By Charlene Crowell –
Only one in seven renters can afford homeownership, while homelessness is at an all-time high.
Regardless of race, income, or geography, every family needs and deserves a place to call home. It’s a place not only for shelter from life’s many storms, but also where families come after school or work, celebrate birthdays or holidays—and enjoy all the activities that together turn a house into a home. But in recent years, the ability to have a home—as a renter or as a home owner—has been an increasing financial strain.
In the worst circumstances are those who no longer have a place to call home. In 2023, a record 653,100 people experienced homelessness on a single night in January, up 70,600 people in a single year, according to The State of the Nation’s Housing 2024, an annual report just published by Harvard’s Joint Center on Housing Studies (JCHS). This figure includes an additional 22,800 people living outside or staying in places not intended for human habitation, pushing the unsheltered population to an all-time high.
The report also documents that of the 22.4 million renters who pay over 30% of household income for housing, 12.1 million of these consumers pay more than half their income on housing and utilities. And nationwide, renters with the lowest incomes have just $310 left over each month to cover all their non-housing needs.
“Rents have been rising faster than incomes for decades,” says Alexander Hermann, a Senior Research Associate at the Center. “However, the pandemic-era rent surge produced an unprecedented affordability crisis that continues.”
More than half of Black (57%), Latino (54%), and multiracial (50%) renter households remain cost-burdened since 2022. As a rule, affordable housing should cost no more than 30% of household income.
Renters seeking to transition to homeownership face daunting financial challenges as…
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