Types of Housing Problems for Nevada Renters

Four housing problems tracked by special HUD tabulations of American Community Survey data are lack of full kitchen, lack of complete plumbing, overcrowding or rent burden. Full kitchens are defined as having a sink with faucet, stove or range and a refrigerator within the housing unit. Full plumbing facilities refer to hot and cold running water and bathtub or shower within the unit. Overcrowding is more than one person per room while severe overcrowding is more than 1.5 persons per room excluding bathrooms and halls. Rent burden occurs when rent and utilties are greater than 30% of household income and severe rent burden when they are greater than 50% of household income.[i] Rent burden accounts for the largest proportion of Nevada renters with one of the four housing problems.

Over 40% of renter households in Washoe and Clark County are paying 30% or more of their income for utilities and rent but don't have any other type of housing problem. Of these rent burdened households, about half pay more than 50% of income for utilities and rent. For low income renters having such a large proportion of the family budget devoted to rent may mean hard choices between other necessities and paying the rent. 

In contrast, fewer renters are without full plumbing and kitchen facilities or suffer from overcrowding. About 8% of renter households suffered from overcrowding or lack of full kitchen and plumbing facilities. This corresponds to about 28,000 households in Clark County and 7,500 households in Washoe County who may have an inadequate or overcrowded unit.[ii] 

Nearly half of renters do not have any of the four housing problems.

[i] U.S. Housing and Urban Development Office of Policy Development and Research. CHAS: Background https://www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/cp/CHAS/bg_chas.html accessed 11-7-2018

[ii] HUD CHAS data query tool: http://www.huduser.org/portal/datasets/cp/CHAS/data_querytool_chas.html  accessed 7-13-2018 and tabulations by the author. U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey Data Subject Definitions https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/tech_docs/subject_definitions/2015_ACSSubjectDefinitions.pdf?# accessed 11-7-2018