Federal Housing Secretary Andrew Cuomo said the report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, an advocacy group that favors raising the minimum wage, demonstrates the flip side of the booming economy. HUD says people should not spend more than 30 percent of their gross income on housing. Clinton favors an increase in the minimum wage but is concerned about GOP attempts to tie it to tax cuts. Cuomo and affordable housing advocates are using the report to push for an increase in the minimum wage and more funding for Section 8 rental assistance vouchers. HUD also has increased fair market rents in certain high-income areas, in effect, increasing the value of the rental voucher.
Bond says one in five vouchers currently go unused.
The wages needed to pay for housing increased in 98 percent of the 3,646 local jurisdictions studied from 1999 to 2000. The average increase was 3 percent. The study examined every county in the U.S., except in New England states, where town-level data were combined to produce a county figure. The report is being distributed to members of Congress and the presidential candidates.