By Kensi Freeland
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark.— A study by the Walton Family Foundation found that Northwest Arkansas lacks enough housing for low and extremely low income families.
This issue can lead to families spending an unsustainable amount of their income on rent.
That is why some people think it is a good thing to have organizations like Fayetteville Housing Authority.
They help assist people within Washington County who cannot afford rent for their household.
“There is a lack all around the country, but Northwest Arkansas as a whole definitely has a lack of affordable housing,” Justin Elkins, housing navigator for Fayetteville Housing Authority, said.
Elkins said their office gets a lot of calls every year, but they cannot help everybody.
“Our waiting list is growing rapidly because we have so many people putting in applications. We can help them, but they’d be on our waitlist for a couple of years,” Elkins said.
Fayetteville Housing Community does not have any emergency housing or assistance.
They do sometimes work with other community organizations like 7 Hills and the Salvation Army to try to find a place for people.
“I didn’t understand how anybody could afford rent because I thought I was at the higher end of my budget and it was not getting me much,” local renter, Miranda Berg, said.
Between 2011 and 2016, median rents increased 1-13% in three of the region’s four cities, while growth in median household income only increased slightly in Fayetteville and remained unchanged in the others. During that same period, median for-sale home prices increased 15-43%
“The population is growing, housing prices and rent is going up, but people are getting paid about the same. Therefore, you are going to get a bigger gap of what people can afford,” Elkins said.
To accommodate for the future, the Walton Family Foundation study said that NorthWest Arkansas needs to produce at least twenty-eight thousand more lower-income homes by 2040.
“I would definitely describe the average rent price since it is a college town and all, as overpriced,” Berg said.
Luckily for Fayetteville, there is a new affordable housing community being built called Cobblestone Farm Community, and it will be able to house 100 families.