The widening gap between wages and rental prices is a rising concern in a new report from the National Low-Income Housing Coalition and the Idaho Asset Building Network.  

The report found that renters in 38 of Idaho’s 44 counties do not earn enough to afford a modest home at fair market rent.  

Panhandle Area Housing Alliance Executive Director Maggie Lyons said her main takeaway from the Out of Reach 2025 rental report is the increasing inability of residents in the workforce who are unable to keep up with the rising rate of rent and other costs.  

“We still have struggling households to be able to put a roof over their heads,” Lyons said.   

Full-time workers need to earn $27.83 per hour to afford a two-bedroom home in Idaho, but the average renter makes $18.81 per hour, the report found.

There are 19,203 renter households in Kootenai County and 191,681 renter households across the state. 

“This year’s Out of Reach report shows that, despite economic gains for some, low-income renters continue to face impossible choices between paying rent and meeting basic needs,” said National Low-Income Housing Coalition president and CEO Renee Willis. 

Affordable rentals in the Coeur d'Alene area are tough to find. A two-bedroom home is being offered at $1,455; a three-bedroom townhouse was listed at $1,750, while another two-bedroom home was going for $2,800.

According to renthop.com, the average rent for an apartment in Kootenai County is $1,595. That's about 50% of the income for someone earning $18.81 an hour.

Willis said cutting federal housing investments would only deepen the crisis and called upon Congress to protect and expand housing programs that ensure stability, opportunity and a pathway out of poverty for renters. 

Rent is supposed to be 30% of a worker’s paycheck, but she said many people in the local population have had to find new work that pays more or drastically cut back to make the numbers work.  

What they’re forced to give up often includes essentials like health care visits, medications, more healthy food and day care.  

Over the course of about five years, the area median income went from $65,500 to $72,000 and then $80,000. Today, the area median income is $97,500.

Making that math work for one worker is extremely difficult, which is why the majority of people PAHA works with are two-income earners. 

“The cost of housing combined with child care and other costs have really, really hurt the low to middle income households,” Lyons said. 

For many that use HUD Section 8 housing to keep their household afloat, she suggests the family self-sufficiency program as the rare government program that incentivizes workers to make more money at work, rather than cutting them off if they make $1,000 or $2,000 more than the bare minimum to survive on. 

“They aren’t penalized for getting a raise,” Lyons said. 

She pointed to Charity Reimagined and Christmas for All as the boots on the ground to ensure that workers stay stable and housed when the worst case scenario occurs. 

“Through Charity Reimagined we are helping shore up housing because costs are taking too much of a bite out of their budgets. We are helping so many people who are working,” Lyons said.   

For additional information, go to http://www.nlihc.org/oor.