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Amsterdam News has been reporting the news of the day from a Black perspective for 113 years. Donors who choose to give monthly or annually will receive Amsterdam News’ Weekly E-Edition and acclaimed weekday newsletter Editorially Black to their inbox!Sign up for our acclaimed free newsletter Editorially Black with the top Racial Equity stories of the day to your inbox! DENVER — Single mom Caitlyn Colbert watched as rent for her two-bedroom apartment doubled, then tripled and then quadrupled over a decade in Denver — from $750 to $3,374 last year., Colbert juggled her costs. Pay rent or swim team fees for one of her three kids. Rent or school supplies. Rent or groceries. Colbert, a social worker who helps people stay financially afloat, would often arrive home to notices giving her 30 days to pay rent and a late fee or face eviction. “Every month you just gotta budget and then you still fall short,” she said, adding what became a monthly refrain: “Well, this month at least we have $13 left.” Millions of Americans, especially people of color, are facing those same, painful decisions as a record number struggle with , released in January, found that a record high 22.4 million renter households — or half of renters nationwide — were spending more than 30% of their income on rent in 2022. The number of affordable units — with rents under $600 — also dropped to 7.2 million that year, 2.1 million fewer than a decade earlier. “It’s one of the worst years we’ve ever seen,” said Whitney Airgood-Obrycki, a senior research associate at the Harvard center, who added that the level of cost-burdened households in 2022 had not been seen since the Great Recession in 2008, when 10 million Americans lost their homes to foreclosure. After failing to make a significant dent in the problem over the last decade, state and federal lawmakers across the U.S. are making housing a priority in 2024 and throwing the kitchen sink at the issue — including proposals to enact eviction protections, institute zoning reforms, cap annual rent increases and dedicate tens of billions of dollars toward building more housing. The hardest hit have been renters who made less than $30,000, and who, after paying rent and utilities, were left with just $310 a month on average, Airgood-Obrycki said. “So you can certainly imagine the kinds of tradeoffs that have to happen,” she said. “Cost-burden renters are spending less on things like food and health care and retirement. So, there are significant implications for the long-term well-being of these households.” In Denver, Colbert’s bathroom roof partly caved in from a leak last year, and the landlord delayed a fix even as rent went up $200 a month. It was the last straw for Colbert, who moved in to live with family and is purchasing a home through Habitat for Humanity, which gave her a low-interest loan. “It’s so disheartening, paying so much and not even seeing where your rent is going,” Colbert said. “It just hits you like, ‘This is for nothing.’” In Auburn, Massachusetts, pervasive rent hikes have already hit the last bastion of affordable housing. Just off an interstate alongside a pond, residents at the American Mobile Home Park face rent increases upwards of 40%. Many tenants, mostly seniors and others on fixed incomes, haven’t signed new leases with those increases. The group Lawyers For Civil Rights has sent a letter to the landlord accusing it of “unconscionable rent increases,” and failing to provide critical services like adequate garbage and snow removal. “How am I going to pay that?” said Amy Case, 49, wondering how she’ll balance the $345 monthly increase with the $200 she has to spend on medications and the cost of a twice-yearly MRI to monitor her brain tumor. “I don’t know what else to cut back on,” said Case, an administrative assistant at a local college, who said she would only have $300 left over each month for other necessities. “Probably less groceries. I certainly can’t cut back on my medications.” Another tenant, 72-year-old Ann Urbanovitch, who works as a cashier at a department store, is facing a similar rent increase. “I expected it to go up $100, but $345. I was shocked,” she said. “I have to dip into my retirement savings … because, you know, times are tough.” The mobile home park owner, Parakeet Communities, did not respond to a request from The Associated Press for comment. With many families struggling to pay, landlords in Colorado are increasingly turning to evictions, with over 50,000 evictions filed last year, according to data from the Colorado Judicial Branch. “2023 was the high-water mark for evictions filings in recorded Colorado history,” said Zach Neumann, co-CEO of the Community Economic Defense Project, which offers financial and legal assistance to Colorado residents struggling with rent. Monique Gant, the mother of two boys, stuffed her belongings into boxes in a Denver suburb last week after losing a drawn-out eviction fight, planning to move between long-stay hotel rooms and her RV for now. Gant’s hair has thinned from the stress she buries beneath a stoic face for her children. “My kids, they assume that I am Super Woman,” said Gant. But “when I go to take a shower, put some music on, I cry.” Already, she said, her 10- and 11-year-old sons have been in fights at school and on the bus, and aren’t engaging with classes as they once did.“We can see that things really fall off for children that experience eviction,” Graetz said. In Congress, lawmakers are working on a bill that would expand a federal program that awards tax credits to housing developers who agree to set aside units for low-income tenants. Supporters say that could lead to the construction of 200,000 more affordable homes. Some lawmakers are also calling for more rental assistance, including a significant increase in funding for housing vouchers. “A larger commitment from the federal government is required,” said Chris Herbert, managing director of the Harvard center. “Only then will the nation finally make a meaningful dent in the housing affordability crisis making life so difficult for millions of people.” At the state level, Colorado lawmakers have proposed a bill to limit the reasons for which a landlord can evict a tenant. Other bills would scrap the filing fee for tenants in an eviction case, and roll back local rules prohibiting homeowners from renting out a separate unit on their property. “If we don’t act now,” said Colorado Gov. Jared Polis in his state of the state speech last month, largely focused on housing, “we will soon face a spiraling point of no return.”In Washington state, a bill would require that 10% of new housing around transit hubs be affordable for low-income residents. Another would bar landlords from increasing rent by more than 5% annually during a rental agreement term. in response to the state’s estimate that more than 200,000 additional homes will be needed by 2030. It would be the largest housing investment in state history.“My biggest worry,” she said, “is not really having a place to move to. There’s no place to go.”Amsterdam News is renowned for its reporting of the news of the day from a Black perspective for 113 years. Donors who choose to give monthly or annually will receive Amsterdam News’ Weekly E-Edition and acclaimed free weekday newsletter Editorially Black delivered by email.This is on reference to the rent issue article. I’m one of those seniors here in NYC. Can you please refer me to any programs that may help. I’ve done all I can even working but I’m terribly behind on my rent. My landlord is willing to avoid eviction if I can pay my back rent. I’ve been paying my rent since November 2023. I always payed something until I couldn’t pay anything. Please help me in Any way possibleAll solution proposed in this article is not good for society nor the tenant. People don’t want to need to be forever renters nor have a 5% annual increase which scoops up every penny they earn in futures while retirement would become less income and the person has aged with all in landlords pockets’ The only solution is taxing those holding equity and capping the rents and crediting the renter, reversing the land grabs and taking the profits away making renting a even playing field for both parties. If a tenant has to dip into their retirement to pay rent ages 55 to 70 should also require tax burden the landlord and tax credit or refund the renter. Rent has become a hellhole and many people have become victims due to all the current problems this society is fighting over. Younger renter should have a rebates that goes into a saving as in share the equity. Its unconscionable to charge 12 months worth of puff for a dwelling you are desperate and broke and takes your soul. Yes people are dying over stress related to rent cost and the inability to make ends meet. Shame on all those creating this mayhem from forcing people out of housing markets, and home purchases due to all resources going into a rental cost. Maybe a renters revoke would wake and shake reality landlords,As DEI policies come under legal attack, philanthropic donors consider how to adapt
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