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Extremely low-income renters are more likely than renters of all other income groups to have characteristics that limit the hours that they are able to work: they are more likely than all other renters to be seniors, have a disability, be enrolled in school, or be single-adult caregivers of children or individuals with a disability.

Black, Latino, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, and American Indian or Alaska Native households are more likely than white households to be renters with extremely low incomes.

Chart of renters and rental units in the U.S., matched by income and affordability categories. Renters with extremely low incomes face an absolute shortage of affordable rental homes.

Graph showing the distribution of renters by income into rental housing of different affordability levels. Most extremely low-income renters reside in unaffordable housing that would otherwise be affordable and available for higher-income households.

Chart showing affordable and available rental homes per 100 renter households at extremely low income, 50% of Area Median Income (AMI), 80% of AMI, and 100% of AMI.

Renters with extremely low incomes are much more likely than other renters to be severely housing cost-burdened.

Renters with extremely low incomes account for most severely cost-burdened renters in the United States.

Renter households of color are more likely to be housing cost-burdened or severely housing cost-burdened than white renter households.

More than two-thirds of extremely low-income renter households across all racial and ethnic groups experience severe housing cost burdens. 

Black and Latino renters account for 47% of severely- cost-burdened extremely low-income renters. With each subsequently higher income level, they account for a decreasing share of severely cost-burdened renters.

Map displays the number of affordable and available rental homes for every 100 extremely low-income renter households by state. No state has an adequate supply.

Prevalence of severe housing cost burdens for renter households by metropolitan area; each map represents an income group. Maps show that severe cost burdens are pervasive for extremely low-income renters in all 50 of the top metropolitan areas and become less pervasive for each successively higher income group. For middle-income renters, severe cost burden rates are at or below 5% in all but six of the top 50 metropolitan areas.

Extremely low-income renters account for most of the shortage of affordable and available rental homes in the United States.