Oregon 2020 Actuals: Without Supplemental Unemployment Insurance the Average Rent Affordable for Those Who Got UI Was Only $426 a Month.

I have extracted from DOL data Oregon unemployment program benefit data for all of 2020 for four main unemployment programs: 

• Regular
• Extended Benefits
• Federal Pandemic Unemployment Insurance 
• Pandemic Unemployment Assistance 

In Oregon those 4 programs provided more than $3.2 billion in benefits over a total of more than 9 million weeks in 2020-the equivalent of more than 178,000 full time work years. 

The 1 page PDF graph and table HERE, and embedded below, shows the 2020 details for each program, including a calculation of the monthly rent that would be affordable (at 30% of income) for the average weekly benefit shown for each program. 

Notes: 

1. Across all four programs the weighted average weekly UI benefit amount of $327 would support an affordable monthly rent of only $426. (The $327 average weekly UI benefit is $133 less than the $460 full time non urban 2020 Oregon minimum wage @$11.50 an hour. The 2019 ACS median monthly rent in Oregon was $1,185). 
2. The workshare unemployment insurance program is not included as it is a supplement to wages.  An affordable rent can't be calculated because wage information is not available. 
3. The table also shows what rent would be affordable at the minimum and maximum weekly benefits allowed in Oregon in 2020. (Less than 25% of regular unemployment recipients received the maximum benefit in 2020). 
4. The affordable rent amounts shown do NOT include the supplemental unemployment benefits provided under two programs in 2020: FPUC and CAA. Those were not included because the programs operated for only a part of the year and there is no readily available Oregon data on the total weeks of payments for those programs.  
5. It IS easy to calculate how much more supplemental weekly benefits can increase rent affordability. For every $100 in supplemental UI weekly benefits the monthly affordable rent increases by $130. So the $300 weekly LWA supplement that began in September increased affordable rent by $390 a month, and the earlier $600 FPUC increased affordable rent by $780 a month.  
6. The new $300 FPUC enacted at the very end of 2020 is scheduled to expire in March. Without an extension in FPUC UI recipients will see a dramatic decline in the rent affordable to them, and likely large increases in rent arrearage that will impact both tenants and landlords. 

 

 Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.