Renters' problems overlooked amid mortgage crisis
STAMFORD, Conn. -- This isn't how Simon and Jennifer Morris envisioned married life — sharing a charity-subsidized suite with four other hard-up families, abiding by a curfew and other rules that make them feel they are back in high school.
But for a working-class couple with two small children, trying to stick it out in their pricey hometown, housing options are few.
They abandoned their previous one-bedroom apartment when the rent rose from $1,200 to $1,425. Public housing has long waiting lists, so they moved into a shelter for dislocated families in a converted YMCA. The goal: Save enough money to move south and buy a home where costs are lower.
Around them, southwestern Connecticut's Fairfield County is booming, due partly to an influx of investment banks. New housing projects routinely cater to the affluent.
"But everybody forgets the poor guy — the one who pumps your gas, who builds your hotel, who bags your groceries," said Simon Morris, a 35-year-old carpenter. "The cost of living is driving us out."
On both coasts of the United States, and many cities in between, hundreds of thousands of renters face comparable plights. The home mortgage crisis has received far more notice, but experts say the ranks of renters with dire housing problems are growing faster than the ranks of defaulting homeowners.
The Center for Housing Policy reports that the number of working-family renters paying more than half their income for housing has soared from 1 million to 2.1 million since 1997. Overall, advocacy groups say there are 9 million low-income renter households and only 6.2 million units they can reasonably afford.
"These people spend huge portions of their income on their housing," said Sheila Crowley, president of the National Low Income Housing Coalition. "They don't do things that we all would like to do — save money to buy a house, or for college or retirement. It's a very day-to-day existence."
In the Stamford area, a breadwinner needs to earn more than $30 an hour to afford the rent of a typical two-bedroom apartment, the highest figure in the nation. San Francisco ranks a close second — placing immense burdens on residents such as schoolteacher Meagan Devine and retiree Jose Morales.
'Make big sacrifices'
Devine, 30, lives with her sister, who is eight months pregnant, and brother-in-law in a one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco's Sunset district. She sleeps on the couch and spends weekends at her parents' house in a distant suburb, where she keeps her clothes and books.
In October, she'll begin housesitting for family friends in Berkeley, who will be on sabbatical until Jan. 1. After that? She isn't sure.
