blevine@wiltonvillager.com

STAMFORD — The Stamford-Norwalk metropolitan area is the most expensive rental market in the United States, according to a report released on Monday.

A person must earn $31.58 an hour to afford a modest two-bedroom apartment in the Stamford-Norwalk area. The findings are detailed in an annual report prepared by the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLHC) entitled "Out of Reach."

According to data in the report, a person earning the state's minimum wage of $7.65 an hour would have to work four full-time jobs to afford the area's fair market rent of $1,642 per month for a two-bedroom apartment. In other words, a household must earn $65,680 a year just to make rent.

Overall, Connecticut requires a wage of more than $20 an hour for a two-bedroom apartment, ranking it the seventh most expensive state.

Wages were calculated by housing costs compiled annually by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Rents are considered affordable if they constitute no more than one third of a household's income.

"Housing costs place great stress on moderate-income families," said Larry Kluetsch, executive director of Mutual Housing Association, Stamford based organization that helps residents find affordable housing. "We see it every day. People come to us for help; unfortunately we have to turn a lot of them away. There just aren't enough options."

Kluetsch said he was not surprised by the reports finding, adding that because of the city's strong corporate presence, the demand for housing has always been great in Stamford.

He did praise the city's efforts to create affordable housing zones for moderate- and low-income families.

"At the state level it's been a disappointment for more than a decade. We're the richest state in the country, and we do perhaps the least for its poorest citizens in terms of housing."

The report said the average wage among the Stamford-Norwalk area's 43,482 renter households is $22.56 an hour. That income allows a household to afford a monthly rent of $1,173, well below the area's fair market value for a for a two-bedroom apartment.

Jeff Freiser, executive director of the Connecticut Housing Coalition (CHC), a state-wide organization that helps Connecticut families with affordable housing, said the reports finds were telling.

"Clearly the cost of housing is breaking the budgets of hard working families," Freiser said. "In a modest wage job you can't afford to provide descent housing and that is no the way it should be."

Freiser said last year 48,000 families applied for the state's rental assistance program — which operates much like the federal section eight program — in a 10-day span. Unfortunately, the program only awards 1,000 certificates, he said.

"Rents have steadily outpaced income for a generation," Freiser said. "Since 2000, the cost of a two-bedroom unit has increased by 40 percent."

In a comparison of the report's conclusion with the Connecticut Department of Labor's data for occupational wages, CHC found that nearly half of the state's occupations do not, on average, provide an income sufficient to afford a two-bedroom in the Stamford-Norwalk area.

Occupations include bus drivers, computer operators, pre-school teachers, police and fire dispatchers and EMTs.

"We hear horror stories about how hard it is to find an affordable place to live. For many, the gap is just becoming too overwhelming," Freiser said.

Other nearby communities that made the report's top-ten were Danbury; Westchester County, NY; and Nassau-Suffolk, NY.