The high cost of rental housing in California falls heaviest on women, especially Black women, single mothers, and older women living alone.
“Women and Housing in California, 2024”, the third in Gender Equity Policy Institute’s series on gender and housing in California, examines housing cost disparities among California’s renters and renting families.
Comparison with previous years confirms that the COVID-19 pandemic put enormous strain on renters in California. At the end of the second year of the pandemic (2021), a larger share of every demographic group was burdened with unaffordable rental costs, compared to the pre-pandemic year 2019. That remained the case as the pandemic eased and the state economy boomed in 2022.
Data in this brief is drawn from the U.S. Census, American Community Survey, 2022—the most recent year for which the Census Bureau has released full relevant data. It is important to note that at the time this data was collected, most of the recent state legislation designed to ease California’s affordable housing crisis had not yet been implemented.
