DID YOU KNOW?

Affordable Housing and Homelessness in North Carolina

1. Over 2 million North Carolinians face some form of housing problem. This means that they either pay more than 30 percent of their income for housing, live in housing with inadequate kitchen or plumbing facilities, or live in overcrowded housing with more than one person per room (not per bedroom, but per room). Almost 740,000 households do not have and cannot afford safe, stable housing in North Carolina.

2. According to the 2007 American Community Survey conducted by the US Census, over 11,000 North Carolina houses did not have complete plumbing defined as hot and cold running water, a toilet and a bath or shower and over 16,000 did not have complete kitchens. Over 230,000 households do not have access to a telephone. 

3. 3-4 Affordable housing refers to the relationship between the price of living quarters and a family's ability to pay. Measuring the level of affordable housing requires a comparison of gross rent/mortgage (including rent/mortgage and an estimate for utilities) to household income. Housing for which the gross rent/mortgage does not exceed 30 percent of the household income is considered to be “affordable.”
In North Carolina:

• 20.9 percent of home owners’ housing is unaffordable,
• 42.7 percent of renters’ housing is unaffordable.

4. 5-6In 2007, the average fair market rent for a 2-bedroom apartment in North Carolina was $674 per month. The statewide average fair market rent is not affordable to 43 percent of North Carolinians who rent.  In 2009, the fair market rent is $693 for a 2-bedroom apartment. The cost has increased 27 percent since 2000. A household’s income would need to be $13.33 per hour to afford this average.  Federal, and North Carolina, minimum wage increased to $7.25 July 24, 2009.

5. The annual point-in-time survey in January 2009 found nearly 13,000 homeless persons in North Carolina in emergency shelters, transitional housing and unsheltered. The breakdown by area was as follows.

6. The number of homeless persons in North Carolina increased from by 19 percent between 2005 and 2009. The number of unsheltered homeless persons increased by 17 percent while the number of homeless persons in families with children increased by 20 percent. 

7. Characteristics of those surveyed in 2008 were as follows:

• 29.4% people in families,
• 8.5% military veterans,
• 15.9% suffer from serious mental illness,
• 34.0% have a substance abuse disorder,
• 9.0% victims of domestic abuse,
• 6.5% released form criminal justice system,
• 6.0% released from mental health hospital or drug treatment program. (Total greater than 100 percent because some identified in more than one category.)

8. In North Carolina, nineteen counties have no homeless shelters. Shelters in half of North Carolina’s 100 counties serve only specific groups, such as survivors of domestic violence. The counties that do have shelters served more than 9,000 homeless children in 2004. 

Affordable Housing and Homelessness Nationwide

9. No single minimum-wage earner working 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, earns enough to cover the cost of a modest rental anywhere in the country. 

10. Homelessness stems from a lack of affordable housing. Increasing rents, destruction of traditional low-income housing, and cuts in federal housing programs threaten affordable housing with extinction.

11. Each year, more than 3 million people experience homelessness, including 1.3 million children.

12. Beginning in the early 1980s, the number of homeless Americans grew dramatically.  The face of homelessness became diverse.  It came to include mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, and racial and ethnic minorities.

13. And according to national studies, even more Americans are at risk of homelessness.  Millions of low-income American households pay more that 50 percent of their income on rent when estimates say the figure should be no more than 30 percent. A missed paycheck, a health emergency, or an unpaid bill creates a crisis, pushing them out of their homes and in to homelessness. 

14. Millions of Americans entered the 2007 recession with severe housing cost burdens and deep in debt. The number of households paying more than half their incomes for housing jumped from 13.8 million in 2001 to 17.9 million in 2007. While homeowners led this growth, the share of renters with severe burdens remained much larger. 

15. Affordability pressures have continued to increase as employment losses have mounted. Fully 5.7 million jobs were lost from the December 2007 peak through April 2009, and another 11.0 million Americans were either working part-time involuntarily or had stopped looking for work altogether.  

