An acute shortfall of affordable rental units makes life more challenging for millions of people nationwide, and it could become even harder for many of them if the trend continues. Although multifamily housing construction is back to historically average levels, the new units flowing into the overall rental supply are generally serving higher-income renters. The combination of increasing rents, stagnant household incomes, and potential changes to public subsidies on the demand-side (Section 8 vouchers and contracts) and the supply-side (public housing and the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program) has severely constricted the number of available units that are affordable to lower-income renters and that meet their specific needs for location and unit size.1 This reality most adversely affects very low-income (VLI) households, defined as those with incomes no greater than 50 percent of area median income (AMI). As rents continue to increase without a corresponding increase in incomes, households with lower incomes cannot afford market rents. This is well documented and the impact is measured in a variety of ways, but it can seem abstract with current metrics. A new Freddie Mac approach provides specific analysis that helps clarify the view into market dynamics and the magnitude of this issue. To make matters plainer, we analyzed loans that Freddie Mac Multifamily financed twice2 between 2010 and 2016 (the latest period for which data is available). Exhibit 1 shows the total number of underlying units in these repeat financings and compares how and whether they qualified at different levels of affordability between first and second financing.