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New Report: NJ Families Need $40/Hour to Afford a Modest Home 7/16/2025 To afford a modest, two-bedroom apartment at fair market rent in New Jersey, full-time workers need to earn $39.99 per hour, an increase of $1.91 per hour from last year. This is NJ’s “Housing Wage” for 2025 according to Out of Reach, a report published jointly today by the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) and the Housing and Community Development Network of NJ (the Network). The average renter in the Garden State earns $23.97 per hour, an increase of a mere $0.27 from last year, making NJ the seventh most expensive place for renters in the nation. Released annually, Out of Reach highlights the gulf between wages and what people need to earn to afford their rents and shows how affordable rental homes are out of reach for millions of low-wage workers and other families across the United States. The report’s “Housing Wage” is an estimate of the hourly wage full-time workers must earn to afford a two-bedroom rental home at fair market rent – currently $2,079 a month for New Jersey’s rental market – without spending more than 30 percent of their incomes. According to this year’s report, the national 2025 Housing Wage is $33.63 per hour for a modest two-bedroom rental home. “New Jersey is famous for a lot of things, but for far too many families, it’s known for housing that is out of reach. There are simply not enough places people can afford,” said Staci Berger, president and chief executive officer of the Network and board member of NLIHC. “This is a crisis, and NJ needs to bring all the tools we have to fix it. Nonprofit developers are doing everything we can to build safe, affordable homes—but when the state pulls critical funding, it pulls the rug out from under real people. The AHTF diversion isn’t just a budget decision, it’s a decision about whether working families, seniors, veterans and people with disabilities get to stay in their communities. Governor Murphy and the Legislature still have time to make it right. They must restore the Affordable Housing Trust Fund—lives depend on it.” In the recently passed state budget, all but $5 million of Affordable Housing Trust Fund (AHTF) was diverted to fund other budget priorities including those for higher income households. Explicitly established to support the development of homes for residents earning at or below 80 percent of the area median income (AMI), the AHTF has historically played a vital role in creating affordable homes, especially in underserved communities. Advocates fear the diversion will derail projects already in the pipeline and set back gains in closing the state’s racial wealth and housing gap. NJ housing advocates are specifically asking Governor Murphy and legislative leaders to:
“With devastating reductions in federal funding, New Jersey needs to be a leader and allocate more state resources to build affordable homes and to eliminate homelessness,” said Berger. As stated in the report, to address the housing affordability crisis across the nation, the federal government must also expand housing vouchers and both preserve and increase the supply of affordable homes. Yet despite urgent housing affordability challenges and economic uncertainty, the future of federal housing assistance is at risk. Current federal budget proposals threaten significant cuts to housing assistance programs and the loss of thousands of housing vouchers. The president’s federal budget request for FY 2026 proposes a devastating 44% cut to HUD’s overall funding, which would eliminate rental assistance programs, consolidate five key programs into a single, restrictive State Rental Assistance Block Grant, and impose a two-year time limit on assistance. The Trump Administration is also expected to pursue harmful regulations that would make it more difficult for families to obtain and maintain HUD assistance, including burdensome work reporting requirements. Meanwhile, the House of Representatives' version of the HUD Appropriations bill would reduce funding for key housing programs and formalize a 26% cut in staff, previously implemented by HUD Secretary Scott Turner. Without adequate funding for federal housing and homelessness programs – and without the staff to administer and oversee these funds – states and communities will face new barriers to accessing the critical federal resources they need to pay the rent, build affordable housing, address homelessness, recover from disasters, revitalize distressed communities, promote homeownership, enforce fair housing laws, and more. “Housing is more than just a shelter; it is foundational to well-being and dignity,” said NLIHC president and chief executive officer Renee Willis. “This year’s Out of Reach report shows that, despite economic gains for some, low-income renters continue to face impossible choices between paying rent and meeting basic needs. Cutting federal housing investments would only deepen the crisis. Congress must protect and expand housing programs that ensure stability, opportunity, and a pathway out of poverty for millions of renters.” For additional information, and to download the report, visit: www.nlihc.org/oor or to access the New Jersey data, visit: www.hcdnnj.org/oor. About the Housing and Community Development Network of NJ # # #
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