The rising cost of housing in U.S. cities like San Francisco and New York is a well-known problem. Flying under the radar: an affordable housing crisis is growing in every state in the union.

More than one in four renter families across the country now pay more than half of their income on housing, a staggering statistic that has leapt from 7.5 million to 11.4 million households since 2001 with no signs of stopping.

Affordable housing is rarely mentioned as a national priority or as the national emergency that it is, though it’s typically a family’s largest monthly expense. This must change.