U.S. Housing Crunch Hitting Hard in L.A., Federal Report Says

Strong real estate markets are pushing rents beyond the means of low-income Americans, and Los Angeles residents face the longest wait in the country--10 years--for federal subsidies, according to a report released Monday by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

“The rising economic tide is raising many boats, but it is also drowning some,” said HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo.

The report, “Waiting in Vain: An Update on America’s Housing Crisis,” found that 153,000 households in the city of Los Angeles were on the waiting list for Section 8 rent assistance vouchers.

The 10-year wait in Los Angeles for the vouchers, which are used to help needy families rent private apartments, was matched only by Newark, N.J. Nationwide, the average wait for rent assistance vouchers is 28 months, up from 26 months in 1996, according to the report.

The Los Angeles housing crunch was so severe from 1990 to 1998 that no new applicants were allowed onto to the waiting list for Section 8 vouchers, since it was considered full, according to HUD officials.

When the waiting list was reopened in 1998, it contained only 8,000 applicants. By the beginning of 1999, the waiting list had exploded to 153,000, according to HUD spokesman David Egner.

While Los Angeles city residents must wait the longest for Section 8 vouchers, the waiting time for public housing units is actually shorter in Los Angeles than the national average.

The HUD report showed a nationwide increase in the average wait for public housing. The current average wait is 33 months, up from 22 months in 1996, according to the report.

In the city of Los Angeles, the wait for public housing is about one year, with about 10,000 on the waiting list, and has not changed in recent years.

The waiting list for public housing in Los Angeles County, however, has increased to 37,000, up from 30,000 in 1998, according to HUD. The average public housing wait for Los Angeles County is three years.

Applicants for public housing can be on the city and county waiting lists, Egner said.

The growing waiting lists in Los Angeles County may support another finding of the HUD report, that more of the “worst case” Americans--very low-income renters who either live in substandard housing or pay more than half their income in rent--now live in the suburbs.

Of the 12.5-million “worst” cases, 1.5 million are elderly and 4.5 million are children; 1.1 million to 1.4 million are adults with disabilities.

Although the greatest number of worst-case households remain in central cities, one in three is now in the suburbs, according to the study.

HUD reported that rents have outpaced increases in income. Citing Bureau of Labor Statistics figures, the department noted that residential rents rose 6.2% from 1996 to 1998, while inflation was 3.9% for the same period.

Incomes for the poorest 20% of Americans, however, rose at a rate close to rent increases. Between 1995 and 1997, rents increased 6.3%, and incomes for the lowest 20% of households increased 6.0%, according to HUD.

The HUD report comes a week before Cuomo is to appear before the House Appropriations Committee to ask for a $2.5-billion increase in the HUD budget.