16. Being able to afford housing at the 30-percent-of-income standard depends critically on having full-time, well-paying work. Making matters worse, a shockingly high 8.1 million households with at least some income from work in 2007 earned less than the full-time minimum wage equivalent, and 4.1 million earned less than half. Unsurprisingly, lower earnings or relying solely on Social Security retirement income mean that households are more likely to spend more than half their incomes on housing. 

17. After gradually rising between 1980 and 2000, the share of cost-burdened (over 30 percent of income paid for housing costs) households shot up by almost six percentage points between 2001 and 2007. This includes a three percentage point increase in households with severe burdens (more than 50 percent).

• In 2007, of all homeowners, 30 percent were at least moderately burdened and 12 percent were severely burdened.
• 17.9 million households spent more than 50 percent incomes on housing;
• 21.6 million had moderate burdens, paying 30–50 percent of income for housing.
• The share of renters with severe burdens remained nearly twice as high as that of owners.

18.  The average of annual growth in renter households was 0.7 percent from 2003 to 2006. Due to the recession, the number of renter households jumped by 2.8 percent or nearly one million in 2007.  

19. Each year the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) calculates the current “housing wage,” or the amount it takes to afford a modest two-bedroom apartment at 30 percent of income. In 2007, that figure stood at $16.31 an hour, nearly three times of the then minimum wage of $5.85 and over twice the $7.25 level that went into effect in 2009. 

20. The foreclosure and economic crisis are significantly increasing homelessness and the number of families at risk of homelessness in cities and counties across the nation.

• The Executive Director of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness has said that he is hearing of preliminary data from cities and organizations showing homelessness increases of as much as 20%.
• Reuters has reported that local and state homeless groups have seen a 61% rise in homelessness since the foreclosure crisis began in 2007.
• On March 27, 2008, CBS News reported that 38% of foreclosures involved rental properties, affecting at least 168,000 households.
• The Sarasota, Florida, Herald Tribune has said that, by some estimates, more than 311,000 tenants nationwide have been evicted from homes this year after lenders took over the properties.

21. In January 2009, experts projected that the unemployment rate will rise to 9 percent by the fourth quarter of 2009 and continue rising into 2010. The result  9 percent unemployment and the increase in poverty, relative to the increase in the unemployment rate, then the number of poor Americans will likely rise by 7.5 – 10.3 million. Moreover, the number of people in “deep poverty” — with incomes below half of the poverty line — will rise by an estimated 4.5 – 6.3 million. This would represent an increase of about 900,000 – 1.1 million families with children that fall into deep poverty and thus are at risk of housing instability and homelessness.  The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the unemployment rate as 9.5 percent in June 2009.

22. The severe problems in the housing sector and the growing number of foreclosures are exacerbating the risks of homelessness. Both homeowners and renters are being displaced into the rental housing market driving up the rental costs. National data indicate that at least 20 percent of foreclosed properties are not owner-occupied, and in many parts of the country, half or more of households living in foreclosed buildings are renters. When foreclosure occurs, renters usually are forced to vacate, even if they have not missed any rent payments and regardless of whether they have access to funds needed for the up-front costs of a new apartment.  

23. 2 Effective May 20, 2009, President Obama signed the Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act of 2009 which extends a range of protections to tenants in foreclosed properties. Under the new legislation, all tenants must get a 90 day notice prior to eviction due to foreclosure. In addition (with some exceptions) tenants who have leases can continue to live in their homes until the end of the term of their lease. The rights of Section 8 tenants are also protected because the new owner at foreclosure must accept both the tenant's lease and the housing assistance payment (HAP) contract.  The law expires at the end of 2012.

North Carolina Churches and Habitat for Humanity: One Response to the Crisis in Affordable Housing

24. There are 84 local affiliates and 15 campus chapters of Habitat for Humanity throughout North Carolina. In North Carolina, Habitat for Humanity has built over 4000 new homes with the help of tens of thousands of volunteers, representing countless hours of volunteer service. This ecumenical Christian organization was founded by Millard and Linda Fuller in 1976 and has constructed over 300,000 homes around the world, safely and affordably housing over 1 million people.

