Make minimum wage and need a 1-bedroom apartment in Idaho? Double your workweek hours
A new report provides another glimpse into how bad the housing crisis has become in Boise, the Treasure Valley and beyond.
A minimum wage employee in Idaho must work 76 hours a week to afford to rent a one-bedroom apartment, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition. That employee would need to work 96 hours a week for a two-bedroom home.
The report released Wednesday by NLIHC, a nonprofit focused on the nationwide affordable housing shortage, highlights how stagnant wages haven’t kept pace with the skyrocketing cost of rental housing. Idaho’s minimum wage has been $7.25 — which is the federal minimum — since 2009.
For a two-bedroom home in Idaho, renter households must make an average of $15.67 an hour in a typical 40-hour week. The average household in Idaho earns $13.62 an hour, according to NLIHC.
In Ada County, a household needs an hourly wage of $19.27 to be able to afford a two-bedroom apartment. The average household in the county makes just $15.67 an hour.
A few rural counties — Boise, Owyhee and Blaine — also require hourly wages above $19 to afford a two-bedroom place. Blaine County is home to Ketchum and Sun Valley.
Mel Leviton, executive director of the Idaho State Independent Living Council, said his organization hears from people with disabilities desperate for affordable, accessible housing every day. That search has grown more difficult in recent years for Idaho residents, Leviton said.
“They are often priced out of ground floor apartments or affordable mobile homes and into confining, costly nursing home care,” Leviton said in a news release Wednesday. “Even people who consider themselves solidly middle income can’t find housing they can afford AND physically use. Where does it end?”
Most “extremely low-income” households — four-person households making $25,750 a year or less — are severely cost-burdened by housing, the report said. Those households have 40 affordable units available for every 100 that are searching for housing, according to NLIHC.
More than a third of those extremely low-income households have tenants in the labor force, according to NLIHC. Another 24% are seniors, and 29% are disabled.
A home is generally considered affordable when rent and utilities account for 30% of a household’s income or less.
Hannah Sharp, development manager at rental assistance nonprofit Jesse Tree, said the gap is leaving many families “one unanticipated financial shortfall away” from imminent risk of eviction. Calls for rental aid tripled beginning in March 2020, Sharp said, and many tenants also struggled with health or child-care costs.
Kendra Knighten, policy associate with the Idaho Asset Building Network, said consequences of being unable to find affordable housing “are far-reaching — impacting their access to health care, nutritious food and quality day care.”
“Ensuring every Idahoan has access to an affordable home is key to ensuring our families, neighbors and communities are healthy and thriving,” Knighten said.
