The California Housing Partnership Corporation (CHPC) has released a series of reports describing the affordable housing challenges facing lower-income renters in each of five Southern California counties: Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego. The five-county area needs nearly a million more affordable rental units to meet the needs of families earning 50 percent or less of the median household income. Los Angeles County has Southern California’s steepest shortage, 551,807 additional units. According to the report, which includes policy recommendations, a decline in government spending, rising rents and falling incomes have created the severe shortage of homes in Southern California. Earlier this month, CHPC released reports focusing on housing affordability challenges in four Bay Area counties, which have a shortage of 134,000 affordable homes.