25. Homes constructed by Habitat for Humanity volunteers are not free “handouts” to low-income families, but rather are bought without profit at the cost of materials and with favorable mortgage terms that allow these families the ability not only to own their homes but to pay for other necessities such as healthcare, education, food, transportation and utilities. 

26. Maria Ewing Keeler of Habitat for Humanity of Durham notes that “Partnerships among the faith community are the cornerstone of Habitat's ability to continue building affordable homes for hardworking families in Durham.”

SOURCES

1.  North Carolina Housing Coalition (NCHC), “Housing Facts and Statistics in NC,
 ”www.nchousing.org/research_publications/facts_stats.
2.  U.S. Census Bureau, “American Community Survey, 2005,” http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/ADPTable?_bm=y&-qr_name=ACS_2005_EST_G00_
DP4&-geo_id=04000US37&-ds_name=ACS_2005_EST_G00_&-_lang=en&-redoLog=false
3.  US Department of Housing and Urban Development, “Affordable Housing,” http://www.hud.gov/offices/cpd/affordablehousing.  See also U.S. Census Bureau, “American
Community Survey, 2005,” http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/ADPTable?_bm=y&-geo_
id=04000US37&-qr_name=ACS_2007_1YR_G00_DP4&-context=adp&-ds_name=&-tree_
id=307&-_lang=en&-redoLog=false&-format=
4.  US Census Bureau, American Fact Finder - Housing http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/ACSSAFFHousing?_sse=on&_submenuId=housing_2. 
See also National Low-Income Housing Coalition, “State Summary Table for Out of Reach 2009,”
www.nlihc.org/oor/oor2009/statesummary.pdf
5.  North Carolina Coalition to End Homelessness, Point-in-Time Survey data, http://www.ncceh.org/PITdata/
6.  North Carolina Coalition to End Homelessness, Point-in-Time Survey – Comparisons
2005-2007-2009, http://www.ncceh.org/attachments/contentmanagers/825/PIT_05_07_09.pdf
7.  North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, “Homelessness in North Carolina,”
 http://www.dhhs.state.nc.us/homeless/homelessfacts.htm
8.  NC Housing Finance Agency, “The State of Housing in North Carolina,”
http://www.nchfa.com/Forms/Forms/statehousing.pdf
9.  Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University, “America’s Rental Housing: The Key to a Balanced National Policy,”www.jchs.harvard.edu/publications/rental/rh08_americas_rental_housing/rh08_americas_
rental_housing.pdf
10.  National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, “Program: Housing,”
www.nlchp.org/program.cfm?prog=5
11.  National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, “About NLCHP, Overview,”
www.nlchp.org/hapia.cfm
12.  Ibid.
13.  Ibid.
14.  Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University (JCHS), “The State of the
Nation’s Housing 2009,” www.jchs.harvard.edu/publications/markets/son2009/son2009.pdf
15.  Ibid.
16.  Ibid.
17.  Ibid.
18.  Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University (JCHS), “America’s Rental Housing: The Key to a Balanced National Policy,” 2008
www.jchs.harvard.edu/publications/rental/rh08_americas_rental_housing/rh08_americas_
rental_housing.pdf
19.  Ibid.
20.  National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, “Program: Housing,”
www.nlchp.org/program.cfm?prog=5
21.  Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, “Number of Homeless Families Climbing
Due to Recession,” January 8, 2009, www.cbpp.org/files/1-8-09hous.pdf; for labor statistics,
see the Bureau of Labor Statistics, www.bls.gov/
22.  Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, “Number of Homeless Families Climbing
Due to Recession,” January 8, 2009, www.cbpp.org/files/1-8-09hous.pdf
23.   www.infoline.org/InformationLibrary/Documents/ProtectingTenantsatforeclosure.asp. 
See also http://accessevictions.com/foreclosure/protecting-tenants-at-foreclosure-act-of-2009/
24.  Habitat for Humanity, “Local Affiliates for North Carolina,” North Carolina statistics compiled from local affiliates; www.habitat.org/cd/local/affiliate.aspx?place=80.
25.  Habitat for Humanity, “Fact Sheet,” www.habitat.org/how/factsheet.aspx.