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Study Measures Working Families’ Double Bind

Working families in San Diego, earning from $20,000 to $50,000 a year, are spending almost a third of their incomes on housing, and more than a quarter of their earnings on transportation.

According to a report released Oct. 11 by the Center for Housing Policy, low- to moderate-income families are being caught in a double bind: They are forced to move farther away from their jobs for more affordable housing, only to end up spending as much, or more, on transportation costs.

San Diego was among 28 major metropolitan areas included in the study, “A Heavy Load: The Combined Housing and Transportation Burdens of Working Families.”

Among the study’s findings:

– Across all 28 metro areas, working families spend an average of 28 percent, or $9,700, of their incomes on housing and nearly 30 percent, or $10,400, on transportation.

The combined costs ranged from a low of 54 percent in Pittsburgh, to a high of 63 percent in San Francisco, with totals in most of the metro areas hovering around an average of 57 percent.

– Some 88 percent of San Diego’s low-to moderate-income workers use their own cars to get to their jobs; 5 percent take public transit; and 3 percent either walk or bike. They spend an average of $9,225 a year on transportation costs.

“In 19 out of the 28 regions, the further you get away from employment centers, housing costs get cheaper,” Carrie Makarewicz, research manager for the Center for Neighborhood Technology in Chicago, said in an interview. “In San Diego, there is no relationship there, because housing prices are so high. When they go further out, they might not get cheaper housing, but they definitely get higher transportation costs.”

Makarewicz’s office contributed research for the report by the Center for Housing Policy, the research affiliate of the National Housing Conference, a nonprofit public policy and affordable housing advocacy organization. The study is based on two reports commissioned by the center and funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

The report is “a great argument for smart growth and transit-oriented development,” said Elizabeth Morris, president and chief executive officer of the San Diego Housing Commission.

“We know we have housing problem, and this report shows that just building in the hinterlands is not necessarily solving the problem,” she said. “In San Diego, we have gone through the expansion phase of building in the hinterlands and have pretty much used it up. We will have to look at infill opportunities.”

, Pat Broderick

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