NOLA.com31%
Basic housing remains out of reach for nearly half of Louisiana renters, study finds 42%
By Grace Mayer48%
8/7/2026, 2:00:00 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 28 faulty reasoning types, including Appeal to Authority, Confirmation Bias, and Pessimism Bias, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 20% saturation with 164 hits. Analysis detected 1,339 faulty-reasoning hits from 818 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 38.4% and a BS Rank of 42% (17,890 of 30,584 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 58.50% of the article peer group.
A new study that examines the cost of housing for low-wage earners across all 50 states underscores the affordability crisis facing roughly half of the nearly 600,000 renting households across Louisiana.
According to the annual report, jointly produced by the National Low Income Housing Coalition and HousingLOUISIANA, renters in Louisiana need to earn $18.35 an hour, about $38,000 a year, to comfortably afford a one-bedroom apartment, meaning no more than 30% of their income would go to rent.
To afford a two-bedroom apartment, they would have to earn nearly $22 an hour, or more than $45,500 per year.
About 45% of renter households in Louisiana don't meet that threshold, earning 50% of the area median income or less — roughly $42,000 a year, the study found.
“In Louisiana, it continues to be impossible to make the math work for some of the hardest working households in the state,” said Adreanecia Morris, executive director of HousingLOUISIANA, a nonprofit focused on advancing housing policy and affordable housing projects around the state.
“There are many people who are working in New Orleans, but can’t afford to live there.”
The findings placed Louisiana 40th of the 50 states in the "Out of Reach: The High Cost of Housing” report.
The annual study examines how much workers in all 50 states need to earn to afford fair market rental rates, which the U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban Development defines as spending no more than one-third of monthly earnings on rent and utilities — a federally recommended standard to avoid renters becoming cost-burdened by housing expenses.
The report also found that housing wages were higher than the current median wages of workers in some of the most common professions, including retail, fast-food and custodial workers who, in Louisiana, help sustain the state's vital tourism sector.
Making close to minimum wage
According to the report, Louisiana workers making minimum wage would have to work 2 ½ jobs to afford a one-bedroom apartment or three jobs to afford a two-bedroom apartment.
“To afford a two-bedroom apartment you have to work over 120 hours a week, but that’s not possible,” Morris said.
In Louisiana, at least 2% of workers earn the minimum wage or less, according to a report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics examining data from 2024.
Louisiana is one of five states without its own minimum wage, which means the federal minimum wage, which hasn’t risen since 2009, is the state's default.
Some 643,206 people — or nearly 31% of all workers in the state — earn less than $17 an hour in Louisiana, according to a 2024 report from Oxfam, a global nonprofit that focuses on addressing poverty and inequality, and provides humanitarian aid.
Among Black and Hispanic workers, the percentages are even higher.
These lower income workers are crucial to the local economy, Morris said.
She noted how workers in lower-paying fields, such as grocery clerks, delivery drivers and health technicians, were essential during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Every time there is a disaster or crisis in this city and in this state, we continue to rely on these workers who we don’t pay enough to keep a roof over their heads,” Morris said.
“Those folks may not be making as low as $7.25 an hour, but they’re also not making more than $18.”
Affordability solutions
Morris believes the solution to address this housing affordability gap lies in the state developing more workforce and affordable housing.
A number of these types of projects are currently in the works in the area.
In May, Hope Family Housing, a nonprofit focused on building affordable housing, unveiled its first two duplexes in Central City.
The nonprofit plans to build a total of 40 affordable housing units.
New Orleans is also working on turning a former military complex into a mixed use complex with 294 affordable housing units.
In the River District, developers are finalizing plans for the Rivanna Apartments, which will add 220 more units to the mix.
Some 10,000 apartments and homes in Orleans Parish are vacant, about two-thirds of which are available as rental units, Morris said, citing data HousingLOUISIANA has collected.
Many of them are empty because they’re too expensive to rent in the current market, in large part because of high insurance and utility costs, she said.
Morris would like to see state and city leaders prioritize making vacant units more affordable by investing in upgrades — adding fortified roofs, energy-efficient HVAC systems and resilient windows and weatherboards — to help drive down insurance and utility costs.
Funding for such efforts could come from deploying the city's housing trust fund and other public dollars, she said.
“We’re not talking about substantial rehab.
These are not blighted homes.
These are occupyable apartments and homes today that are too expensive to operate and rent in this market,” Morris said.
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100%flagged-word coverageAdreanecia Morris
332 attributed words100% of attributed speech90% writer coverage
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