New Hampshire Low-Income Housing Remains Unaffordable
WASHINGTON, Sept. 18, 2002–Although the minimum wage in Cheshire County is holding steady, low-income workers in the county must make more money this year to afford a two-bedroom apartment, a new study says.
The annual “Out of Reach” report, released Wednesday by The National Low Income Housing Coalition, a group that advocates more low-income housing, revealed that while the federal minimum wage remains at $5.15, the hourly wage needed by a low-income family in Cheshire County to afford a modest two-bedroom rental apartment is $14.15, a 6.09 percent increase from last year.
Minimum-wage earners must work 110 hours per week to afford the cost of the two-bedroom apartment, the report said.
A low-income family in Cheshire County is classified as a household that earns no more than 30 percent of the county’s median income of $48,300, or $14,490.
“For the fourth year in a row, there is no city or county in the nation where a minimum-wage earner can afford to rent a modest two-bedroom apartment,” Sen. Paul Sarbanes (D-Md.) said at a Capitol Hill press conference where the report was released.
Martha Yager, project manager for the New Hampshire Housing Forum, a low-income housing advocacy group, agreed and said that in New Hampshire the “gap continues to get bigger and bigger” between the minimum wage and the hourly wage needed to afford the fair market rent.
” ‘Out of Reach’ backs with concrete data what the daily experience of low-income people tells us is true: We have a very serious housing affordability problem here in New Hampshire,” Yager said.
Yager added that New Hampshire, which uses the federal minimum wage standard, has the lowest minimum wage among all New England states and that 38 percent of residents hold jobs in sectors paying less than $10 per hour.
“It’s a real myth that it’s just kids who work minimum-wage jobs,” Yager said.
Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who also spoke at the press conference Wednesday, is sponsoring a bill that would establish a new fund dedicated to affordable housing. “This report tells us two things,” Sanders said. “First, that the Congress has got to increase the minimum wage. And second. that the federal government has got to pour billions and billions of dollars into affordable housing to address one of the major crises that exists from one end of the nation to another.”
The National Affordable Housing Trust Fund that Sanders proposed would address the affordable housing issue in three ways — production of new affordable housing, preservation of existing affordable housing and new homeownership opportunities for low-income families.
The legislation is necessary, Sanders said, because “it is absurd that millions of Americans have to make the choice between putting a roof over their heads or feeding their families. That is not what this country should be about.”
Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) also attended the press conference and said it is vital to continue pushing for legislation because “the argument that all you need to achieve a quality of life in America is a strong private sector is dead wrong.”
Frank added that if Democrats win control of Congress in November, legislation could be enacted into law next year.
“We will continue to make this fight this year and next year, and I believe given the reality and the extent to which you have been vocalizing and the response we have been getting, that we’re going to win this fight,” Frank said.
Published in The Keene Sentinel, in New Hampshire.
