This month’s housing fact comes from newly released national data from the National Low Income Housing Coalition’s 2026 The Gap: A Shortage of Affordable Homes report, which underscores just how severe the affordable housing shortage remains for the nation’s lowest-income renters. Nationally, the report finds a shortage of 7.2 million affordable and available rental homes for extremely low-income renter households, meaning households with incomes at or below either the federal poverty guideline or 30% of area median income, leaving just 35 affordable and available homes for every 100 households in need.
The new data also shows that Texas is under even greater pressure than the national average. In Texas, there are only 26 affordable and available rental homes for every 100 extremely low-income renter households, and the state would need to add or preserve more than 708,661 affordable homes to meet current need.
For renters at or below 50% of area median income, Texas has only 44 affordable and available rental homes for every 100 households, leaving a deficit of 881,014 units. That broader shortfall is an important reminder that the state’s affordability challenge reaches well beyond the very lowest income levels and continues to affect working households across the income spectrum.
For affordable housing providers, these figures put numbers to a challenge they see every day. In many cases, the rents lower income households can afford do not cover the cost of building and operating housing, which means the private market often cannot meet this need on its own. Continued investment in rental assistance, preservation, and new affordable housing production remains critical in Texas.
Read the Texas-specific report here: Texas Gap Profile