INDIANAPOLIS, IN – A new report by Prosperity Indiana and the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) finds that amid a staggering acceleration in the shortage of affordable housing, Indiana’s rates of affordable housing supply and severe housing cost burden for extremely low-income renter households are now worse than the national average and some of the worst in the Midwest.
The report, The Gap: A Shortage of Affordable Homes finds a national shortage of 7.3 million affordable and available rental homes for extremely low-income renter households — those with incomes at or below the poverty level or 30% of their area median income (AMI), whichever is greater — resulting in just 33.89 (rounded to 34) affordable and available rental homes for every 100 extremely low-income renter households nationwide. The report also reveals that there are 209,710 extremely low-income households in Indiana (an increase of 10,660 since the 2023 report) but only 70,392 affordable and available rental homes available to them (a loss of 7,862 units).
The analysis finds that, at approximately 34 units available for every 100 households in need, affordable and available rental homes for Extremely Low Income (ELI) households is not only now below the 2024 national average, but is a lower rate of attainable housing than states such as New York, Hawaii, or Massachusetts. Indiana’s rate of affordable and available housing for the most vulnerable renter households is also second-lowest in the Midwest, with only Nebraska being worse off at 32.50.
The report confirms what Indiana’s housing advocates have been saying for years: the state’s largest housing gaps and cost burdens are borne by the lowest-income Hoosier renters who make up some of the most vulnerable populations in the state. At 33%, the greatest proportion of ELI renter households are in the workforce, along with older Hoosiers at 28% (increasing from 26% in 2023 and 21% in 2022), disabled Hoosiers at 22%, students at 6%, caregivers at 4%, and other households at 7%.
Learn more about The Gap by visiting https://nlihc.org/gap