Housing
How the Poor Are Squeezed Out of the Most Affordable Housing
A worsening trend that spans four decades.
Back in 1970, America actually had more affordable housing for the poor than poor people who needed it (this is a recurring theme this week: you were way better off teetering on the edge of poverty in America 40 years ago). Over time, that surplus dwindled. Then it turned into an affordable-housing shortage. And then the shortage grew, pushing more and more people at the bottom rung of the housing market out of housing all together.
This chart, from a new report by Tracey Ross at the Center for American Progress, shows the growing historic gap between the need in America for housing as cheap as $450 a month and the supply of such places: