But even renting can be difficult in today's market, especially in big cities. Danilo Pelletiere is an official at the National Low Income Housing Coalition. He says there just are not enough homes to rent and poor people are the most affected. "In the United States there has been a focus both at the local level and a national level on home ownership. That affected renters, low-income people and the like and a result you have shortage of three million units of affordable housing for lowest income people," he said.

　　Even if a house is available, Mr. Pelletiere says, being able to pay for it is another problem. To afford the rent, he says, many poor people work more than one job. "Today you need multiple minimum wage jobs to be able to afford a two-bedroom apartment," he added. "We calculated about $18 an hour."

　　Even if a person can afford the rent there are other obstacles. Yazgul Odekova, the property manager in Alexandria, says most people just do not meet the necessary qualifications, such as being able to prove they can afford the rental payments. "Right now from every 10 application we turned down nine. It is not just because people are dishonest. Sometimes people have big medical bills, sometimes people have bankruptcy, because suddenly they became sick and don't have health insurance. Sometimes peoples' income is very low, sometimes it is unstable relationship between people," Odekova said.

　　HUD's Raphael Bostic says the U.S. government has programs to help low-income families pay the rent. "We provide direct subsidy where we try to make sure that families are not overly burdened [so we don't wanna go over that 30 percent ratio], but that they can get into some decent high-quality housing," Bostic said.

　　But most analysts agree that until the U.S. economy improves, buying a home or renting one will be especially hard for low-income people.