The poorest in the U.S. can’t find housing even as low-income units sit empty

Mathew Davis, who lives in a homeless shelter in Austin, Texas, would love an apartment of his own.

PORTLAND, Ore. — Mathew Davis, who lives in a homeless shelter in Austin, Texas, would love an apartment of his own. But with the little money he makes donating blood plasma, even a $450-a-month tiny home with no running water and a communal bathroom would be a stretch.

Meanwhile, over 4,500 units the city classifies as affordable — nearly 16% — sit empty.

“I don’t make enough money really to afford anything,” Davis, 49, said of the few hundred dollars he earns a month. “I just keep trying to swim uphill.”

The poorest people in the U.S. face the most acute shortages of affordable homes. But the majority of low-income housing financed in recent years is for those earning 50% of an area’s median income or above, according to a survey of state housing agencies.

Some cities are now seeing an uptick in vacancies as rents for these units approach market rates. The result: Apartments designated as affordable sit empty because the poorest of the poor cannot afford them.