The Fact
The National Low Income Housing Coalition’s 2026 national estimates identify roughly 11 million extremely low-income renter households and approximately 3.8 million rental homes that are both affordable and available to them — a shortage of about 7.2 million homes.
WHAT “AFFORDABLE AND AVAILABLE” MEANS
A unit must not only have a rent affordable to an extremely low-income household; it must also actually be available to that income group rather than occupied by a higher-income household.
What This Means
A household budget can change how existing income is divided. It cannot create a housing unit at a price that does not exist. This measure therefore captures a supply gap as well as an affordability problem.
Sources
- National Low Income Housing Coalition. The Gap: A Shortage of Affordable Homes, 2026. Released March 5, 2026. https://nlihc.org/gap