Housing insecurity rates are on the rise
Housing insecurity is rising in almost every city and county in the United States, including here in Travis County. The number of people in the country who have “worst case housing needs”—defined as renter households who have very low incomes who don’t receive housing assistance and spend more than 50 percent of their income on rent, live in inadequate housing, or both—has reached an all-time high (Alvarez and Steffen 2023). Researchers estimate that the U.S. has a shortage of more than 7 million affordable and available housing units for households whose incomes fall below 30 percent of their area’s median income or the federal poverty line (National Low Income Housing Coalition 2024). Forced moves are also prevalent. Although eviction prevention measures were effective during the height of COVID-19, evictions are again on the rise in most major cities (Eviction Lab 2024). And the number of people experiencing homelessness, the most extreme form of housing insecurity, is also going up. It is now the highest since consistent reporting began in 2007 (Sousa et al. 2023).
Housing insecurity affects many Travis County households. While average rent costs in Austin have gone down since their peak in the summer of 2022, they are still higher than almost all other large cities in Texas. Rent burden—the percent of a household’s income that goes to housing costs—is particularly salient here. Based on my analysis of recent Census data, severe rent burden (defined as spending more than 50 percent of household income on housing costs, including rent and utilities) disproportionately affects households with low incomes, racial and ethnic minorities, families with children or older adults, and people with a disability (U.S. Census Bureau n.d.).
About 40 percent of Travis County renters that make less than 80 percent of area median income (AMI) (i.e., households with low incomes) are paying a high proportion of their income to rent, compared to less than 1 percent of households that make more than 80 percent of AMI. Almost a quarter of non-White renter households are severely rent-burdened, compared to 20 percent of non-Hispanic White renter households.
Low-income households who have children are also significantly affected by higher rent costs. Almost 50 percent of those households are severely rent-burdened. About 46 percent of low-income households with at least one person above 60 are severely rent-burdened, compared to 39 percent without an older adult. And 48 percent of low-income households who have at least one person with a disability are severely rent burdened, compared to 37 percent of low-income households without a disability. Additionally, in the last year in Austin, eviction rates have risen 31 percent compared to pre-COVID rates (Eviction Lab n.d.). And, homeless service providers in Travis County served more people last year than ever before (Al-Turk and Davis 2024).
Part of our research agenda is to untangle the numbers above to better understand the causes and effects of housing insecurity. We want to focus on how housing dynamics affect people’s health conditions and vice versa. We will also look at how where someone lives affects their housing situation and health, and how this varies for different demographic groups. We’ll continue to offer more insights about housing insecurity so that we can seek practical solutions with the larger community.
References
- Al-Turk, Akram, and Chris Davis. 2024. State of the HRS: A Report on the State of the Homelessness Response System in Austin/Travis County. Ending Community Homelessness Coalition.
- Alvarez, Thyria A., and Barry L. Steffen. 2023. Worst Case Housing Needs: 2023 Report to Congress. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of Policy Development and Research.
- Eviction Lab. 2024. “Preliminary Analysis: Eviction Filing Patterns in 2023.” Eviction Lab. Retrieved November 1, 2024 (https://evictionlab.org/ets-report-2023/).
- Eviction Lab. n.d. “Austin Texas | Eviction Tracking System.” Eviction Lab. Retrieved November 12, 2024 (https://evictionlab.org/eviction-tracking/austin-tx/).
- National Low Income Housing Coalition. 2024. The Gap: A Shortage of Affordable Homes.
- Sousa, Tanya de, Alyssa Andrichik, Ed Prestera, Katherine Rush, Colette Tano, and Micaiah Wheeler. 2023. The 2023 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report (AHAR to Congress) Part 1: Point-In-Time Estimates of Homelessness, December 2023. U.S. Department Of Housing And Urban Development Office Of Community Planning And Development.
- U.S. Census Bureau. n.d. “Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS).”
