Even as new mortgage programs have helped greater numbers of women become homeowners in recent years, a new study shows that women-headed families and single women are facing critical housing problems.

The study, “Women and Housing: A Status Report,” finds that 28 percent of women-headed families with children are paying more than half their incomes for housing and/or living in overcrowded or severely substandard housing.

Using data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau, the report also reveals that women with children who do not live with spouses are more than twice as likely as the total population to have housing problems. Childless single women aren’t any better off, according to the study, which was produced by the McAuley Institute. Twenty-one percent of single women also paid more than 50 percent of their income for housing or lived in overcrowded or substandard housing.

“None of the findings surprise me,” said Laurie Holmes, executive director of HarborCOV, a community-based nonprofit group in Chelsea that offers emergency shelter and other services to victims of domestic violence.

“I think to me the most astounding fact that we were able to report is that nearly one in three households with children have critical housing problems. I think it shows that it’s a national crisis because we do know that a healthy living environment is the foundation of our children’s growth and development,” said Susan Rees, director of policy and research for the McAuley Institute, a women’s housing organization based in Silver Spring, Md.

Founded in 1983 by the Sisters of Mercy, the McAuley Institute provides technical and financial assistance to community development corporations and other groups that build housing, particularly organizations that are led by women and primarily serve women and their families.

The institute prepared the study for a congressional briefing in March, when the institute’s leaders talked to members of housing committees and the women’s caucus. The group also plans to distribute the report at its National Women & Housing Conference in Oakland, Calif., on May 1.

‘Continuum of Support’

In Greater Boston, where housing prices and rents have soared during the last few years, unmarried women with children are likely to have an even tougher time finding and maintaining housing. Home prices surged 50 percent in three years – while median rents jumped 39 percent in the last seven years – in 161 Greater Boston communities, according to a report released last fall by Northeastern University’s Center for Urban and Regional Policy.

And last year, Massachusetts was found to be the least affordable state to rent a two-bedroom apartment based on a report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition. According to that study, a person would have to earn three times the minimum wage – or $21.14 per hour – to be able to afford a two-bedroom apartment.

“There’s a huge housing crisis in Massachusetts right now and we believe that it hits women, particularly single mothers, harder,” said Felice Mendell, executive director of the Women’s Institute for Housing and Economic Development.

The number of female-headed renter households in Massachusetts that have inadequate income to afford local housing and basic non-housing needs rose from about 179,000 in 1990 to almost 227,000 in 1998, a 26 percent increase, according to the McCormack Institute of the University of Massachusetts at Boston. That number represents 49 percent all female-headed renter households.

The vast majority of poor families in Massachusetts and nationwide are headed by single mothers, said Mendell. Some estimate that as many as 90 percent of poor families in the Bay State are headed by women. About 500 families in the state are living in motel rooms every night, Mendell said.

Women’s housing problems are often tied to the existing wage gap. Even though women’s unemployment rate is lower than men’s and the wage gap is narrowing, women’s median earnings are still only 76 percent of men’s, according to the study. The wage gap usually means that women are faced with higher poverty rates.

Besides wages, violence in the home is also a factor that contributes to women’s housing challenges. Domestic violence is often cited in studies as a major contributor to women’s homelessness in this country, according to experts.

“There have been studies done … that show that among homeless women, something like 70 percent are homeless as a direct result of domestic violence,” said Holmes.

Holmes, who served on a commission that studied the economic impacts of domestic violence, said one of the top concerns for women who live in abusive environments and are considering leaving their spouses or partners is housing. Often, when women who are victims of domestic violence are asked what it will take for them to change the situation, “it turns out that it’s all about economics and housing,” said Holmes.

In addition to those factors, women in the Bay State face another obstacle: Massachusetts is one of the few states in the country doesn’t allow welfare recipients to count college courses toward their work requirements, according to Mendell. As part of the Welfare-to-Work reforms passed in the 1990s, recipients are required to work a certain amount of hours each week.

Massachusetts is one of only 13 states that do not recognize the pursuit of higher education as a form of work, according to a report done by the Wellesley College Center for Research on Women that the Women’s Institute released last year.

The Wellesley study also revealed that women on welfare who acquire post-secondary education are 41 percent less likely to return to welfare and noted that female college graduates in the Bay State earn 85 percent more each year than women with high school diplomas.

Yet, “the correlation between education and income is often overlooked and not supported” in Massachusetts, said Mendell.

The Women’s Institute for Housing and Economic Development has developed several affordable family housing projects in urban areas.

The institute recently helped HarborCOV renovate a three-family home in Chelsea called Casa Maribel. Named for a local woman who was murdered by her boyfriend, Casa Maribel provides more permanent housing for abused women and their children.

At HarborCOV, officials kicked off a housing initiative about 18 months ago to develop 50 affordable housing units with support services within five years for abused women. The group has provided emergency shelter to women and their children for several years but decided to develop housing after their clients expressed their interest in, and need for, more permanent shelter.

In addition to Casa Maribel, HarborCOV also plans to close on a piece of property on Washington Street in Chelsea on May 15, a site on which the group wants to build 24 apartments, a child care facility and an economic development center.

Holmes explained that HarborCOV is developing permanent housing with transitional services, whereas typically organizations have focused on providing transitional housing for domestic abuse victims.

“This community housing initiative is our effort to put together a continuum of support that offers services to families to the degree they need them for as long as they needed them,” she said.

Women-led organizations like HarborCOV are helping to provide housing solutions for women, according to the study. The McAuley Institute estimates that women executives lead 46 percent of community development corporations and other community building initiatives based on a 10 percent sample of 1,900 community-based organizations.

The housing situation for women hasn’t been entirely bleak during the last decade. Data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development show that the rate of homeownership for women increased at twice the rate of the rest of the population during the 1990s, according to the McAuley Institute.

That has come in part because of the arrival of new mortgage products that offer zero or low down payments, credit counseling and other private and public homeownership programs. In 2001, the total homeownership rate was 67.8 percent overall, with 51.9 percent for families headed by women, according to HUD.

But experts note that this increased homeownership also comes with risks. Recent reports have warned that families with low incomes and unsteady employment, which includes women-headed households, are in danger of losing their homes through foreclosures, according to the McAuley Institute.

Aglaia Pikounis may be reached at apikounis@thewarrengroup.com.