Why thousands of US affordable homes are sitting vacant while renters remain homeless
Despite a severe shortage of housing for the poorest Americans, thousands of units classified as 'affordable' remain vacant in cities like Austin. The issue stems from a mismatch where subsidized housing is often targeted at middle-income earners rather than the extremely low-income population.
Why it matters
This highlights a structural failure in US housing policy that leaves the most vulnerable populations without access to available resources.
Thousands of homes classified as affordable are sitting vacant in US cities even as some of the country's poorest renters struggle to find housing they can afford.In Austin, Texas, more than 4,500 affordable housing units, nearly 16% of the total classified as affordable, are vacant, according to real estate data and analytics firm CoStar. A healthy vacancy rate is around 5%.Yet people at the lowest end of the income scale face a severe shortage of suitable homes. Mathew Davis, a 49-year-old Austin resident living in a homeless shelter, said even a $450-a-month tiny home with no running water and a communal bathroom would be difficult for him to afford because he earns only a few hundred dollars a month from donating blood plasma."I don't make enough money really to afford anything," Davis said, as quoted by news agency AP.
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