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Workers' rent squeeze

In cities nationwide, renters struggle in homes they can't afford.

STAMFORD, Conn. - This isn't how Simon and Jennifer Morris envisioned married life - sharing a charity-subsidized suite with four other hard-up families, abiding by a curfew and other rules.

But for a working couple with two small children, trying to stick it out in their pricey hometown, housing options are few.

They abandoned their previous one-bedroom apartment when the rent rose from $1,200 to $1,425. Public housing has long waiting lists, so they moved into a shelter for dislocated families in a converted YMCA. The goal: save enough to buy a home where costs are lower.

Around them, southwestern Connecticut's Fairfield County is booming, due partly to an influx of investment banks.

"But everybody forgets the poor guy - the one who pumps your gas, who builds your hotel, who bags your groceries," said Simon Morris, a 35-year-old carpenter. "The cost of living is driving us out."

On both coasts of the United States, and cities in between, hundreds of thousands of renters face comparable plights. The home mortgage crisis has received more notice, but experts say ranks of renters with dire problems are growing faster than ranks of defaulting homeowners.

The Center for Housing Policy reports that the number of working-family renters paying more than half their income for housing has soared from 1-million to 2.1-million since 1997.

In the Stamford area, a breadwinner needs to earn more than $30 an hour to afford a two-bedroom apartment, the highest figure in the nation. San Francisco ranks second - placing burden on residents such as schoolteacher Meagan Devine and retiree Jose Morales.

Morales, 78, moved to working-class San Francisco in 1965 after emigrating from Peru. Rent that was $80 is now $864. A former tennis instructor, he hurt his back last year and now relies entirely on Social Security of $900 per month.

"It's a miracle I'm still here," he said.

Devine, 30, lives with her pregnant sister and brother-in-law in a one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco's Sunset district. In October, she'll begin housesitting until Jan. 1. After that, she isn't sure.

Devine is a professional with a master's degree in math, and could likely command a six-figure salary at an engineering firm. But since 2002, she has chosen to be a high school math instructor.

"The only problem is I can't afford to live here on a teacher's salary," she says.

After taxes and a $350 deposit into a retirement fund, she takes home about $2,500 per month. One-bedroom apartments start around $2,000.

Housing shortage

Some facts about renters in the United States:

Renters: About 32 percent of U.S. householders are renters, rather than homeowners; they occupy about 35-million rental units.

Costs: In San Francisco, a full-time worker needs to earn nearly $30 an hour to afford a modest two-bedroom apartment without spending more than 30 percent of income. In West Virginia, the same "housing wage" is about $10 an hour.

Shortage: The National Low Income Housing Coalition says there are 9-million extremely low-income renter households and only 6.2-million units they can afford at 30 percent of income or less.

Remedies: A bill pending in Congress would establish a National Affordable Housing Trust Fund to build or rehabilitate 1.5-million low-income housing units over 10 years.

Associated Press

[Last modified September 19, 2007, 01:13:34]