PORT TOWNSEND — The fair market monthly rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Jefferson County is $708.

To afford that, a tenant must earn $2,360 a month or $28,320 a year.

With a 40-hour workweek year-round, the $28,320 level of income translates to a housing wage of $13.62 an hour.

Such housing affordability is no easy task in a county where a minimum-wage worker earns $7.35 an hour, the “Out of Reach 2005” report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition revealed.

The coalition’s recently release report states that a minimum-wage worker would have to work 74 hours a week, 52 weeks a year to afford that two-bedroom apartment.

Or, a household must include two minimum wage earners working 40 hours a week year-round to afford the two-bedroom apartment.

Such a housing unit is considered affordable if it costs no more than 30 percent of the renter’s income, the coalition report states.

The report also shows that 2,780 renter household exist of the county’s total 11,645 households, or 24 percent.

The county’s median annual family income of $52,050 is far below the Washington state median family income of $62,965, according to the report.

In Jefferson, the estimated average wage for a renter is $6.68 an hour, which stretches the need to work to 82 hours a week year-round to afford the two-bedroom apartment, the report states.

Supplemental income

Furthermore, the coalition says the monthly Supplemental Security Income payments for an individual are $579 in Jefferson County.

“If SSI represents an individual’s sole source of income, $174 in month rent is affordable,” according to the report.

Fair-market rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Jefferson County, however, is $579.

The report raises the concerns of the top executive for the regional agency dedicated to helping low-income individuals and families change their plight across the North Olympic Peninsula.

Tim Hockett, new executive director of Olympic Community Action Programs, said the report shows there is a growing gap for those who can afford and retain housing in Jefferson County and across the North Olympic Peninsula.

“It’s particularly difficult in Port Townsend,” said Hockett, who heads up the agency that employs about 350 in Jefferson and Clallam counties.

“Here’s a scenic place where housing costs are traditionally high.”

He also cites a population migration out of the Tri-Area of Port Hadlock, Irondale and Chimacum, as well as Quilcene, the result of a lack of affordable housing in those areas.

“Solutions require a combined community effort and some governmental assistance,” he said.

“The onus is on the entire community, not just us.”