Richard Arellano & Caleb Bazemore
The “affordable” Inland Empire is a myth. A Coyote Chronicle investigation of U.S. Census data reveals that a shocking number of San Bernardino County residents are now “severely rent-burdened,” a bureaucratic term for a life of impossible choices: pay the rent or pay for food, transportation, and healthcare. The crisis has exploded over the last five years, swallowing not just the working poor but also the middle class, and creating a generation of tenants for whom eviction is one missed paycheck away
We’ve pulled data for the years 2009 through 2019 to showcase the burden visually. With this investigation, we’re starting with our rental vacancy rate (Chart A, cover image); ever since the year 2009, rental vacancy rates have dropped meaning there is less available housing to live in. Starting from 8.33% in 2009 and dropping to 3.73% in 2019. The percentage of people owning homes (Chart B below) in San Bernardino County also has been in a decline.
Dropping from 61.90% owning in 2013 to 59.80% in 2019. It’s important to note that San Bernardino County is the biggest county in the country. A decline in home ownership may be due to other factors but we cannot overlook that the population grew from 2 million to 2.2 million from 2009 to 2019. A 2.2% increase in residents! Another major point to highlight is the increase of median monthly rental costs (Chart C below) throughout the years. Unfortunately, it seems to be on a rising trend starting from $1,192 to $1,342.
The annual rent and median housing income rate across San Bernardino, has been increasing over the years. With the annual rent in 2019 at 23.72%. The unemployment rate fluctuated from 13.10% in 2009 and overall has kept steady with the highest unemployment in the early 2000s and increased again during the pandemic. With annual income increasing over the years from 2009 to 2019 but not reflecting the increase in the housing and rent cost. Homeownership decreased over the years to 59.80% from 61.90% in 2013. Homeownership and affordable housing is essential to improving these statistics annual rent keeping steady from 2019 being 23.72% and the highest around 25.94%. Rental vacancy rate decreased at 3.73% with the highest in 2010 with 8.64%. According to the data, we can conclude that there is a rental burden.