Average wages of local renters are insufficient to cover costs

It is becoming increasingly difficult to afford unsubsidized rent in the Hudson Valley, according to regional data analyzed by Hudson Valley Pattern for Progress.

The Newburgh-based group analyzed data from the recently released National Low Income Housing Coalition annual report, “Out of Reach.”

In all nine counties in the Hudson Valley, renters must work far more than a full-time job to afford the average cost of a two-bedroom apartment, said Joe Czajka, senior vice president of Pattern for Progress and executive director of the Center for Housing Solutions.

“Each community definitely needs to accomplish projects that are affordable for the everyday working person — the person who is serving your coffee, the person who is taking care of you when you go to the hospital, the person who is cleaning the floors at the schools,” Czajka said. “These are all of the people that we count on every single day when we all wake up and go to work.”

Czajka said it is “critical that federal housing programs ... continue to be funded.” He said they provide vital incentives for builders of affordable apartments, down payments and closing cost assistance for first-time home buyers, and assistance for existing homeowners who might need a new roof, boiler or insulation.

In Ulster County, the aver-

age renter earns $9.64 per hour, according to the analysis, but the typical rent of $1,155 per month would require a wage rate of $22.21 per hour for a single wage earner working 40 hours per week.

In Dutchess County, the average renter earns $13.41 per hour, but the typical rent of $1,321 per month would require a wage of $25.40 per hour for 40 hours for a single earner.

In Greene County, the average renter earns $8.80 per hour, but the typical rent of $918 per month would require a wage of $17.65 per hour.

In Columbia County, the average renter earns $10.33 per hour, but the typical rent of $951 per month would require a wage of $18.29 per hour.

In Sullivan County, where average rents are $948 per month, a family needs $37,920 per year in income to afford a twobedroom apartment. At an average hourly wage of $10.45, there is a $405 per month discrepancy between income and rent.