America’s Rental Housing: Meeting Challenges, Building on Opportunities, new research from Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, reports, “With little new supply of multifamily units in the pipeline, rents could rise sharply as demand increases.” www.nhi.org/go/jchs/rental

Out of Reach 2011, by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, calculates the amount a person working full-time must earn to afford the fair market rent on a two-bedroom unit, otherwise known as the housing wage. It reports that the gap between income and rent continues to widen, and “high unemployment, falling wages, and low rental vacancy rates driven by a post-recession return to renting” have made housing stability unattainable for more low-income households. www.nhi.org/go/oor2011

Behind Closed Doors: The Hidden Health Impacts of Being Behind on Rent, a new report from Children’s HealthWatch, finds that families who are behind on rent are more likely to have children in fair or poor health, at risk of developmental delays, and a mother who has symptoms of depression. www.nhi.org/go/ClosedDoors

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) FY 2010-2015 Strategic Plan calls for an overall reduction in energy costs through improved design and operation of HUD-supported projects. Energy conservation and green building techniques are becoming mainstream practice for market-rate projects, and many sponsors and owners of HUD-subsidized housing have already started following suit, both in maintaining and upgrading existing units and in constructing new units. www.nhi.org/go/HUDplan

Building Better Bank Ons, a new report from the New America Foundation, looks at lessons learned from Bank On San Francisco, a first-of-its-kind effort to bring 10,000 of the city’s estimated 50,000 unbanked households “into the financial mainstream.” www.nhi.org/go/bankons

Forging a New Housing Policy: Opportunity in the Wake of Crisis. This anthology, published by the National Center for Suburban Studies at Hofstra University, comprises a series of essays examining the roots of the crisis, documents efforts to mitigate its effects, and plots routes toward a long-term reorientation of how housing is built, owned, controlled in the United States. www.nhi.org/go/ncss

The Impact of the Republican HUD Budget in Your State. The National Alliance of Community Economic Development Associations has posted data showing how each state will be affected by jobs lost under the Republicans’ proposed HUD budget. www.nhi.org/go/NACEDA/HUD

State of Homelessness in America 2011, from the National Alliance to End Homelessness, examines changes from 2008 to 2009 in overall homelessness and homelessness among subpopulations. www.nhi.org/go/NAEH2011

Paying More for the American Dream: The Persistence and Evolution of the Dual Mortgage Market examines changes in conventional refinance lending between 2008 and 2009 in Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles, New York City, and Rochester, N.Y. It also compares 2009 loan denial rates across neighborhoods. In all cities, lenders denied loan applications at “significantly higher rates in communities of color than in predominantly white neighborhoods.” The report is a joint effort of California Reinvestment Coalition, Community Reinvestment Association of North Carolina, Empire Justice Center, Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance, Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project, Ohio Fair Lending Coalition, and Woodstock Institute. www.nhi.org/go/payingmore