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Minimum Wage Barriers

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The average cost of an apartment in Anchorage for one person is around $1007.14. Unfortunately, even if someone can get a full time minimum wage job in Anchorage, they will be receiving only 1400 per month. That means that for a minimum wage worker lucky enough to work 40 hours a week they will have to be paying around 70% of their income for housing. While it may be possible to live on %30 of your income especially if you also benefit from food stamps and other public assistance, it is not allowed. Income barriers are put on housing by landlords to provide them with a cushion of protection against people who they think might not pay their rent. The landlords of Anchorage figure that if you don 't make 2.5 (in some case 2 in others even 3) times …show more content…

What I suggest to fix this problem is, making it a finable offence for landlords to require a renter to make more than minimum wage to rent from them. It is ok for landlords to require renters to make enough money to pay their rent (at least 400 dollars more than rent per month can get someone by if they are using all their resources) and it is ok for landlords to evict those who do not pay their rent our who do illegal drugs in their apartment, it would even be ok for landlords to ban marijuana use in their complexes and apartments, but banning those who don 't make more than minimum wage is not ok. If landlords need a cushion to protect them, I suggest they ask for the equivalent of 2 months rent as a move in deposit. If they are still uncomfortable we should anchorage landlords to ask for a maximum of 4 months rent in advance and a payment plan of paying rent two even the months in advance. For instance if rent is $975 a month in November, ask for a deposit of 1950, and ask for $2925 to pay the rent thru January, then ask that in December the rent for February is payed. If a renter misses a rent payment in January when they are supposed to be paying rent for March, landlords can take comfort I knowing that even if the renter pays for March rent in February instead of January the landlord will still be getting the rent. If the rent does not get to the landlord by the end of February, a landowner can evict the renter for failure to pay rent and rest easy bowing they did not lose the rent payment for March since the renter did not occupy the apartment any more in that

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