This Worst Case Housing Needs report is the seventeenth in a longstanding series providing national data and analysis of critical housing problems facing very low-income renting families. Renter households with very low incomes who do not receive government housing assistance and pay more than one-half of their income for rent, live in severely inadequate conditions, or both, have worst case needs for adequate, affordable rental housing. This report draws on data from the 2017 American Housing Survey (AHS) and finds there were 7.7 million renter households with worst case needs in 2017, as the private market and public rental assistance programs together made available only 59 affordable units per 100 very low-income renters. Although rising incomes shrank the population of at-risk households, contributing to a 7-percent decline in the number of households experiencing worst case needs between 2015 and 2017, inadequate market supply and competition for affordable units continue to pose substantial challenges for very low-income renters.

Download Appendix A (in Microsoft Excel format) here.

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