New Lab Research For Shaping the Narrative About Housing Affordability

09/17/2026

By Gillian Gaynair

The rising cost of living is dominating public conversations, no matter where people lean politically. While grocery and gas prices continue to rise and healthcare and child care costs weigh down wallets, one expense stands above the rest as the definitive metric of our national affordability crisis: Housing. 

For most of us, the rent or mortgage is the largest expense in our household budget. And, increasingly, it’s also driving widespread financial insecurity for people across the country.

New narrative research from the Housing Narrative Lab and Voss Research and Strategy reveals just how acute this crisis has become. We wanted to better understand who is feeling the pinch of high housing costs, how they’re navigating it and what solutions people most support to address housing affordability. Our findings, based on a national survey fielded in May, paint a stark picture of a nation on the edge: Nearly six in 10 adults — 59 percent — told us they’re extremely, very or moderately worried about paying their rent or mortgage or finding an affordable place to live.

This anxiety is not evenly distributed, though, with renters, Gen Zers, millennials and Black and Latino adults reporting the highest levels of concern. The data also confirms that the sky-high cost of housing has become a common problem across the US, even for those earning significant incomes. Nearly half of all adults (47 percent) describe housing as “not affordable at all.” 

The Real Impact on Families

Our research shows that people are feeling so squeezed by the cost of housing that they’re being forced to make tough choices to keep a roof over their heads, including foregoing the prescriptions and health care they need and not saving for retirement — things that make people less secure and less healthy. 

Nearly two-thirds of our survey respondents told us they’ve made at least one such financial sacrifice, or trade-off, over the last year because of the high cost of housing. A little over half (52 percent) had to make two or more trade-offs, while just over a third (34 percent) chose to make four or more in order to cover their rising housing costs. Equally concerning, more than half (56 percent) said they would not be able to afford a $200 increase in monthly housing costs with the money they currently have. 

When individuals and families are pushed to the brink by these expenses, it isn’t just their personal stability that’s at risk — the health of local economies and communities suffer, too.

Shaping the Narrative

This reality is of our own making, the result of policy choices that restrict housing assistance and limit building and land use. Those decisions, coupled with flat wages and rising finance and building costs, have created a perfect storm to put housing that’s affordable out of reach for people of all backgrounds — especially Black and brown people who have been on the receiving end of discrimination and inequity and people earning very low incomes.

And yet, a particular public narrative persists. Too often, individuals and families who struggle to keep a roof over their heads are blamed for their situation. The stories that permeate entertainment, news feeds and public discussions fault people for being unable to pay their rent or mortgage, or for losing their homes. 

That story line fails to recognize the plethora of underlying factors — including high housing costs — that lead to unstable housing and can push people into, or to the brink of, homelessness.

The Lab’s research findings offer a road map for shaping the narrative for this moment in our country when so many people are buckling under rising housing costs. At the heart of that narrative is affordability; it’s the bridge that connects all of our housing issues, from solving street homelessness and enacting renter protections, to expanding rental assistance and increasing homeownership. 

To build public support for solutions that can help lower housing costs for everyone,  keep these messaging insights in mind: 

1. Lead with shared values: Messages anchored in the idea that housing is foundational to our lives resonate. Talk about housing as “a foundation” to stability and that everyone needs a “safe, stable place to call home.” People respond strongly to these appeals more than any other phrase across all the messages we tested.
2. Name the problem and the trade-offs: Illustrate the magnitude of housing costs by showing the choices and trade-offs people are being forced to make — like skipping their prescription drugs — to keep a roof over their heads. This tells an emotionally compelling story that focuses on economic factors creating unstable housing and homelessness.
3. Name the cause and tell personal stories: Make concepts about systemic challenges concrete by showing, through personal stories, how policy decisions, discrimination and other factors play out in people’s lives. Be specific about who or what has created the system that is not working. For example, “corporate investors are the problem” is vague. “Corporate investors buy up homes, outbid families and raise rents” is specific.

Finally, remember to spotlight solutions in your messaging. Americans are hungry for solutions to high housing costs, and our research shows that people overwhelmingly favor a range of policies to make renting or buying a home or paying a mortgage more affordable. They include interventions to:

• Limit how much landlords can increase rent each year
• Build more housing that lower- and middle-income earners can afford
• Convert vacant buildings into housing for people of all income levels
• Increase income or wages so people can afford a place to live

Want to dive in deeper? Our full messaging guide, “Housing We Can Afford,” provides strategies for weaving these solutions into your communications along with more details about our research findings, demographic and audience profiles and lots of messaging tips. Reach out to us at info@housingnarrativelab.org for a copy of the full guide.