From the DC Fiscal Policy Institute‘s May 7th report, “Disappearing Act: Affordable Housing in DC is Vanishing Amid Sharply Rising Housing Costs,” via Washington Grantmakers Daily:

Over the last decade, DC has experienced a rapid rise in housing costs that has contributed to a substantial loss of low-cost housing stock. Since 2000, the number of low-cost rental units in the city has fallen by half, due primarily to rising prices, and the number of lower-value homes fell by nearly three quarters [...]

The number of households paying more than half of their income on housing has risen by 15,000, and this occurred almost exclusively among renter households. Very low-income households are the most likely to face these severe housing burdens, with just under two-thirds paying more than half of their income on rent in 2010.

According to the DCatalogueI, while both housing and rental prices continue to rise, household incomes in DC are not keeping up. For a one-bedroom apartment, the median rental rate has “risen by 50 percent beyond inflation over the past decade” and area home values have similarly doubled in that time. On the flip side, “incomes for the bottom 40 percent of DC households have not increased since 2000, while incomes for the others rose less than 25 percent.”

Learn more about research on DC housing right here; and Catalogue nonprofits focused on housing and homelessness here.