NLIHC was founded on the principle that data-driven advocacy works. By conducting ongoing, rigorous, and timely research, we make clear the need to ensure housing for America’s lowest-income people.

Every year, we release our signature research publications: Out of Reach and The Gap. Out of Reach reports on the mismatch between what workers can afford and the market rents they must pay in every community in the United States. The Gap documents the gap between the number of renter households and rental units that are affordable and available to them, as well as housing cost burdens, by income groupings in every state and the largest 50 metropolitan areas.

Our research team also produces Congressional District Profiles, which empower policy advocates with specialized data from their own communities. We also produce specialized analyses of current issues, like emergency rental assistance, housing recovery after disasters, and the affordability gap.

Memo to Members and Partners Articles

One in Ten Young Adults Experienced Homelessness over 12-Month Period

Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago released a research brief on youth homelessness, Missed Opportunities: Youth Homelessness in America, National Estimates, which examines the size and characteristics of the youth population experiencing homelessness. The brief finds that one in ten young…

Wage Inequality Grows Over the Past Decade, but Minimum Wage Laws Help

A report by Elise Gould of the Economic Policy Institute, The State of American Wages 2017, shows the growing inequality in earnings between high-wage and low-wage workers. From 2000 to 2017, the highest-wage workers (at the 95th percentile) saw their wages grow by 21.5%, while the lowest-wage…