geoff: Now a look at rising rental prices and the struggle to find affordable housing. Stephanie sy has the story. Stephanie: Rental prices are unaffordable for a record number of Americans, with half of all renters paying more than 30% of their income on rent and utilities. That's according to a new report from Harvard's joint center for housing studies that examined 2022 census data. We reached out to renters across the country to hear how these soaring prices are impacting their lives. >> My name is Kathleen Haun. I am almost 46 years old. I live outside of Atlanta, Georgia. I am probably paying about two thirds of my income, my monthly income in rent. >> My name is Duane precise. I am 62 years old and I live in Tucson, Arizona. My rent is about 75% of my income. >> My name is Taisha Ford. I live in Caldwell, Idaho. I am 35, almost 36. For percentage of my income on rent, I spend about roughly 42% between rent and utilities. >> My name is jade gielecki. I am 26 years old in Charleston, South Carolina. I estimate that I spend about 60% of my monthly income on rent and utilities. >> My name is Dennis Layton. I'm 34 and I live in Panama City, Florida. When your rent is, you know, taking up a third or more of your budget, the first thing that you have to get rid of is your entertainment budget. The things that give you relief. >> In one year, I had a $300 price hike. And then just this last year, it was a $700 price hike. If it keeps going up we're going to have to reevaluate a lot of things. We're going to have to reevaluate family members being to have their own space. >> The only option that would be cheaper really, is a trailer. And get a double wide trailer for between $600 and $700, which is still more than half of my income, but it's less than 75%. >> In order to make up for the additional cost of rent, we do have to every once in a while go to food pantries to even subsidize our grocery budget, which is abysmal at this point. >> At the end of the day when you are paying that much you can really only a form -- afford your utilities, rent, gas and stuff like that. And that is it. >> I cannot see myself going without having roommates. In my current situation I actually lived with a couple who is no longer a couple anymore. But we cannot afford to live elsewhere. So we have three people in a two bedroom, two of whom are no longer in a relationship, and sharing a room because of how hard it is to find housing. >> It's nerve wracking. There's no real way to prepare for it, especially if you're going to be low. And there are times when I have to think about, in the next couple days do I need food for me or for the pets more? >> There are times when money is so tight that we'll all go out as a family and do doordash together. So, you know, it's embarrassing. It's not fun. Especially, you know, since I have a professional job and things like that. I have an mba and I'm out delivering doordash on the side. And so, my kids, they're aware of the financial pressures, but at the same time, it's like, we take those opportunities to spend time together as a family. >> I think I'm going to be renting my whole entire life, and that's sad. It's really sad because I make a good I make a good living. I'm a middle of the road American and I should be able to buy a house. >> It is a constant hamster wheel of working. Just to go to sleep at night somewhere, and it's hard. Stephanie: And joining me now is Whitney airgood-obrycki, the lead author of a new report from Harvard's joint center for housing studies that has been tracking U.S. Rental prices. Whitney, thanks for joining the "Newshour." So those renters we just heard from, they're all described as cost burdened in housing market lingo. That means they're paying more than 30% of their income toward rent. Your study found that in 2022, 22.4 million Americans were in that boat. Tell us more about what was behind that. Whitney: That's correct. We saw a record high number of cost burdened renters in 2022. Part of this came from record high rent growth that came at the end of 2021, in early 2022. And that was really from a surge in rental demand in a period where we just weren't building enough, so we weren't getting enough supply. We were seeing a huge increase in the number of renter households. That drove vacancy rates really low, and it really pushed rents up, and it made it much harder for people to afford their housing. Stephanie: And I understand that this was something you saw across income levels, correct? Whitney: That's correct. We saw a large increase in cost burdens from 2019 to 2022, an additional two million households and an increase of about three percentage points, pushing the total cost burden rate up to about 50%. We saw this across every single income category we looked at, with especially large increases among middle income renter households. But even among the lowest income households who make less than $30,000, their cost burden rate increased by a percentage point and a half to another record high of 83%. Stephanie: We can all imagine what that might mean for someone already making low wages. For how many Americans did that mean homelessness or sacrificing essentials? Whitney: Lower income households who are severely cost burden, meaning they spend more than half of their income on rent and utilities, are less likely to spend on things like food, health care, or retirement. And so we see significant differences between those who are severely cost burden and those who are not cost burden. So there's certainly tradeoffs that are involved when you live in unaffordable housing. This year, we've also seen a record high number of people who are experiencing homelessness. And so certainly this lack of affordable housing is pushing people into these situations where they just can't afford anything and they end up in shelters, or they end up in places like in cars, on the streets, where it's a more visible form of unsheltered homelessness. Stephanie: How much of that in 2022 was sort of due to the pandemic and the burdens on families from that? Whitney: The rise in homelessness really came at a time when we saw pandemic relief measures ending. Rents were also increasing at some of the fastest rates we've ever seen. So it really put a lot of households in a bind. Stephanie: Whitney, I do understand that in the last year, rental prices have been slowing. Does that mean things are getting better for renters? Whitney: What we're seeing in some of the rent data is that there's a slowing of rent growth, and in some markets there's actual declines in rents. But what we saw during the pandemic were such significant increases. So in some quarters, rents were increasing by more than 20% year over year. And so we're really in a situation where things are much less affordable than they were pre-pandemic. We are seeing some of that market cooling, some deceleration of rent growth. But in most places rents are in fact still growing. Stephanie: When you talk about supply, the supply of low rent units, according to your report, has precipitously declined in the last decade. So those renters, I assume, will continue to feel the squeeze. What are effective ways to address that problem and rent affordability overall? Whitney: We're really going to need every tool that we have in the toolbox. And so, a lot of policy momentum right now is just around increasing supply with the idea that a lot of supply at the higher end will filter down and provide rent relief further down the market. And so we're seeing a lot of zoning reform across the country. What we're really going to need though are increased subsidies. Things like public housing or housing choice vouchers and a much broader commitment from our federal, state, and local levels toward really addressing the affordability crisis, both toward increasing affordable options and toward really addressing this problem of rising homelessness we're also seeing. Stephanie: Whitney airgood-obrycki with Harvard's joint center for housing studies. Thank you so much. Whitney: Thank you. ♪♪
