Out of reach

“Out of Reach,” a report released last week by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, looked at the annual “housing wage,” the hourly wage a full-time worker must earn to afford a two-bedroom rental home at fair-market rent while spending no more than 30 percent of income.

The report found that Vermont’s housing wage is $19.36 per hour, based on $1,007 fair-market rent for a two-bedroom apartment.

The state’s minimum wage is $8.73. A Vermonter earning minimum wage would have to work 89 hours a week to afford rent, according to the report.

Rents in Lamoille County are somewhat more affordable than the state average, according to Housingdata.org, a non-profit that collects housing and income data throughout the United States.

The housing wage in Lamoille County — statistics aren’t available for individual towns — is $18.12 per hour, $37,680 a year, based on the $942 fair-market rent for a modest two-bedroom apartment.

In the United States, the average 2014 housing wage for a two-bedroom apartment is $18.92 — more than two-and-a-half times the $7.25 federal minimum wage, and 52 percent higher than it was in 2000.

In no state can a full-time minimum wage worker afford a one-bedroom or two-bedroom rental unit at fair market rent, the report found.

While the National Low Income Housing Coalition supports efforts to increase the federal minimum wage, it stresses that additional policy changes are needed to fix the housing crisis.

“Raising the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour would benefit millions of low-income Americans, however, it unfortunately would be an insufficient response to America’s housing affordability crisis,” NLIHC president Sheila Crowley said in an email. “Increasing the stock of affordable housing is a critical part to addressing the extreme shortage of affordable housing in America.”

The NLIHC believes the best way to achieve that is through the National Housing Trust Fund. The fund was established in 2008 but has been unfunded since 2011 when revenues from Frannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which had funded it, dried up.

“Once funded, the National Housing Trust Fund will provide communities with funds to build, preserve, and rehabilitate rental homes that are affordable for the lowest income households,” Crowley said.

The fund is uniquely designed to serve the most vulnerable households, with 90 percent of funding reserved for rental housing and 75 percent of the funds reserved solely for extremely low-income households, according to Crowley.

Tight market

Tight housing and rental markets throughout Vermont mean rents stay relatively high, and there’s not enough new development to give people an opportunity to find a place they can afford.

The Vermont rental market is one of the tightest in the nation, with a statewide rental vacancy rate of just 4.2 percent in 2013. Lamoille County’s vacancy rate is even lower at 1.5 percent.

A stable, healthy rental market will have a vacancy rate of at least 5 percent, experts say.

Three years ago, budget problems prompted the Vermont State Housing Authority to stop issuing Section 8 vouchers to all but emergency applicants such as women escaping from domestic violence situations. The federal vouchers subsidize rents for privately owned apartments and bring the rent into a range tenants can afford.

Now, about 4,000 Vermont families are on the waiting list for those vouchers. Because of the tightening housing market, fewer people are expected to leave voucher-supported housing, so the waiting lists will grow even longer, analysts say.

Limited help

The state created a Community Housing Grant a few years ago to help Vermonters with housing needs.

The main goal of the grant is to reduce the number of emergency hotel stays throughout the state, said Amy Perez, housing program manager for Central Vermont Community Action Council.

The grant money is distributed through the council. Representatives from area social services agencies meet weekly in Morrisville to decide how the grant money should be used in Lamoille County.

Most of the grant money is distributed to people earning 30 percent or less of the average income in Lamoille County. A family of four can only make up to $19,550 a year to be eligible.

“We talk about their needs,” Perez said. “Are they homeless? Are they in imminent need of losing housing? Do they owe back rent?”

Clients can use the money for a variety of needs, from paying a security deposit for a new apartment to paying overdue rent.

Affordable units

According to the Directory of Affordable Rental Housing, Lamoille County has 389 units of affordable housing. None of the units were vacant earlier this week.

The affordable housing that the Lamoille Housing Partnership owns are full and often have long waiting lists. That’s the case with Sylvan Woods, a 28-unit complex in Stowe.

In Morrisville, the former Authur’s Department Store building is being redeveloped into affordable housing. The building, owned jointly by Housing Vermont and the Lamoille Housing Partnership, will have 14 one-bedroom apartments and four two-bedroom apartments on its upper floors. The first floor will be leased as commercial space.

Thirteen apartments will be affordable and available to individuals earning up to $27,900 and households earning up to $39,780. The remaining five apartments will be market rate.

Work began last fall and is set to wrap up later this year. The project is expected to cost $5.2 million.

Jim Lovinsky, executive director at the Lamoille Housing Partnership, doesn’t expect any additional affordable housing projects to get underway in the near future.

“We probably won’t see (federal) funding for projects again for a few years,” Lovinsky said.

A Lamoille County resident who qualifies for affordable housing could wait “months or years” before moving into an existing unit, Lovinsky said.

It’s not unusual for people to start searching for senior housing units, which are available for those 55 and older who meet certain income guidelines, several years ahead of time, he said.