Modified from The St. Augustine Record  |  The Daytona Beach News-Journal

The National Low Income Housing Coalition recently released its 2018 state of workforce housing report, and it’s no surprise that overall the gap between wages and rental housing is widening.

The report is based on what it calls a “Housing Wage.” It’s the hourly wage a full-time worker requires to earn to afford a rental home. The equation is based on the premise that the worker spends no more than 30 percent of his or her income on rent and utilities.

This year, the national two-bedroom apartment wage is $22.10 an hour. A household would need an annual income of a minimum of $46,960 to afford a two-bedroom home at HUD’s average fair-market rent of $1,449 a month. The average hourly wage of renters in the U.S. today is $16.88, or $5.22 less than the calculated Housing Wage.

The bigger picture is the federal minimum wage is nearly $15 less than the Housing Wage, and a full-time minimum wage earner would need to work 122 hours a week for 52 weeks a year to afford that two-bedroom home; or 99 hours a week for a one-bedroom place.

There is no state in the union in which a minimum wage worker can afford a rental home by working a 40-hour week. The most affordable state is Arkansas, with a Housing Wage of $13.84. Hawaii is at the high end at $36.13.

There are, however, 22 out of 3,000 counties nationwide where it is possible. The website — nlihc.org/oor — is interactive and breaks the number down by state, county and even ZIP code.

Numbers in Volusia and Flagler counties are better than Florida’s statewide average. The Housing Wage for Flagler County for a two-bedroom apartment is $18.60 and Volusia County’s is $18.37 — compared to $21.50 statewide. Both wages are obviously out of reach for many local workers.

Florida is ranked 16th highest for the required Housing Wage. At $8.25 an hour, a full-time worker would need to work 84 hours to afford a one-bedroom rental home at fair market value.

Florida has 7.4 million households with 2.6 million renters, or 35 percent. In Flagler County, 23 percent of the population rents, with the fair market value of a two-bedroom set at $967. In Volusia County, 30 percent of households rent, with the fair market rent for a two-bedroom at $955.

The study shows much but solves little. Its conclusion is a call for lawmakers to “increase federal funding for key affordable housing programs like the Housing Choice Vouchers, the national Housing Trust Fund, public housing, and project-based rental assistance.”

Florida, however, is at an advantage over many states in that it has a dedicated source of funding. The Sadowski Act collects money from real-estate transactions into a trust fund for affordable housing initiatives — about $314 million in 2018.

The bad news is state lawmakers continue to pilfer this “dedicated” fund by sweeping much of it into general fund or other spending areas. Since 2009, of the $2.3 billion raised, only $833 million has ended up supporting affordable housing.

We have an advantage, if we can stop the theft of funding established by voters in a 1992 constitutional amendment. It’s easier said than done.

Article last accessed on October 1, 2018 here. A print-ready version is available here.