Housing

Stable housing is fundamental to nearly every aspect of life—it makes employment, healthcare, education,and nutritious food accessible.

Housing

Stable housing is fundamental to nearly every aspect of life—it makes employment, healthcare, education,and nutritious food accessible.

Food Insecurity is Driven by Lack of Affordable Housing.

Yet, housing instability is a persistent and growing problem; forcing families into overcrowded living conditions, unsafe neighborhoods, frequent moves, and homelessness. For these families, food is their most flexible resource and a necessary trade-off to keep a roof over their heads

Learn About Hunger - Income Stability

Housing Costs Are Outrunning Paychecks

0%
Percentage that rent prices have outpaced income since 1985.
0 K
Amount of evictions in State of Texas in 2022, 1/4 of those eviction notices were in Harris County.
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of Texas families in poverty devote more than half of their income on rent.

Paychecks That Don’t Reach the Rent

“A typical Harris County household must earn nearly $28 per hour to afford the median rent, which is $1,164, with some neighborhoods experiencing even higher rents.”

$28 per hour Drivers make $18.79, -$9.21 less. Cashiers make $12.39, -$15.61 less. Secretaries make $18.53, -$9.47 less. Construction makes $16.00, -$12.00 less.

Our Neighbor’s Voice

“90% of my income was going towards utilities, rent, and just trying to live above water. Going to the grocery store was above my budget.”

Stable Homes Make Food Security Possible

An older couple review paperwork together.

When Rent Outruns Income:

Texas families need safe and affordable housing to access the dignity of work, health care, education, and nutritious food. Without stable housing, nutritious food is a family’s most flexible resource and a necessary trade-off to keep a roof over their heads. Statewide, housing costs have risen faster than income and wages. Nationally, since 1985, rent prices have outpaced income gains by 325%.

Short Supply, High Burden:

Texas ranks sixth among the worst states in the U.S. for affordable housing availability for extremely low-income renters. This crisis extends into rural areas, where 40% of households pay more than 30% of their income on housing. This means that if you make $40,000 a year you are paying $13,500 toward rent. This shortage is especially severe in high-opportunity areas – places with access to good jobs, schools, health care, and transit— where only 7% of affordable units are located.

Eviction: A Downward Spiral:

Sometimes, trade-offs between food, health, and health care aren’t enough. One unexpected medical bill or cut in work hours can trigger an eviction. And once evicted, it becomes harder for families to secure housing because even a dismissed eviction remains on a family’s record. This forces families into a cycle of continual displacement. For landlords, evictions can also be costly, involving legal fees, vacancy turnover, and lost rental income. Therefore, addressing housing instability not only supports tenants but also reduces the economic strain on property owners and landlords.

Policy Roadmap

Expand Local Development of & Access to Stable Housing

Building and preserving affordable homes in areas that connect families to better jobs, schools, and transportation, is key to unlocking upward mobility thereby reducing food insecurity. This requires expanding construction of affordable homes, increasing the number of housing vouchers in areas of economic opportunity (and incentivizing landlords to accept them), and using tools like community land trusts to sustain affordability.

Prevent Unnecessary Evictions with Fair Practices Protecting Landlords & Tenants

Policies supportive of tenant protections such as just-cause eviction standards, right to counsel in eviction cases, reasonable rent stabilization, and expungement of dismissed eviction cases are measures to help keep families housed and landlords with consistent income.

Leverage Homeownership as a Pathway to Economic Security

Promoting access to safe and fair credit, and heir property resolutions are just two critical steps toward making homeownership attainable. These efforts create opportunities for long-term economic stability across generations.

Empower Rural Communities through Infrastructure Investment

Rural communities face unique challenges, such as rapidly aging homes, rising rents, and limited access to essential services like health care. Strengthening support for federal programs that preserve existing affordable units, and investing in rural infrastructure like broadband and transportation, can help further the economic security of these communities.

Sources

  1. Astudillo, By Joshua Fechter, Graphics by Carla. “As More Texans Struggle with Housing Costs, Homeownership Becoming Less Attainable.” The Texas Tribune, 24 June 2024, https://www.texastribune.org/2024/06/24/texas-housing-costs-homeownership-rents-harvard/
  2. Joint Center for Housing Studies. (2024). Home Price-to-Income Ratio Reaches Record High. https://www.jchs.harvard.edu/blog/home-price-income-ratio-reaches-record-high-0
  3. U.S. Census Bureau. (2022). American Community Survey. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
  4. National Low Income Housing Coalition. (2024). The Gap: A shortage of affordable homes. https://nlihc.org/gap
  5. Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University. (2024). America’s Rental Housing 2024. https://www.jchs.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/reports/files/Harvard_JCHS_Americas_Rental_Housing_2024.pdf
  6. Nostikasari, D., Shelton, K., Morin, T., & Walker, K. A. (2017). Mapping High Opportunity Areas and Implications for Affordable Housing: Growing butUnequal. Kinder Institute for Urban Research, Rice University. https://rice.app.box.com/s/l1lfx0zv74rhlif4yu061dfa2y31lmos
  7. Freddie Mac. (n.d.). High Opportunity Areas: Case Studies. https://mf.freddiemac.com/docs/high_opportunity_case_studies.pdf
  8. National Low Income Housing Coalition. (2024). Out of Reach The High Cost of Housing. https://nlihc.org/oor
  9. United For ALICE. (2024). ALICE in the Crosscurrents: An Update on Financial Hardship in Texas. https://www.unitedforalice.org/texas
  10. Badger, Emily. (2019) “Many Renters Who Face Eviction Owe Less Than $600.” The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/12/upshot/eviction-prevention-solutions-government.html
  11. Texas Housers. (2023). An Eviction Crisis in Texas. https://texashousers.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/An-Eviction-Crisis-In-Texas.pdf
  12. Collinson, R., Ginter, Z., & Reed, W. (2024). Eviction and poverty in American cities. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 139(1), 57–120. https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjad042
  13. Vásquez-Vera, H., Palència, L., Magna, I., Mena, C., Neira, J., & Borrell, C. (2017). The threat of home eviction and its effects on health through the equity lens: A systematic review. Social Science & Medicine, 175, 199–208. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.01.010
  14. Desmond, M., & Kimbro, R. T. (2015). Eviction’s Fallout: Housing, Hardship, and Health. https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/mdesmond/files/desmondkimbro.evictions.fallout.sf2015_2.pdf
  15. National Low Income Housing Coalition. (2024). The Gap: A Shortage of Affordable Homes. https://nlihc.org/sites/default/files/gap/2024/Gap-Report_2024.pdf
  16. Been, V., & Glashausser, A. (2009). Tenants: Innocent Victims of the Nation’s Foreclosure Crisis. Albany Government Law Review.
  17. Journal of Economic Perspectives. (2018). Homeownership and the American Dream. https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/96221/homeownership_and_the_american_dream_0.pdf
  18. Choi, Jung Hyun, and Amalie Zinn. “The Wealth Gap Between Homeowners and Renters Has Reached a Historic High.” Urban Institute, Apr. 2024. https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/wealth-gap-between-homeowners-and-renters-has-reached-historic-high
  19. Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. (2024). The Housing Affordability Challenge. https://comptroller.texas.gov/about/media-center/news/20240827-texas-comptroller-glenn-hegar-releases-study-on-states-housing-affordability-challenge-1724699586337 [DUPLICATE]
  20. The Pew Charitable Trusts. (2023). Small Mortgages are Too Hard to Get. https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/issue-briefs/2023/06/small-mortgages-are-too-hard-to-get
  21. Goodman, L., McCargo, A., Golding, E., Bai, B., Ganesh, B., & Strochak, S. (2017). Barriers to Homeownership: Down Payments, Credit Access, andAffordability. Urban Institute. https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/94801/barriers-to-homeownership-down-payments-credit-access-and-affordability_1.pdf