Affordable housing in NM hard to find
The average wage of New Mexico’s renters is increasingly lagging behind the “housing wage,” according to a new report. At the same time, other reports give the state poor marks on housing affordability.
Citing two recent reports, the New Mexico Business Weekly reported last Friday that:
According to “Out of Reach 2007-2008,” a report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, the “housing wage” for New Mexico is $12.66—the hourly rate a family must earn, working 40 hours a week and 52 weeks a year, to afford a two-bedroom home. That is a 23 percent increase since 2000. The average renter in the state earns $10.86 an hour, a gap of $1.80.
The other report, the “2008 Colorado College State of the Rockies Report Card,” gave a grade of “D” to two-thirds of New Mexico counties for the affordability of their housing. Housing that demands more than 30 percent of a family’s income is considered unaffordable.
The article also cites a 2007 state housing report that “identified a deficit of 30,000 affordable units in New Mexico” and noted that about a third of Albuquerque’s residents are renters.
Mark Allison of the non-profit Supportive Housing Coalition described to the biz weekly the reality many low-income workers face with housing: “There’s a huge housing crisis. It has gotten worse. Food, gas, all these costs of living are increasing but people’s incomes are not. It puts a squeeze on people attempting to keep their housing.” Allison said that collaborative mixed-use development projects that include affordable units are one solution. The coalition currently has two such projects in the works downtown. He also said that homelessness can be solved, even for the most challenged demographics who struggle with behavioral or disability issues, by connecting people with appropriate services.
While highlighting creative solutions to producing affordable housing, the article did not tackle the question of how to address the increasing gap between the average hourly wage earned by renters in the state and the necessary “housing wage” identified by the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
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