Mapping America's Appalling Affordable Housing Deficit

Every single county in the U.S. lacks affordable housing, and in no state can someone earning a minimum wage salary rent a two-bedroom apartment at market rate. A new report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition paints a fresh, grim picture of this ongoing affordable housing crisis.

Using 2014 American Community Survey data, the report’s authors calculated the number of units families earning below 30 percent of the median income in their areas could rent comfortably, without devoting more than 30 percent of their income towards housing. Their count included units that were vacant, as well as those that were occupied by households in the income bracket defined above (called “Extremely Low Income” or ELI families in the report).