The Birmingham-Hoover area is one of several metros around the U.S. where households are “severely burdened” by the cost of rent, according to a new study.

Zillow looked at the percentages in metro areas of families that are moderately cost-burdened, meaning 30% of their income goes to pay rent, and severely burdened, meaning more than half of income pays for housing.

According to its analysis, Birmingham-Hoover was not among the leaders, such as Orlando, Austin and Phoenix, but the area still illustrates one of the problems facing low-income families – that of diminishing assistance from government.

As Zillow explained, housing shortages were already a problem before the COVID-19 pandemic, meaning rent inched higher while incomes did not keep pace. According to Zillow’s metrics, the nation’s typical rent has increased by 26%, but average earnings have risen by 16% over the same stretch.

While the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has provided Housing Choice Vouchers (HCVs) as assistance, the number of available vouchers hasn’t kept up with demand, and the vouchers’ value also fell as rent rose.

According to Zillow, typical rent outpaced HUD’s measure of two-bedroom fair market rent (FMR) — by 11.6% during that period, with the percentage differing among metro areas.