Multnomah County Examples: Different Income Measures Yield Different "Affordable" Rents and Subsidy Needs.

NLIHC has published their annual Out of Reach Report today; the Oregon landing page is HERE. 

OOR  includes projections on affordable rents for minimum wage workers, renters at the estimated median renter household income, and at the estimated mean for renter wages. 

Readers may recall that last week I published an Excel workbook that looked at affordability for average wage workers by county.  

This week in the new graph below I show for Multnomah County 

• How these and other income measures produce different rent "affordability" results 
• The wide range of subsidy required to bring rents to an affordable 30% of income (using a 1 BR HUD FMR). 

Observations

Monthly Affordable Rents Range from $274 to $2,002. 

At the low end a single SSI recipient could afford a $274 rent, while at the high end a one person household at 100% of the Portland Metro HUD Median Family Income could afford a $2,002 rent. 

An average wage worker could afford a $1,882 rent, while a minimum wage worker could afford a $803 rent. 

Annual 1 BR Subsidy Needs Range from ZERO to $16,032.

Both the average wage worker and the HUD 1 person household at the Portland metro HUD 100% MFI require NO subsidy--they can afford a rent that exceeds the HUD 1 BR FMR ($1,610). 

The HIGHEST annual subsidy needed is the $16,032 for the individual with ONLY SSI income and the next lowest is the 1 person HH at minimum wage requiring subsidy of $9,684 annually.

NOTE: 

Use of a 2 BR FMR instead of the 1 BR FMR I used would decrease affordability, while the use of a studio FMR would increase affordability. 

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.