The need for moderate-income workforce housing is driven by two compounding factors. The first is that traditional government-facilitated affordable housing targets low- and extremely low-income households. Most affordable programs, including those at the federal, state, and city level, are restricted to families earning 60% of Area Median Income (“AMI”) and lower. Middle-income families are thus excluded. The second factor is the escalation of rents in market rate rental housing across the country, particularly in large metropolitan areas.

In Los Angeles County, for instance, nearly 1 in 3 moderate-income renter households are cost burdened, meaning they pay greater than 30% of their income on rent. Worse yet, this number is rising; between 2014 and 2018, the number of cost-burdened middle-income earners has risen by 14%. In the Bay Area, a similar picture emerges: 35% of moderate-income renters are paying more than 30% of their income on housing.