By Christine Dunn
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Rhode Island has the 17th highest rental costs in the nation, and they are unaffordable for many, especially those earning the minimum wage, according to a new report from the Low Income Housing Coalition.
According to the report, Rhode Island's fair market rent for a two-bedroom apartment is $945, and to afford this rent (paying no more than 30 percent of income on housing), a worker would have to earn $18.18 an hour.
But in Rhode Island, the estimated average wage for a renter is $12.10 per hour. A minimum-wage worker earning $7.75 per hour would have to work 94 hours a week, 52 weeks per year to afford that $945 rent, according to the Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless.