The Buffalo News
Rod Watson
If city officials needed any more evidence that Buffalo needs an inclusionary zoning policy to ensure that low- and moderate-income renters aren’t priced out of the city’s revival, the proof comes in a new report on the “rent affordability crisis” here and in the state’s other large cities.
The analysis from the Fiscal Policy Institute, based on Census Bureau data, looks at affordability in the state’s six largest cities. It shows that 38 percent of Buffalo’s renters spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing, with a quarter of the city’s renters spending more than 40 percent.
The federal government sets 30 percent as the upper limit for housing that’s deemed “affordable,” meaning more than a third of Buffalo’s residents can’t really afford the rental housing they are living in. That means they have to scrimp on food or clothing just to pay for housing.
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