HUD released the 18th Worst Case Housing Needs report, which provides national data and analysis of critical housing problems facing very low-income (VLI) renting families. Low-income renters without government housing assistance are defined as having worst case needs for adequate, affordable rental housing if they pay more than one-half of their income for rent, live in severely inadequate conditions or both. Using American Housing Survey data, the report determines that 7.77 million renter households had worst case housing needs in 2019, and there were only 62 affordable housing units per 100 very low-income renters. Since this report uses data captured just before the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic and its associated economic recession, it includes a Special Addendum to examine the impacts of the recession and relief legislation on worst case needs.
Senior HUD officials will present the report’s key findings and discuss policy implications with a panel of experts at a briefing event hosted by the Bipartisan Policy Center’s J. Ronald Terwilliger Center for Housing Policy on October 18 from 1 to 2:15 p.m. ET. Register here.
