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A record number of Americans can't afford their rent. Lawmakers are scrambling to help (apnews.com)

submitted 10 months ago by MicroWave to c/news

66 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Single mom Caitlyn Colbert watched as rent for her two-bedroom apartment doubled, then tripled and then quadrupled over a decade in Denver — from $750 to $3,374 last year.

Every month, like millions of Americans, Colbert juggled her costs. Pay rent or swim team fees for one of her three kids. Rent or school supplies. Rent or groceries. Colbert, a social worker who helps people stay financially afloat, would often arrive home to notices giving her 30 days to pay rent and a late fee or face eviction.

“Every month you just gotta budget and then you still fall short,” she said, adding what became a monthly refrain: “Well, this month at least we have $13 left.”

Millions of Americans, especially people of color, are facing those same, painful decisions as a record number struggle with unaffordable rent increases, a crisis fueled by rising prices from inflation, a shortage of affordable housing and the end of pandemic relief.

The latest data from the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, released in January, found that a record high 22.4 million renter households — or half of renters nationwide — were spending more than 30% of their income on rent in 2022. The number of affordable units — with rents under $600 — also dropped to 7.2 million that year, 2.1 million fewer than a decade earlier.

…

In Congress, lawmakers are working on a bill that would expand a federal program that awards tax credits to housing developers who agree to set aside units for low-income tenants. Supporters say that could lead to the construction of 200,000 more affordable homes. Some lawmakers are also calling for more rental assistance, including a significant increase in funding for housing vouchers.

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[–] givesomefucks 117 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (4 children)

After failing to make a significant dent in the problem over the last decade, state and federal lawmakers across the U.S. are making housing a priority in 2024 and throwing the kitchen sink at the issue — including proposals to enact eviction protections, institute zoning reforms, cap annual rent increases and dedicate tens of billions of dollars toward building more housing.

They haven't done anything for decades...

But we should believe them now in the run up to an election that after the next election they'll really do something.

They've been saying the same thing as far back as I can remember, but as soon as their elected they go back to ignoring it.

We need to get the Republicans and neoliberals out of office if we want actual progress. Neither of them will actually fix this shit, because the people donating them money don't want it fixed.

The most we'll get is billions to real estate moguls to subsidize them building high end housing that doesn't address the issue.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 10 months ago

Sometimes they only campaign on "the rent is too damn high!"

[–] Fedizen 8 points 10 months ago

real estate/developer lobbies in most places fund all candidates in the US. Its hard to overstate how manipulative they are.

[–] pete_the_cat 6 points 10 months ago

NYC finally did something in 2019 about the predatory renting practices, such as having the tenant pay the exorbitant broker fees (typically 2x or more of monthly rent, which is around $2600-3000/month), this was now the landlord's responsibility.... Then in 2022 they repealed it.

[–] Maggoty 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Get real estate developers and land lords out of the legislatures. Make it such a dirty word that being found out means your campaign is over.

[–] theluckyone 5 points 10 months ago

Let's not stop there. Get big corporations out of the legislature. End Citizen's United.

If the poor folk could organize, pool money together, and spend time lobbying, we might have a chance. We suck at organizing, we're too short on cash just trying to stay afloat, and we've no time to be spending lobbying, either.

[–] Tolstoshev 114 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Capitalism is forgetting that the number one rule of being a parasite is that you don’t kill the host.

[–] themeatbridge 43 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The rule is "don't kill the host before you've had a chance to reproduce." Capitalism is good at finding new hosts.

[–] Tolstoshev 19 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I meant host in the sense of the planet and humanity. So their only hope will be mars :)

[–] JJROKCZ 4 points 10 months ago

Don’t worry they’re putting significant effort into that front, we’ll have a Mars colony before 2050, just about the time that the equatorial regions are getting roughed up from climate change

[–] CaptainSpaceman 23 points 10 months ago

AI advancements as well as renewable energy should be a utopian paradise for all earthlings.

Instead its a tool to allow culling of the masses thru famine plague and war.

IMO, eventually there will be a tipping point.

[–] Harbinger01173430 7 points 10 months ago

Xenomorphs be like: wut

[–] FlyingSquid 82 points 10 months ago (4 children)

Lawmakers are scrambling to help

Are they though?

[–] Ensign_Crab 31 points 10 months ago

Yeah. Landlords need help.

[–] themeatbridge 21 points 10 months ago

Scrambling to make it look like you weren't just faffing off when you were supposed to be working? Like when your boss comes in and you've got a video game up on your screen? Or your wife comes home from out of town, and you're running around picking up laundry and pizza boxes? That sort of scrambling?

[–] HootinNHollerin 6 points 10 months ago

Definitely not

[–] Maggoty 4 points 10 months ago

If we just shovel more money at the already rich land developers and land lord corporations we can get another crumb!

[–] [email protected] 58 points 10 months ago (2 children)

US Lawmakers aren't scrambling to do anything but take bribes and engage in insider trading.

[–] pete_the_cat 25 points 10 months ago

I just saw that "the economy is booming" and I was like "yeah, of course it is, every business in the US has increased their prices by at least 30%", people are still struggling to live though!

[–] ChillPenguin 21 points 10 months ago

[–] [email protected] 49 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Single mom Caitlyn Colbert watched as rent for her two-bedroom apartment doubled, then tripled and then quadrupled over a decade in Denver — from $750 to $3,374 last year.

In Denver, Colbert’s bathroom roof partly caved in from a leak last year, and the landlord delayed a fix even as rent went up $200 a month.

There's a name for landlords like that: slum lords.

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[–] Altofaltception 40 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Meanwhile companies are raking in record profits, and the rich get richer. This won't stop until the workers seize the means of production.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 10 months ago

the means of production was offshored decades ago

[–] Maggoty 36 points 10 months ago

In Congress, lawmakers are working on a bill that would expand a federal program that awards tax credits to housing developers...

Stop paying them for creating the problem. Start putting them in fucking prison for hoarding a necessary resource and gouging people during a crisis.

[–] Copythis 25 points 10 months ago (1 children)

My and utilities finally caught up to me and I lost my home about 2 weeks ago...

The utility company here was responsible for burning down the entire town next to us. They passed the lawsuit payments onto the customers. My bill went from $50 a month, give or take $5, to $200 to $300 a month.

[–] Maggoty 15 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I'm guessing PG&E?

And fuck these utility companies. Private-public partnership hasn't worked out. It's time to nationalize the grid.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 10 months ago

I don't think they are

[–] [email protected] 21 points 10 months ago (1 children)

"Lawmakers are scrambling to fuck them even harder" is the realistic headline

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

I was looking for the right words, but you nailed it.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 10 months ago (4 children)

No man, credits to bulwark the insane rents people are charging will only cement the practice. Why does it take 3x your income to qualify to rent a place? Why haven't corporations and foreign investors been moved out of the single family home industry? Why hasn't a cap been put on Air Bnb and other short term rentals? How about changing the regulations to allow zoning changes which can allow more homes on existing lots?

The government, as usual, simply doesn't understand the problem! So frustrating.

[–] MegaUltraChicken 6 points 10 months ago

I think they absolutely understand the problem. It's just that 60% of Congress are actively working against the American people on behalf of donors.

[–] Maggoty 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Well the answer to the 3x question is that a long time ago, in the dark ages, economists theorized that affordable housing is 30% of your gross income. Those dark ages were 1969.

Wages have lagged 137 percentage points behind core inflation since 1974. So the metric was outdated decades ago.

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[–] RememberTheApollo_ 15 points 10 months ago

Can we stop giving these assholes tax breaks or subsidizing these shitty companies with tax money so they can prop up shareholders and get rich?

[–] Ornadin 12 points 10 months ago

As someone who owns a house cause I'm very blessed to have had the means 8 years ago(0% VA home loan). I hope the housing market crashes hard.

[–] peopleproblems 12 points 10 months ago

Hah, I'm looking forward to not being able to afford my rent when renewal comes up in a year.

I'll be making $110k, splitting the place with my brother, but who knows how much goes to my ex

[–] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago

Doubt. But while they're at it how about some limits on how much a property assessment can increase each year? My house has gone up 10 to 15% for the last 3 years, which causes property taxes to go up, which causes my mortgage to go up. I'm paying $200 per month more than I was in 2020.

[–] Harbinger01173430 8 points 10 months ago

Meanwhile, my grandma Rents a single room micro apartment at around 75 dollars a month where I live...

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago

The poor need to manage their trust funds better apparently.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Housing Crisis 2, electric Boogaloo

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Housing crisis, car payment crisis, credit debt crisis, Healthcare crisis... wait, sorry, forget any of that. Joe says the economy is great. Just look at the stock market.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

You need to build more places for people to live!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

But that would bring down the value of the current homes that the lawmakers own! Can't have that happen....

[–] andrewta 3 points 10 months ago (4 children)

I own a place that I rent out. I am having a hard time figuring out how people are charging $3,000 plus a month. I don’t charge anywhere near that. The only time I raise my rent is when the city increases the cost of their taxes/fees, or if insurance for some reason goes up. Is it actually that expensive for property taxes and other things there or is just greed?

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

Cap how much rent can increase to the CPI % per year not including increases in property tax or strata fees and utilities if they are included in the rent.

And if you have a mortgage on something you're renting out that's a risky decision, if interest rates go up and you can't afford the mortgage without raising the rent maybe you shouldn't have taken out a mortgage for something as a way to make profit. Interest rates should not factor into the cap on rental price increase.

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