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

Brookings Report Shows Cities Experiencing Uneven Economic Progress

The Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution released its annual report, Metro Monitor, the week of February 19. Metro Monitor tracks economic progress in the 100 largest metropolitan areas in the U.S. using an Inclusive Growth Index. The report shows widespread but uneven progress…

Housing Instability Increases Likelihood of Job Loss

An article by Matthew Desmond and Carl Gershenson published in 2016 in Social Problems, “Housing and Employment Insecurity among the Working Poor,” shows that working renters who lose their home, often as a result of eviction, are 11 to 22 percentage points more likely to lose their job. Precarious…