The National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) released its annual report on the Housing Gap, which shows the availability of affordable rental housing in all 50 states. This year’s report found that the affordability challenge continued to worsen even as rent prices have flattened in recent months, citing a drop in housing affordable to Extremely Low-Income (ELI) families of 500,000, or 8% nationwide. In California, the report found that:

• There are more than 1.3 million ELI renter households (those earning 30% or below area median income).
• There are only 24 available and affordable homes for every 100 ELI renter families.
• 78% of ELI renters have a severe cost burden, defined as households spending more than half of their income on housing and utilities.
• There is a shortage of 998,510 units for ELI households and a shortage of 1,450,924 units when you include very low-income households (those earning 50% or below area median income).

The report describes a number of local, state, and federal solutions, including land use and zoning reform, new state and local funding investment, and a long-term federal commitment and investment in both new construction and preservation of affordable homes, such as the American Housing and Economic Mobility Act (S. 1368 in the 117th Congress). Among other actions, this act would provide nearly $45 billion in annual funding for the National Housing Trust Fund, which provides funding to states to build, rehabilitate, preserve and operate rental housing for low-income households.