Rachel Sadon
Courtesy of the National Low Income Housing Coalition
Another day, another way of demonstrating that D.C. is deeply unaffordable.
Today’s statistics come courtesy of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, which released its annual “Out of Reach” report. Whereas last year, Washingtonians needed to earn $28.04 to afford a two-bedroom, this year that figure jumped up to $31.21.
That puts the District of Columbia second only to Hawaii—though there is a major caveat in comparing the city to states.
Just looking at D.C. then, a household must earn $64,920 annually to afford the city’s “Fair Market Rent” of $1,623 for a two-bedroom apartment (HUD comes up with the annual statistics on FMR). Making the city’s current minimum wage of $10.50, one would have to work 119 hours per week to afford that.
Meanwhile, there are competing proposals in the form of a ballot initiative and a legislative proposal by Mayor Muriel Bowser to raise the wage to $15 per hour. According to a study by the Economic Policy Institute, about 14 percent of the D.C. workforce would be directly or indirectly affected by such an increase.
