This is our final part of our year-long series on our blog highlighting the 12 major development issues. In case you missed it, last month we discussed democratic structure, which can be found here. This month we are focusing on housing.

According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, there is a huge mismatch between the wages of many American families to affordable housing costs. Wages have remained stagnant or have declined across the country.

The federal minimum wage remains at a measly $7.25 per hour. At the same time, housing costs are skyrocketing.  Full-time minimum-wage workers are unable to find modest affordable housing in most communities.  In fact, in 2015 an American household must earn $19.35 an hour, more that two and a half times the federal minimum wage, to afford a two-bedroom apartment without spending more than 30% of their income on housing.  The national wage for a one-bedroom unit is $15.50. Despite minimum wage variances between states, this is true in every state.

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