How to Make Housing Affordable for All the Working Poor
The headlines tell the story: “Half of all renters can’t afford the rent.” “Renters, get ready to take it on the chin.” “The rent crisis is about to get a lot worse.”
Shaun Donovan, Obama’s first secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), warned: “We are in the midst of the worst rental affordability crisis that this country has known.”
There are two ways to solve this problem: One, raise wages, and two, provide more subsidized housing to help fill the gap between incomes and rents. In recent years, the federal government has done neither.