Affordable Housing Finance: Mapping America's Affordable Housing Gap - July 29, 2014

By Donna Kimura

There’s not a single county in the United States that has an even balance between the number of extremely low-income residents and affordable and available rental units. Not one.

Suffolk County, Mass., comes the closest. It has the smallest gap, with 50.4 affordable and available units available per 100 rents.

Cobb County, Ga., has the biggest gap, with just 2.8 affordable and available units per 100 rents, according to the Urban Institute, which has unveiled an online map that details the nation’s rental housing crisis. Visitors can click on any county to see how large the affordable housing gap is in the area.

“The Affordability Gap Map is important because it quantifies a pressing public policy problem,” says Erika Poethig, director of Urban Policy Initiatives, at the Urban Institute. “Half of all renters in the U.S. are cost-burdened. That’s a fact which many in the housing field and even beyond know quite well. But where is this burden heaviest, and what policies have been shown to make a difference? That’s the conversation we wanted to facilitate.”

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