22% Filtered Down from Higher Price 23% Nates. Affordable is defined as casing no mora than 30% of for households with vary law incomes teeming up to 50%ot area median), Units added after 1985 mature reals that were tem romily out of the stack in that year Source'. JCHS tabulations of Welcher, Eggers, and Moumen, 2016. 29