America’s central-planning, big-government social welfare net is a cash-guzzling miserable failure in many ways. Affordable housing for low income workers is one prime example.
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Affordability Crisis: Low-Income Workers Can’t Afford A 2-Bedroom Rental Anywhere In America
ZeroHedge, Jun 16, 2018 – Excerpts:
The National Low Income Housing Coalition’s (NLIHC) annual report, Out of Reach, reveals the striking gap between wages and the price of housing across the United States. The report’s ‘Housing Wage’ is an estimate of what a full-time worker on a state by state basis must make to afford a one or two-bedroom rental home at the Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) fair market rent without exceeding 30 percent of income on housing expenses.
With decades of declining wages and widening wealth inequality via the financialization of corporate America, and thanks to the Federal Reserve’s disastrous policies (whose direct outcome is the ascent of Trump), the recent insignificant countertrend in wage growth for low-income workers has not been enough to boost their standard of living.
The report finds that a full-time minimum wage worker, or the average American stuck in the gig economy, cannot afford to rent a two-bedroom apartment anywhere in the U.S.
According to the report, the 2018 national Housing Wage is $22.10 for a two-bedroom rental home and $17.90 for a one-bedroom rental. Across the country, the two-bedroom Housing Wage ranges from $13.84 in Arkansas to $36.13 in Hawaii.
The five cities with the highest two-bedroom Housing Wages are Stamford-Norwalk, CT ($38.19), Honolulu, HI ($39.06), Oakland-Fremont, CA ($44.79), San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA ($48.50), and San Francisco, CA ($60.02).
For people earning minimum wage, which could be most millennials stuck in the gig economy, the situation is beyond dire. At $7.25 per hour, these hopeless souls would need to work 122 hours per week, or approximately three full-time jobs, to afford a two-bedroom rental at HUD’s fair market rent; for a one-bedroom, these individuals would need to work 99 hours per week, or hold at least two full-time jobs.
The disturbing reality is that many will work until they die to only rent a roof over their head.
The report warns: “in no state, metropolitan area, or county can a worker earning the federal minimum wage or prevailing state minimum wage afford a two-bedroom rental home at fair market rent by working a standard 40-hour week.”
The quest to afford rental homes is not limited to minimum-wage workers. NLIHC calculates that the average renter’s hourly wage is $16.88. The average renter in each county across the U.S. makes enough to afford a two-bedroom in only 11 percent of counties, and a one-bedroom, in just 43% .
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The Federal Reserve graciously provide hundreds of billions of dollars in direct emergency loans (“Fed’s Secret Liquidity Lifelines”) to major banks and insurers during the Great Financial Crisis, 2007-2010, to include: Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Bank of America, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, AIG, State Street, Merrill Lynch, Lehman, Wells Fargo, Barclays, UBS, Deutsche Bank, and many others.
The Fed bailed out the very institutions that precipitated the crisis with their leveraged speculation, derivative-fueled gambling binge…. some of the very institutions that took the money, and then went on to foreclose on home-owners who lost their jobs during the crisis and could not keep their morgtages current.
It is now time to grant U.S. citizens the same direct liquidity extensions that were provided to Wall Street’s financial sector – and provide citizens with the resources to regain control of their lives and livelihoods.
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The Leviticus 25 Plan is a dynamic economic initiative providing direct liquidity benefits for American families, while at the same time scaling back the role of government in managing and controlling the affairs of citizens. It is a comprehensive plan with long-term economic and social benefits for citizens and government.
The inspiration for this plan is based upon Biblical principles set forth in the Book of Leviticus, principles tendering direct economic liberties to the people.
The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America
Leviticus 25 Plan 2018 (2810 downloads)