You may have noticed a lot of luxury style apartments popping up around town, but what housing counselors say is really needed is more affordable housing for fa...

As Huntsville grows and the housing market booms prices are going up. United Way of Madison County just found through their community-wide research assessment that affordable housing is a critical need.

You may have noticed a lot of luxury style apartments popping up around town, but what housing counselors say is really needed is more affordable housing for families working minimum wage jobs. She says shes’ been getting more calls for help from families.

In a year Zillow reports an eight percent price jump for rentals. Trulia shows a jump by seven percent and in just the past two months a $55 price increase for rentals.

“The housing wage versus the minimum wage earner is incomparable, actually,” said Lineise Arnold, executive director of the North Alabama Coalition for the Homeless. “The fair housing wage is about $15.72 an hour and minimum wage is $7.53 so a lot of our clients are not able to afford housing.”

As the number of luxury apartments grows, those who help people with housing say the options become even more limited. Families may not be able to find a home in a safe neighborhood or one in good condition.

“Some of our clients are just subject to poverty-level conditions of complexes that may have drugs, insects, things of those natures,” Arnold said. “So good quality housing, affordable housing stock in this area is very, very limited. And unfortunately with the growth of the city we’re seeing the more high-end housing developments which makes things very out of reach for your average worker that’s working your average minimum wage job.”

“They come to Huntsville specifically because of how we boast of our solid economy, our stable economy, and the cost of housing is affordable especially in comparison to what you see throughout the nation,” said Lauretta Moore, housing counselor at the Family Services Center. “And yet when you look at people who are codependent on fixed incomes whether it’s social security, you can’t pay rent off of 2, 3, 6, 700 bucks a month, not without some sort of subsidy.”