One year ago, Congress defunded public media. Now that we're 100% community funded, please become a sustaining member or increase your existing membership today.
This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
Majority Of L.A.'s Poorest Households Paying More Than Half Their Income On Rent, Study Says
(Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
The very worst of what the Department of Housing and Urban Development calls "worst case housing needs" are found in Los Angeles, narrowly edging out New York City, according to a new reportreleased Wednesday by HUD.
The agency defines "worst case housing needs" as pertaining to renters with incomes below half the median in their area who do not receive government housing assistance and who either paid more than half their monthly incomes for rent, lived in severely substandard conditions, or both. According to the HUD report, 55% of these unsubsidized, low-income households spent more than half their income on rent or resorted to substandard housing in 2015, a marked increase from 2013.
In a Wednesday statement accompanying the report, HUD Secretary Ben Carson attributed the nationwide rise of "worst case housing needs" partly to the "aftershocks of our housing recession." Rents in Los Angeles increased alongside incomes between 2013 and 2015, the LA Times reports, an ongoing trend that also helps account for the area's 23% rise in homelessness this year.
HUD announced in its statement plans to "pursue housing finance reform" as a means of easing the financial burden on low-income renting households, an agenda that Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin identified in May as a "top priority" for the Trump administration. Carson toed the party line in his Wednesday statement, saying, "Today’s affordable rental housing crisis requires that we take a more business-like approach on how the public sector can reduce the regulatory barriers so the private markets can produce more housing for more families.”
One year ago, Congress voted to defund public media, eliminating a critical $1.7 million from our budget every year going forward. But they couldn’t silence us, and we’re not going anywhere. LAist is now 100% community funded and that means we’re taking our future into our own hands and turning to you to keep local reporting strong.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
Senior Vice President News, Editor in Chief
