Housing Supply vs. Need

This chart outlines how the housing supply in an area does, or sometimes doesn't, relate to people's incomes in a municipality.

Common sources of income include job salaries, disability, and social security benefits.

Source for Social Security Income
Source for Disability Benefit Income
Source for Occupation Salaries

Income levels are based on the Area Median Income (AMI) for the Chicago-Joliet-Naperville metro area.

Source for AMI data

Affordable rent is 30% of each income level. Available housing shows the average prices of units (studios to 3-bedrooms) that are available to rent in a municipality.

HUD's definition of Affordable Housing
Source for Available Housing

As you may notice from this chart, most housing supplies don't match the need for housing when it comes to households that make less than 50% of the AMI .

Of course, this doesn't mean that everybody with low incomes are unhoused.

However, this could mean that people at these income levels are paying more than half of their income on housing.

When people pay more than half of their income on housing, they might be:

overworked just to scrape by,
crowding into smaller housing with their families,
forced to move when accessible housing is out of reach in their town,
at risk of eventual homelessness.

Chart adapted from the Center for Urban Pedagogy's What Is Affordable Housing? Toolkit