Affordable Housing Facts

National Statistics
The gap between the number of affordable housing units and the number of people needing them has created a housing crisis for poor people. Between 1973 and 1993, 2.2 million low-rent units disappeared from the market. These units were either abandoned, converted into condominiums or expensive apartments, or became unaffordable because of cost increases. Between 1991 and 1995, median rental costs paid by low-income renters rose 21%; at the same time, the number of low-income renters increased. Over these years, despite an improving economy, the affordable housing gap grew by one million (Daskal, 1998). By 1995, the number of low-income renters in America outstripped the number of low-cost rental units by 5.4 million rental units - the largest shortfall on record.

A new study published in November, 2002, America's Working Families and the Housing Landscape, 1997-2001, reveals that in 2001 14.4 million American families (one in seven households) had "critical housing needs" -- that is, they paid more than half their household's income for housing and/or lived in substandard conditions.

The study also showed that 4.8 million low-to-moderate-income families with critical housing needs work the equivalent of a full-time job and that homeowners are as likely as renters to have critical housing needs.*

Local Statistics
In 1996, an analysis of housing needs in the Greater Grand Traverse Region was performed by Carolyn Shah, a local market analyst. The in-depth study was initiated by the Affordable Housing Task Force and was funded by Rotary Camps and Services. Ms. Shah's publication, Housing Needs Study, Traverse City Region, culminated a four-year effort by the Affordable Housing Task Force and documented much of what the Task Force and other interested agencies and members of the public had long suspected about housing needs in this area.

Some of the key findings of the Housing Needs Study:

  • The Study labels the area's housing situation as an "affordable housing crisis".
  • More than 12,000 households in the region have problems with affordable housing.
  • 44% of households in the region cannot afford a $65,000 home.
  • 24.5% of the five-county renter population cannot afford rents of $300 per month.
  • Rents at the 16 conventionally-financed apartment complexes range from $395 to $695. These complexes provide 799 units in the five-county area.
  • There are currently 1,427 low-income rental units in 34 government-involved complexes in the Greater Grand Traverse Area. "Basic" rents in these complexes range from $242 to $395 per month. Waiting lists average six months to one year.
  • Lower cost housing units are not being produced in anywhere near the numbers required to satisfy the demand for affordable housing. 

 * Study by Barbara J. Lipman, Center for Housing Policy.