Report reveals a national shortage of 7.1 million homes affordable and available for extremely low-income renters
Washington, D.C. – The National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) released today its annual report, The Gap: A Shortage of Affordable Homes. The Gap report details the severe shortage of affordable rental homes available to families and individuals with different income levels nationwide and in every state and major metropolitan area. This year’s report finds that the lowest-income renters in the U.S. face a shortage of 7.1 million affordable and available rental homes with only 35 affordable and available homes for every 100 extremely low-income renter households. As a result of this shortage, three-quarters of renters with extremely low incomes are severely cost-burdened, spending more than half of their income on rent.
The report’s findings come amid unprecedented attempts to cut federal housing assistance programs.
“This year’s report demonstrates that renters with the lowest incomes continue to face a dire shortage of affordable housing options nationwide. Our neighbors who are seniors, people with disabilities, and those with low wages are most severely impacted,” said NLIHC Interim President and CEO Renee Willis. “Proposals to cut funding for the housing programs that serve our neighbors most in need or dismantle the institutions that serve them are nothing short of attacks on our communities. Our country needs bipartisan leadership to address the housing crisis – a crisis spanning both Republican and Democratic administrations – not ideologically driven assaults on seniors, people with disabilities, and low-wage workers struggling with housing instability.”
With only 35 affordable and available homes for every 100 renter households with extremely low incomes, every state and the District of Columbia is impacted. States with the most severe shortages – Nevada, Oregon, California, Arizona, and Texas – have fewer than 30 affordable rental homes available for every 100 extremely low-income renters. Nevada has just 17. Even states with the least severe shortages face significant shortfalls. North Dakota, which has the least severe shortage, has only 62 rental homes affordable and available for every 100 extremely low-income renters. All 50 of the largest metropolitan areas also have a shortage of affordable and available rentals for the lowest-income renters.
Further, the amount that extremely low-income renters can afford to pay for rent does not cover the development and operating costs of new housing and is often insufficient to provide an incentive for landlords to maintain older housing. As a result, a systemic shortage of affordable housing is available to extremely low-income renters in nearly every community. Subsidies are needed to produce new affordable housing, preserve existing affordable housing, and subsidize the difference between what the lowest-income renters can afford to pay and market rents.
The 2025 Gap report concludes that the private market fails to adequately serve renters with extremely low incomes and that current federal funding for housing assistance is insufficient. Cuts to housing assistance will only exacerbate the severe affordability challenges documented in this report. Congress must make sustained, bipartisan investments in deeply income-targeted programs such as the national Housing Trust Fund, Housing Choice Vouchers, and public housing to address this significant gap in affordable rental housing for the lowest-income renters.
View the complete Gap report and an interactive map at: https://nlihc.org/gap.
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