(KTXL) — The Sacramento Housing Alliance released a report on the affordable housing needs in the Sacramento region on Wednesday, which includes El Dorado, Placer, Yolo, Yuba, Sacramento and Sutter counties.

Rent and Housing Costs

In Sacramento County’s affordable housing report, which was assembled by the California Housing Partnership, it was found that more than 55,700 low-income renter households in the county do not have access to affordable housing.

It was also found that 81% of those in extremely low-income households were giving more than 50% of their income towards housing.

Since 2015, the county has seen a continued rise in the asking price for rental units with a 10% increase in the second half of 2021, where rent costs jumped from below $1,5000 to around $1,600.

According to the report, these continued cost hikes have led to renters needing to make more than twice the minimum wage, about $32/hour, to afford the average asking rent of $1,676/month.

While rent costs have been rising and the inventory of affordable housing is not matching the need of the county, there has been a significant rise in funding for housing production and preservation in the county.

According to the California Housing Partnership, the county has received $728 million in state and federal funding towards housing, which is a 191% increase from 2021’s funding.

In the 2021-22 fiscal year, the state provided $102 million towards low-income housing tax credits (LIHTC) and the federal government provided $426 million towards LIHTC.

However, Sacramento County saw a 27% decrease in low-income housing tax credit production and preservation between 2021 and 2022. The county produced less than 1,000 new LIHTC units.

Homelessness

In 2022, Sacramento County saw the number of people experiencing homelessness jump to nearly 10,000 from pre-Covid (2019) numbers of around 5,000 people.

This rise in the county’s homeless population has not been matched by an increase in interim and permanent housing for the homeless in the county, which has around 3,700 beds available.

In Conclusion

The California Housing Partnership concluded that, “By pairing new goals with synergistic policy and system-change strategies that can have an effect over time, the investments made today will bring about the outcomes many Californians have been longing for.”