Abstract & Data Sources

The Affordable Housing Crisis in Major Metropolitan Areas in the United States

As the world is steadily emerging from an unprecedented pandemic, there is an poignant desire to take inventory of the repercussions it brought along. Among the dominant marks COVID-19 left in the world and in the United States specifically, a worsen housing crisis remains the most rampant for most. Today, achieving the American dream of being a home owner seems a far more strenuous and almost unattainable goal than pre COVID. As more Americans are now gripping to the government for assistance, the renewed interest in scrutinizing the affected demographics is twofold: (1) what population classes are the most affected? and (2) is there a correlation between said population’s need for affordable housing and parallel government-subsidized assistance programs? In an attempt to answer these questions, below are the data sets I chose to focus on during the course of my research, including the key variables of interest to me:

1. Dataset 1: Bureau of Census (2022). Money Income Of Households—Households By Income Level, Race, And Hispanic Origin: 2020 ProQuest Statistical Abstract of the U.S. 2022 Online Edition. Retrieved from https://statabs-proquest-com.proxy1.library.jhu.edu/sa/docview.html?table-no=738&acc-no=C7095-1.13&year=2022&z=0276F1BAB7F169D69B33D5924366C54F7872061E&accountid=11752

2. Dataset 2: Household Receiving Selected Benefits By Selected Characteristics. Bureau of Census (2022). Persons Living In Households Receiving Selected Benefits By Selected Characteristics: 2020 [By Age, Sex, Race, And Type Of Family] ProQuest Statistical Abstract of the U.S. 2022 Online Edition. Retrieved from https://statabs-proquest-com.proxy1.library.jhu.edu/sa/docview.html?table-no=580&acc-no=C7095-1.11&year=2022&z=19CFE995EB9791DE55B97810F0A4FF7414462EE5&accountid=11752

3. Dataset 3: FHA Active Multifamily level portfolio inventory U.S Department of Housing and Urban development (2020). Active Multifamily Portfolio-Property level Data. https://catalog.data.gov/dataset/active-multifamily-portfolio-property-level-data.

Detailed Description of Data sets:

1. Dataset 1: provides income intervals by race through 50 income interval observations ranging from under $10,000 to over $250,000, and three main variables each broken down by race: total number of households, percent distribution of income, and mean income in dollars. The 2 variables of interest from this dataset are: percent distribution by income by race, and the mean income in dollars by race.

2. Dataset 2: provides a breakdown of selected benefits recipients based on key characteristics such as Race, age, and household type. The dataset has 23 observations of 6 variables, each variable providing the number and the percentage. The 2 variables of interest from this dataset are: living in public or authorized housing by race and households receiving food stamps by race.

3. Dataset 3: FHA active portfolio inventory of properties as of 2020. The variable of interest from this dataset is the “Has_active_assistance_ind”, which is a yes/no indicator signifying whether property has at least 1 active rental assistance contract (Section 8, PRAC, Rental Supplement, PAC, PRAC).

Questions of interest for this analysis:

1. Is there a correlation between the mean income level of income by race and access to federally sponsored housing programs?

2. Is there a correlation between individuals receiving federal housing benefits and other supplemental benefits such as food stamp?

3. What are the States with the highest FHA Property inventory?

4. Is there a correlation between FHA’s property inventory and State with lowest level in mean income?

Benefits Distribution by Demographics

FHA Active Portfolio

Income Brackets by Demographics

Whites vs Hispanics: 2020 - 2015 (Income Distribution)

Final Thoughts

The Final Argument

• Black and Hispanic demographic groups earned on average less per year than their Whites and Asian counterparts

• The is a disparity in FHA inventory across States in the Midwest and some in the West Coast

• There is a correlation between low-income earners and access to Federally sponsored housing programs

• Observations highlight the need to address income inequality gap, especially as it has impact access to equal housing