Even those with a full-time job are having problems affording rent.
According to the Washington Post, full-time workers would need to earn $21.21 an hour on average to afford rent on a two-bedroom home. For a one-bedroom place, they would need to make $17.14 an hour.
Affordability fluctuates across the country. While full-time workers could make less than $14 an hour in Arkansas and Kentucky and still be able to afford rent on a two-bedroom home, workers need to make more than $30 an hour to afford those same homes in states including California, Hawaii, and Washington, D.C.
Renters, on average, make $16.38 an hour.
"The gap between wages and rent is growing," said Diane Yentel, president and CEO of the Washington-based National Low Income Housing Coalition, which has conducted similar analyses for 28 years. "There's no doubt that the affordable housing crisis overall has increased since the foreclosure crisis in 2007."
PB Topical Ref
