O.C. Record on Affordable Housing Is the Worst in U.S. : Study: More than eight of 10 poor families in the county use at least half their income for rent, recently released research by a nonprofit group shows.

Because of an acute shortage of low-cost housing, more than eight out of every 10 poor families in Orange County rental units devote at least half of their income to rent--the second worst record in the country, according to a study released Tuesday by a national research group.

The study, conducted by the nonprofit Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, also found that Orange County had the worst record--among the 44 metropolitan areas surveyed--for providing affordable housing, with almost six low-income renters for every low-rent unit.

So great is the shortage of affordable housing in Orange County that the head of one local housing agency sees an underlying message to the poor: “Essentially, it comes down to this: Get out of Orange County. There’s just not anything available. The waiting list is eight miles long,” said Allen Baldwin, director of the Orange County Community Housing Corp.

The lack of low-rent housing, coupled with a rapidly expanding population, has left the poor with no realistic alternatives but to double up or triple up with other families in small units to be able afford the rent, according to housing advocates.

“Unless you build more housing, you can get only more of that (overcrowding) or more homelessness,” said Lee Podolak, president of the Orange County Homeless Issues Task Force.

Most of the research concerning Orange County was based on 1986 data, some of which had been adjusted to account for inflation. In 1991 dollars, the median household monthly income for renters was shown to be $2,577.50, while the rent was $829 or 32% of that amount.

That means that more than half of the renters in Orange County pay monthly rents that are greater than the federal government’s affordable housing figure, which is deemed to be no more than 30% of the household’s income.

Podolak said a nurse’s aide with an average annual salary of $11,520 should pay a monthly rent of only $288, while an insurance policy processor can afford $400. But she said a recent survey found that only 5% of the county’s 300,000 rental units command rents lower than $450 per month.

Immigrant rights activist Nativo V. Lopez said the situation is particularly bleak for those who have recently moved into the country.

“They are working, but just not making enough money to pay rent for an apartment unit or to buy a home,” Lopez said. “There’s no commitment to meeting the needs of that sector of society, so the obvious result is overcrowding.”

Among the findings in the report:

* 85.6% of the poor renter households spend at least half of their income on housing, with Orange County ranking second only to Rochester, N.Y. Orange County’s poor homeowners fared almost as badly as the poor renters, with 62.2% using at least half of their wages to meet mortgage payments. Five other California areas included in the study--San Diego, San Francisco-Oakland, Los Angeles County, San Jose and Riverside-San Bernardino, were among the nine worst areas in the country for high housing costs.

* High housing costs affected both white and Latino households at almost the same rate, although minorities are more likely than whites to be poor.

* Orange County, followed by San Diego, far outdistanced other metropolitan areas for its lack of affordable housing. In Orange County, there were 5.74 low-income renters for every low-rent unit. In comparison, Los Angeles County, which has significantly more poor people, has only 3.1 low-income renters for every low-rent unit.

* Between 1974 and 1986, the number of available low-rent units dropped by 60.3%. One of the study’s authors, Edward B. Lazere, said this was partly due to older housing being replaced by new, higher-priced units.

* In one of the few areas where Orange County and other West Coast areas scored well, only 11.9% of the poor renters, and 3.4% of the poor owners, lived in “physically deficient” units with problems such as toilets that do not flush, faulty heating, or poor electrical wiring. Comparable figures ranged from 52.5% in places such as New Orleans to 29% in New York’s Nassau and Suffolk counties.

* Orange County was second to Los Angeles County in the number of households living in overcrowded conditions. A unit is considered overcrowded if it has more than one person per room.

Affordable housing advocates offered several reasons for the shortage of low-cost housing in Orange County: Land and other development costs are too high; federal tax laws no longer give investors tax breaks or other incentives to build inexpensive housing, and government rental subsidies have not kept pace with rents.

While some cities and the county have begun devoting more resources to their affordable housing programs, Podolak said most are still not making good use of money sitting idle in local redevelopment agency accounts that by law must be used for affordable housing.

Baldwin also said his group is now focusing on apartment complexes that were left vacant after banks foreclosed on investors.

To leave property like that vacant, Baldwin added, “is a real shame.”