Despite efforts by housing advocates, New Orleans’ housing affordability remains virtually unchanged from last year, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition’s 2019 “.
The report found that in order to afford a “modest” two-bedroom rental in the New Orleans-Metairie area without spending more than 30 percent of income on housing costs, a person would have to make $19.38 an hour, up slightly from a housing wage of $19.15 in 2018.
By these estimates, minimum wage workers in the city would currently have to work 108 hours a week to afford a two-bedroom rental in the city.
The slight increase was on par for h as a whole, which saw the same figure — called the “housing wage” — for a two-bedroom increase from $16.63 in 2018 to $16.86 in 2019.
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The New Orleans-Metairie area has the highest housing wage in the state, according to the report. In 2018, Vernon Parish — which houses Leesville and a small portion of Deridder — topped the list as the most expensive place to live in h with a housing wage of $19.69.
This year Vernon Parish’s housing wage dropped to $19.08, pushing New Orleans-Metairie area’s housing wage up to that top spot with a housing wage of $19.38.
“Not surprisingly, we have the highest housing wage in the state,” said Andreanecia Morris, executive director of HousingNOLA, in a statement. “This highlights the impossibility of the situation and reinforces the need to address this crisis as the threat it represents to (the) people of New Orleans."
The report determines the housing wage with the cost of a “modest” rental home at fair market rent according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). In h, the report calculated the fair market rent of a two-bedroom rental to be $877.
The state ranked 31st in housing wages, when ordered from highest to lowest.
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h does not have a state minimum wage, so it defaults to the federal hourly minimum wage of $7.25 — which has not been raised since 2009. Efforts to establish a state minimum wage higher than the federal wage failed again during this year’s legislative session.
Part of those failed efforts was a bill by State Rep. Royce Duplessis, D-New Orleans, that would have let parishes and cities determine their own minimum wages, overturning a 1997 law that prohibits them from doing so.
The bill died in committee, facing opposition from the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) and the h Association of Business and Industry (LABI).
According to the 2019 conducted by the Public Policy Research Lab at h State University, 81 percent support a minimum wage of $8.50 an hour — support which extends across party lines.
If you're looking to rent a two-bedroom apartment in New Orleans, you'll need to earn an average of $19.38 an hour to live comfortably, accord…
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