How Many Jobs Do You Need to Afford a Two-Bedroom Place?

Texas workers rally against low wages and unenforced labor standards in East Austin (by Jana Birchum)

A report released earlier this month by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, a D.C.-based affordable housing advocate organization, confirmed what most Austinites already know: The city's affordable housing crisis "is hitting middle class, poor, rural, urban, people of all ethnicities, cultures, and faith communities." According to the 282-page report, Travis County residents working full time must make an hourly wage of $22.98 in order to afford a two-bedroom rental without paying more than 30% of their income. Under federal standards, households that spend more than 30% of their income are "cost burdened" by their rent; those paying over 50% are "severely" burdened. County residents living on minimum wage salaries – $7.25 per hour – must work 3.2 full-time jobs to afford a modest two-bedroom at the "fair market rent" (FMR) rate of $1,195 per month. City Council increased Aus­tin's living wage in 2015 (to $13.03 per hour), but that only applies to city employees.

While Austin and Travis County did not make the NLIHC's list of most expensive jurisdictions, the state of Texas registers as the 22nd most expensive state to live in – requiring an average hourly wage of $18.38 to afford a FMR two-bedroom rental unit. Minimum wage employees in Texas have to work 82 hours each week to afford a one-bedroom rental. In Travis County, that number jumps to 103 hours per week.

City Council and CodeNEXT staff continue to contemplate how to mitigate the city's housing crisis. Council passed the Strategic Housing Blueprint in April, which targets the construction of 60,000 affordable units over the next 10 years, while feedback is still being collected on the proposed CodeNEXT affordable housing incentives released earlier this month.