SPOKANE, Wash. — People have said it, but the numbers seem to support it, many Spokane County residents are struggling to afford to live.
In recent months, we have seen firsthand how difficult it can be to find and keep affordable housing.
Earlier this summer, KREM 2 spoke with a man who said his new landlord raised the monthly rent in his apartment by nearly $500. He said there was no way he could afford the rent hike.
This particular situation spurred other discussions about affordable housing this summer. In August, city councilwoman Kate Burke held a town hall meeting for tenants. One woman told the crowd, as she held the hand of her daughter who is in a wheelchair, that she often thought they were one month away from homelessness.
The conversation is ongoing and more and more households seem to be living paycheck to paycheck.
So how much do you need to make to afford to live in Spokane County? Research from Eastern Washington University sheds some light on that question.
According to the data from the EWU Institute for Public Policy and Economic Analysis, Spokane County's median annual household income was $53,360 in 2017. They found it was about $17,000 less than the state median income and about $7,000 less than the national median income.
Experts define "affordable housing" to mean spending less than 30 percent of your monthly income on rent and utilities. In 2017, nearly half of Spokane County renters spent 30 percent or more of their paycheck on housing. And that number stayed fairly consistent over the last 10 years.
The data also shows in that same year just over 20 percent of Spokane County renters were spending half their monthly income or more on rent.
The study revealed there are a number of people spending a significant portion of their monthly income on housing. For more information on affordable housing visit the Spokane Low Income Consortium website.