The message in Priced Out in 1998 is a simple one! In 1998, there was not one county or metropolitan area in the United States where a person receiving SSI benefits could actually follow federal guidelines for housing affordability and pay only 30 percent of their monthly income for rent. Instead, as a national average, a person with a disability must spend 69 percent of his or her SSI monthly income to rent a modest one-bedroom apartment priced at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Fair Market Rent. This is an important finding because the federal government considers any very low income household paying more than 50 percent of income for rent to have a severe rent burden, and to have “worst case” housing needs. (Authors)