TOD University: What Does Affordable Mean?

TOD University: What Does “Affordable” Mean?

A lot of people talk about making housing affordable, but what does that really mean? Understanding some of the ins and outs of “affordability” is important if you are fighting for better housing. What’s affordable depends on your income and your family size.

What are Los Angeles is famous for its glamour and wealth. But on the flip side, about half of all jobs in the city pay less than $25,000/year. typical $20,800 $144,000 incomes $2,65 $127,000 $8,600 LA Living $24,000 Attorneys in Los Dentists CalWORKs Wage ($10/hr) Janitors Angeles? (mother + 2 $75,000 children) $62,000 $16,000 Firefighters & High School $2,650 Minimum Wage Police Officers Teachers General Relief ($8/hour) $10,800 (disabled person) SSI (Senior or $21,600 $40,000 disabled person) Hotel Truck Drivers $25,000 Housekeepers Security Guards

What is Many families have more than one source of income, so we often talk about househol “household income.” This is all the income from all the people who live together and d pool their money from earnings, unemployment insurance, retirement, Social income? Security, stocks, welfare, etc.

What is You sometimes hear people talk about “median income,” which means the income at which half the households in a certain area have more income and half have less. the Area Median income figures are from the Census. Median Income When you see median income, look out for three things. First, pay attention to the or AMI? “area” in Area Median Income (AMI). Is it the County, the City, the Community Plan Area?

Second, although different agencies use the terms 30% AMI, 50% AMI, and 120% AMI they can have different meanings in terms of dollar amounts. The quick way to cut through this is to ask for the numbers as annual incomes rather than as a percentage of AMI.

Third, look at family size. Is it a single person, couple, family of three or four? Average family size in Los Angeles is about three people. In 2000, half the households in LA County had incomes below $42,000/year. i $42,000 $35,000 $23,000 South Citywide $139,800 Hollywood Los Angeles $25,800 $30,500 Brentwood Boyle Heights West Adams $34,000 $22,000 $33,500 North Hollywood South East LA Mid-Wilshire $18,600 Westlake TOD University: What Does “Affordable” Mean?

$35,000 Northeast LA $14,000 Downtown TOD University: What Does “Affordable” Mean?

What is What’s affordable depends on your income. Rents are considered affordable if you spend no more than about a third of your monthly income on rent and utilities. These an rents would be affordable to people with these incomes: affordabl $250 $2,300 e rent? $1,150 $725 $480 Minimum CalWORKs $1,600 Registered Security Guard mother of 2 Nurse Truck Driver Wage Worker Graphic $25,000/yr $8,600/yr $79,000/yr $40,000/yr $16,600/yr Designers $960 $56,000/yr $600 $1,400 $530 Senior Secretaries Living Wage Vocational $33,000/yr $2,000 Worker Nurses Couple (SSI) Accountant ($20,800/yr) $48,000/yr $70,000/yr

What is What’s affordable depends on your income. A house or condominium is affordable if the total of the monthly mortgage, property tax, insurance and condominium an association fees is less than about a third of your income. The following home prices affordabl would be affordable with a 30-year mortgage at 5% interest: e home $104,000 $258,000 $217,000 price? $312,000 Security Guard Pastor $62,000 Kindergarten Police Officer or $25,000/yr Teacher Firefighter $53,000/yr $75,000/yr $328,000 $525,000 $200,000 Registered Nurse Dentist $148,000 Vocational $79,000/yr $350,000 $127,000/yr Nurses Film Editor Pharmacy $48,000/yr $84,000/yr Technician $36,000/yr

How People pay more than they can really afford in rent. This means that often there isn’t enough money at the end of the month for food, prescriptions, doctor’s visits, dental many work, gas or bus passes. Statewide about one in every five renters pays more than half people their incomes in rent. In Los Angeles about 175,000 renter households pay over half spend their incomes in rent. more 17,000 8,000 11,000 175,000 families 15,000 families families West than half families families 21,000 Hollywood families South Northeast LA Adams their Citywide Mid-Wilshire Los Angeles income 6,800 families on rent? 7,600 families Westlake 11,000 North Hollywood3,500 families families Boyle Heights South East LA TOD University: What Does “Affordable” Mean?

How To meet the high rents people work more than one job or bring another wage earner into home. Doubling up has led to many people crowding five people into one- many bedroom or six people into two-bedroom apartments. At 18% Los Angeles’ rate of renters severe overcrowding is double the statewide rate. Citywide 230,000 renter households double are severely overcrowded. The areas with over one quarter of renters living severely up? overcrowded are:

19,000 7,800 families 15,800 familiesfamilies South 22,600 families Boyle Heights Westlake LA South East LA 44% 44% 34% 230,000 6,000 families families Citywide 29,000 families 7,00018% families 5,700 Wilmington Pacoima 1,500 Wilshire families Sun families Chinatown Valley

What are typical Rents on new apartments are considerably higher, but also vary across the City. Many rents for new apartments downtown are renting for $1,400 for a one-bedroom (affordable with new $50,000/year income) and $2,400 for a two-bedroom (affordable with $86,000/year apartmen income). ts?

i Census 2000 from Affordability Matters.