In 1989, 3.6 million elderly or family very-low-income renter households had priority "worst case" housing problems, because they lived in severely substandard housing or had rent burdens exceeding 50 percent of reported income. Unassisted family and elderly renters with such problems have been the only households included in past estimates of "worst case need". However, because the National Affordable Housing Act redefined "families" to include single persons for programs administered by HUD, this report also counts as "worst case" another 1.4 million very-low-income renter households that have severe problems but contain only nonelderly unrelated individuals.

Nationally, one-fifth of U.S. households have incomes below HUD's "very-low-income" cutoffs, which equal 50 percent of the area median family income adjusted for family size. Renters with worst case needs make up 5 percent of U.S. households. They contain 5 percent of national population and 7 percent of the country's children.

This report is part of the collection of scanned historical documents available to the public.

This report is part of the collection of Affordable Housing & Worst Case Needs Reports to Congress.