OMR In The News 2017

One Month’s Rent helps Howard County residents facing eviction

Fatimah Waseem Contact Reporter, Howard County Times

Copyright © 2017, Howard County Times, a Baltimore Sun Media Group publication

One Month’s Rent Initiative members from left: Mary Klett, of Columbia; Wren Morgan, of Columbia; Ann Neale, of Columbia; Anne Dodd, of Ellicott City; Joy Calvert, of Columbia; and Jane Parrish, of Columbia. (Photo by Nicole Munchel)

Since the late 1960s, a book club of local women had met monthly to together roam through the pages of far-flung tales. When the group read Barbara Ehrenreich’s expose on the challenges of living on minimum wages, they knew the story would have real-life consequences for themselves and for local residents struggling to overcome poverty. In her book, “Nickel and Dimed,” Ehrenreich goes undercover to work unskilled jobs — as a waitress in Florida and a Walmart clerk in Minnesota — to bring to life the daily struggle of surviving on earning $7 an hour.

Inspired by Ehrenreich’s book, the group launched the One Month’s Rent Initiative, a nonprofit organization that helps low-wage earners facing eviction. We couldn’t just drop it. We had to do something,” said club member Anne Dodd, chief judge of the county’s Orphan’s Court. For more than 12 years, the group has approved donations for one month’s rent or a security deposit for individuals threatened with losing housing due to a personal, economic or medical crisis.

Washington Post on Minimum Wages & Family Apt Rentals

Here’s how much you would need to afford rent in your state

By Tracy Jan
June 8 2017

There is nowhere in this country where someone working a full-time minimum wage job could afford to rent a two-bedroom apartment, according to an annual report released Thursday documenting the gap between wages and the cost of rental housing.

Downsizing to a one-bedroom will only get you so far on minimum wage. Such housing is affordable in only 12 counties located in Arizona, Oregon and Washington states, according to the report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

You would have to earn $17.14 an hour, on average, to be able to afford a modest one-bedroom apartment without having to spend more than 30 percent of your income on housing, a common budgeting standard. Make that $21.21 for a two-bedroom home — nearly three times the federal minimum wage of $7.25.

“The gap between wages and rent is growing,” said Diane Yentel, president and CEO of the Washington-based National Low Income Housing Coalition, which has conducted similar analyses for 28 years. “There’s no doubt that the affordable housing crisis overall has increased since the foreclosure crisis in 2007.”

The report details how much a household must earn to be able to afford rent in every metropolitan area and county in the country. Renters in the U.S. make, on average, $16.38 an hour.