In California, the Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom apartment is $2,028. To afford this level of rent and associated utilities, your household would need to bring in $6,761 per month or $81,133 annually to avoid paying more than 30 percent of your income to rent. If you are making minimum wage of $15 per hour, you’d need to work 104 hours per week or the equivalent of 2.6 full-time jobs to afford this level of rent and utilities for a modest two-bedroom apartment. For a one-bedroom apartment, you would have to work 83 hours or the equivalent of 2.1 full-time jobs to afford a one-bedroom apartment.
As this trend spirals, many renters are being priced out of the market as rents continue to rise across the state. In the space of ten years, a two-bedroom apartment rose 18 percent between 2002 and 2022. For low-income tenants, these increases can mean having to cut back on basic necessities, such as food, medical supplies or transportation, or be at risk for eviction or homelessness. This is a constant fear among many elderly renters.
This is a crisis that continues to grow. CCH is working on solutions to find more available and affordable housing to meet the income gap. There are more than five million renters across the state, of which 45 percent of the population are renters. More common-sense legislation is needed to invest in finding affordable rental housing solutions for our communities.
Join with CCH and other leaders in the affordable housing field to push for more affordable quality housing in meeting this crisis head on. To learn more, click here to view the National Low Income Housing Coalition’s Out-of-Reach report.
