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What's an affordable amount to pay for rent? Well, a lot of that depends on how much you make. And a recent survey by the Midwest Newsroom found that some in Nebraska say their wages are not keeping up with the monthly cost of rent. That fact could influence a key congressional race in Nebraska come November. Noelle Annonen has the story.
(SOUNDBITE OF HEDGE TRIMMER RUNNING)
NOELLE ANNONEN, BYLINE: On a hot, sunny Saturday in June, Chuck Martins (ph) is trimming hedges.
CHUCK MARTINS: It looks hard, but it's just like giving a haircut. You're just cutting off the new growth.
ANNONEN: Seventy-seven-year-old Martins does tours for the Omaha apartment complex where he lives. Tours like lawn mowing, trash collecting, leaf flowing and hedge trimming - his favorite.
MARTINS: It's like you're doing it on spice sculpture but with a trimmer instead of a chainsaw.
ANNONEN: This is how Martins helps pay his rent. His sole income is a monthly Social Security check, which isn't enough to live on. So he negotiated with his landlords to swap his labor for a rent reduction. Martins is one of 61 Nebraskans who responded earlier this year to a Midwest Newsroom poll on how affordability impacts them. Nearly all listed rent and housing as their biggest financial pressure points. Catherine Harvey, senior policy manager with the Urban Institute in Omaha, says as rent has gone up, wages haven't kept pace.
CATHERINE HARVEY: What we're finding is that although Nebraska really looks like an affordable place to rent if you just look at the sticker price, that is a much more complicated picture when you start to look at what people are actually earning in our state.
ANNONEN: The median gross rent in Nebraska has increased by approximately 32% from 2019 to 2024, and that's the most recent data available from surveys conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. At a median monthly rent of about $1,100, this is beyond what some workers can afford, especially those working in administrative or food service jobs.
HARVEY: You can see that divergence, and that's why people feel like they can't keep up.
ANNONEN: Federal legislation could help people like Martins, Harvey says. Take, for instance, the bipartisan federal 21st century Road to Housing Act, which became law in July without President Trump's signature. It streamlines regulations and lowers the cost of new apartment construction, though it could take years before those changes are felt by renters. Nebraska state senator Kathleen Kauth, a registered Republican representing parts of Omaha, says her party has been working hard to cut the government's regulatory red tape.
KATHLEEN KAUTH: When things get tight in a personal household, you cut your wants, you trim down things. And so we need to be looking at not just how do we change the regulations or lower restrictions and the cost of government. Anytime government gets involved, it gets more expensive.
ANNONEN: As the midterms approach, Nebraska's second congressional district race, a seat currently held by retiring Republican Don Bacon, is a unique potential pivot point. Known as CD2, the district that encompasses Omaha has given Democratic candidates for president one single electoral college vote in the past two presidential elections. Brinker Harding, an Omaha councilman and Republican candidate in the CD2 race, plans to continue his party's work. The Cook Political Report flags the district as leaning towards a Democratic flip, but not everyone is convinced the outcome will make a difference.
KATIE BERGER: I am starting to feel like what's the point of voting?
ANNONEN: This is Katie Berger (ph), a voter in CD2. She is a registered independent voter but does not plan to vote in November's midterm elections. Berger believes whether Harding or the Democratic candidate Denise Powell wins, things will more or less stay the same.
BERGER: The prices on everything have gone up, but wages basically haven't. Everybody can be for great things, like affordable health care, you know, higher wages, anything like that. The Senate is gonna stop it, whether at the state or national level. There's just a feeling of hopelessness.
ANNONEN: Chuck Martins is also a registered independent voter, although he plans to vote Democratic this time around. He blames Congress for the possible depletion of Social Security reserves in 2032. He expects he will be out on the street if his benefits are cut. In fact, last year, had his landlords not given him his rent credits after he had had an open heart surgery and couldn't work for three months, he fears he might have been homeless.
MARTINS: I try not to look in the future because when the day comes that I can't physically do the work here, it's frightening. And there are so many of us that are in the same boat.
ANNONEN: So, Martins says for now, he will continue to work as long as he can. For NPR News, I'm Noelle Annonen in Lincoln, Nebraska.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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