"Nowhere in the country, not in any single jurisdiction, can a full time minimum wage worker afford to pay the fair market rent for a two bedroom unit," says NLIHC President Sheila Crowley.
In fact, the study found, in only three of the 3,646 counties and New England towns analyzed can a household with an income of 30 percent of the median for its area afford a two-bedroom apartment. Let's make this more personal. To live on Aquid. Island (and our population reflects about 46% as renters) you need to earn about $18.06 an hr. to afford a 2 bedrm. apt. No can do? Earning a minimum wage? Then you need 2.7 full time workers. The average wage for a renter is $10.34. You will need to work 71 hrs./wk. or have a 2 worker family. Been wondering why there are so many vacancies here? We just don't have the workforce who can afford to pay our preminum rents. And upwardly increasingly property taxes make affordability increasing difficult. This does not paint a very bright picture for the future of ANY of us. What to do? Raise wages or lower housing prices. Or any combination of these two. No easy solution here.
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