State's housing affordability gap widens

Renters typically look at apartment cost, but there's another way to measure housing affordability. By that measure, Washington's low-income renters clearly are not keeping up.

Calculated by the number of hours a minimum-wage worker must toil to afford an apartment, "there is not one county, not one city, in Washington where a single person earning minimum wage can afford a one-bedroom apartment," said Megan Farley Hyla, associate director of the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance.

High housing costs and a state minimum wage of $7.35 an hour create "the perfect storm for the housing crisis we have," Hyla said.

"People will cut all other corners before they stop paying rent," Hyla said. "We hear stories all the time of people who sell their car so they can pay their rent because they can't afford both."

To document the disparity between wages and rents, the National Low Income Housing Coalition just released its 16th annual national report. By its calculations, an individual or household must earn at least $13.42 an hour to afford a one-bedroom rental in King or Snohomish County, based on an average rent of $698. That's the equivalent of 1.8 full-time jobs at minimum wage.

"This report points out that even if you work full time, or you and your spouse or adult child work full time, you might not be able to afford a safe, decent and affordable home," Hyla said.

"That's something a lot of people don't know."

In Kitsap County, workers must earn $11.98 an hour, and in Pierce, $11.94 to afford the average one-bedroom unit priced around $620.

As apartments get larger, the gap between wages and rents grows wider, according to the coalition's findings.

Three-bedroom King and Snohomish County rents require earnings of $22.83 an hour, or the equivalent of 3.1 full-time, minimum-wage jobs.

The state that comes the closest to matching minimum wage with rental costs is West Virginia. Washington ranks 34th nationally.

The coalition's analysis is based on the Department of Housing and Urban Development's market-rate rent calculations for counties throughout the U.S. The federal government's housing affordability standard — no more than 30 percent of income allocated to housing costs — is then applied, as is the local minimum wage.

Some 30 to 40 percent of all Puget Sound households rent. Statewide, almost 1.2 million workers earn less than $14.55 an hour, which is what the coalition calculates that workers anywhere in Washington must earn to afford a two-bedroom apartment.

Peggy Pearson knows that the problem isn't confined to minimum-wage workers. A health-care aide, she earns just over $10 an hour.

"Even $10 an hour doesn't cut it," Pearson said. "You need at least $15 to be able to afford an apartment around here because you've also got to pay for heat, for food, for medical insurance."

Her salvation is subsidized housing that caps the rent on her Fremont apartment at 30 percent of market rate. Without it, "I'd probably be homeless because I couldn't afford the rent and basic necessities of life," she said.

Gov. Christine Gregoire noted that the state's most recent budget allocates almost $100 million to support nonprofit housing development statewide.

"Unfortunately, cuts to federal programs are making it very difficult for our state to make real progress on this critical issue," Gregoire said in a statement.

Elizabeth Rhodes: erhodes@seattletimes.com