News release: “In a report to Congress released today, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) found that “worst case housing needs” grew by nearly 1.2 million households, or more than 20 percent, from 2007 to 2009 and by 42 percent since 2001. “Worst case housing needs” are defined as low-income households who paid more than half their monthly income for rent, lived in severely substandard housing, or both. HUD’s study, Worst Case Housing Needs 2009: A Report to Congress, one in a long-term series of reports designed to measure the scale of critical housing problems facing low-income un-assisted American renting households. The findings are based on data from the U.S Census Bureau’s American Housing Survey conducted between May and September of 2009, predating the impact of the Obama Administration’s economic recovery efforts, including the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). This report finds a direct link between the increased numbers of worst case needs and the recent recession and related joblessness.”