The gap between what most Newark renters can pay for housing and the cost of rent in the city’s current housing inventory has grown so dramatically in recent years that it would take 16,000 additional low-rent units to meet the city's housing needs.
This was among the findings of a comprehensive housing affordability analysis of Newark renters conducted by CLiME, produced by Professor and Director David Troutt and Senior Research Fellow Katharine Nelson.
This report, “Homes Beyond Reach”, shows that the median household income of Newark renters is only $30,000 a year, making them very low income. Using this local measure, CLiME found that the typical household can afford to pay only $763 a month. Yet median rent in Newark is almost $1,100. Newer units average much more, and even units deemed “affordable” are out of reach for most. Hardest hit are families needing more than two bedrooms, a fact that contributes to overcrowding—and increased exposure to the coronavirus. In a city of renters, half of Newark’s households compete for just a third of its rental housing.
