Workers earning the federal minimum wage must work the equivalent of nearly three full-time jobs to afford the typical two-bedroom apartment, according to new research released Monday in Washington.

At the going rate of $791 a month for a standard two-bedroom unit nationwide, someone earning $5.15 hourly would have to work 118 hours a week to pay his rent, the study by the National Low Income Housing Coalition found.

If he worked only 40 hours a week, he would have to make $15.21 an hour to put his family in a two-bedroom rental, the study said.

NHLIC President Sheila Crowley called the situation "appalling." And she warned that if it isn't corrected, the first step on the ladder to home ownership will no longer exist for the majority, relegating them to a life of substandard housing, living with their parents or doubling and even tripling up with others who are in the same boat.

For some, the only other choice will be to live on the street, she added.

"The absence of a viable rental housing market that affords all comers choices and opportunities stymies the normal development process and severs the housing continuum," Crowley said.

"Eventually, the number of people who succeed as renters will be so small that the pool of potential home owners will evaporate," she said. "There will be two distinct classes of people -- homeowners and everyone else whose ability to get ahead will be severely impaired."

If there is "any kind of blip" in their income stream, Crowley added, "they could become homeless."

Conrad Egan, president of the National Housing Conference, said the study's findings "are particularly disturbing when considering that many low and moderate-income families are often forced to choose between paying their rent or their health care and basic necessities."

The now annual "Out of Reach" study found that renters in 40 states must earn a "housing wage" of at least twice the current $5.15 federal minimum to afford a two-bedroom unit, the study found. Together, the 40 states house nearly 90 percent of the nation's total renter households.

The housing wage, or the amount a person working full-time must earn to afford a two-bedroom unit at the fair market rate while paying no more than 30 percent of his income in rent, also is at least twice the minimum wage in 66 percent of the country's 356 metropolitan statistical areas.

An apartment is considered affordable if it costs no more than 30 percent of the renter's income.

Worse, in 46 of the MSAs, minimum wage workers must earn three and four times what they are paid. And in 11 major markets, the housing wage is four times the minimum or more.

Six of the 11 least affordable markets are in California. They are, in descending order, San Jose; San Francisco; Stamford-Norwalk, Conn.; Oakland; Boston; Santa Cruz-Watsonville; Nassau-Suffolk, NY; Westchester County, NY, Orange County, Washington, D.C., and San Diego.

Even in places that are considered affordable by federal standards -- that is, rents are no more than 30 percent of the occupant's income -- a large percentage of residents cannot pay the fair market rent as estimated by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Nebraska, for example, is the least unaffordable jurisdiction when comparing renter income to fair market rents. Yet, 36 percent of the state's rental households cannot afford the $535 a month HUD says it takes to pay for a two-bedroom apartment.

In Massachusetts, the percentage climbs to 60 percent. But California, where 43 percent of the households are renters, is not far behind.

Even though the average annual income of a typical renter family is $36,895 in the Golden State, 58 percent of all renters can't afford the fair market rent of $1,101 ascribed by HUD for a two-bedroom apartment in the state.

To be affordable, the rent would have to be almost half that, or $585. Otherwise, a renter would have to earn $21.18 an hour or work 126 hours a week at the state's $6.75 hourly minium wage.

Even in a two-income family, someone would have to work the equivalent of two full-time jobs to rent a two-bedroom unit at the prevailing minimum wage. In the San Francisco MSA, 42 percent of the nearly 2.6 million households are renters who earn an average of $57,500 annually. But, according to the study, they'd need to earn $71,000 a year to afford the $1,775 fair market rent for a two-bedroom unit.

In other words, their incomes would have to be 123 percent of the median. And as a result, 60 percent of the region's renters cannot pay the tariff for a two-bedroom unit.

Just four years ago, a person had to earn $11.08 an hour to afford fair market rent of a national basis just four years ago. Now it's up to $15.21 and climbing. "It is appalling," NLIHC's Crowley said, "that here in America, the richest country in the world, we have millions of people working full-time who cannot afford modest, decent rental housing."

The problem is basically one of supply and demand, she said: Costs have gone up but there has been no corresponding increase in either the supply of affordable rental units or the wages of low and moderate-income families.

"The high vacancy rates are all at the upper end," she added. "At the lower end, we have lost units and we are not replacing them."

The current study is the fifth by the coalition, an organization dedicated solely to solving America's affordable housing crisis.

Published: September 10, 2003

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.

When Lew Sichelman first started writing about housing in 1969, he was the youngest real estate writer in the country. Now, 37 years later, he's one of the oldest -- and most decorated. He has been rated the top housing columnist in the country by the National Association of Realtors as well as by his peers in the National Association of Real Estate Editors. Indeed, NAREE has recognized his work on numerous occasions. One year - due to his advancing age, he can't recall which one - he earned top honors in the annual NAREE Journalism Contest in three out of the four major writing categories. It was the first time one writer has won so many NAREE awards in a single year. Known for his ability to make even the most difficult topics understandable, Sichelman also has been honored by the National Association of Home Builders and the Mortgage Bankers Association. He began providing in-depth coverage of and consumer-oriented information about housing and housing finance at the Washington Daily News, where he was real estate editor. He held that same position for nine more years at the Washington Star, which purchased the News in 1972. The Star, a so-called "writer's newspaper" which also had the misfortune of being an evening paper, was put out of its misery in 1981, and Sichelman, who had begun self-syndicating his column in 1978, decided to become a full-time columnist. Today, his column, "The Housing Scene," is distributed by United Media to newspapers throughout the country. He also is on the staff of National Mortgage News, an independent newspaper which is considered the bible of the mortgage business. And he writes for numerous other publications, including MarketWatch.com, where he answers readers questions once a week, Sports Illustrated (don't ask), RealtyTimes.com, BigBuilder and others. Sichelman is married, the father of five and grandfather of eleven.