What Good Is Affordable Housing If No One Can Afford It?
Everyone is broke these days, and being broke is always painful, no matter the specifics, but being rent-burdened is a special kind of pain. When you apply to rent an apartment, the property management decides that they can trust you to pay rent on time if your monthly income is at least three-and-a-half times the rent. Ideally, people would not spend more than one third of their income on housing, but the three-and-a-half times the rent metric allows for some wiggle room for unexpected expenses. If you pay more than that, you are considered rent-burdened, but times have changed, in much the way that the devices that used to be called mobile phones are now just called phones. The new definition of rent-burdened is if at least half of your income goes to paying your mortgage or rent plus utilities. The group of people who fit this new definition of rent-burdened is growing by the day, and a substantial number of them obtained their housing under affordable housing programs. If you are struggling financially despite having received an ostensibly sweet deal on housing, or at least an offer of one, contact a Philadelphia debt relief lawyer.
The Affordable Housing Units That No One Built and No One Moved Into
Affordable housing programs were all over the news headlines in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, in Pennsylvania and elsewhere. These are top-down incentives to make landlords offer housing units at prices that local residents can afford. In these programs, real estate developers get tax credits if they offer a certain number of units in their new project at below market rate. The units are reserved for applicants whose income falls within a certain range of the area median income (AMI), such as between 70 and 80 percent. Applicants accepted to lease the units at below market rate pay a certain percentage of their incomes, usually 30 percent, in rent. The landlords make up the difference through tax credits.
The trouble is that, in many markets, these units are less affordable for qualifying applicants than they seem. If they rented them, more than half their income would go to rent and utilities. As a result, many units reserved for below market rate rentals have been vacant for years, and real estate developers have made less progress on building these units than they originally planned.
Housing Vouchers Are Not a Perfect Solution, but at Least They Guarantee That You Can Pay Your Rent
One of the reasons that local governments have supported affordable housing programs is that they might bring relief to low-income tenants who have been waiting for housing vouchers for years. Getting a housing voucher is a marathon, not a sprint, and there is no guarantee that you will find a landlord that will accept it if you get one, but if you do, then at least you are guaranteed to be able to pay your rent.
Contact CONSUMERLAWPA.com About Coping With Your Rent-Burdened Situation
A Philadelphia consumer law attorney can help you if more than half your monthly paycheck goes to housing and utilities. Contact CONSUMERLAWPA.com to set up a free, confidential consultation.
Source:
nbcnews.com/news/us-news/poorest-us-cant-find-housing-even-low-income-units-sit-empty-rcna596446
