A single parent in Rhode Island would have to work 62 hours a week, never get sick, never go on vacation and never miss work to afford a two-bedroom apartment, according to a national report released Tuesday.

The National Low Income Housing Coalition said Rhode Island’s “housing wage,” the hourly pay a worker needs to afford a two-bedroom apartment, would be $18.76. But the average renter here actually earns $12.01 an hour.

That leaves many Rhode Island households with few options: have two people working, have one person working two jobs or finding a job that pays far above average.

While the coalition found that Rhode Island’s housing wage has grown 64 percent since 2000, Tuesday’s report had a glimmer of good news: this year’s housing wage dropped more than $1 from last year, when it was $19.79.

The drop is the result of a softening housing market — brought on by the national foreclosure crisis — that has generally pushed rents down.

But the good news has not reached those most in need of it, according to Brenda J. Clement, executive director of the Housing Action Coalition of Rhode Island.

“Rents are going down, but not far enough,” Clement said. “The private market never corrects low enough.”

Furthermore, Clement said, the foreclosure crisis has hit landlords hard in areas with larger numbers of affordable units, forcing tenants into the street and increasing competition for lower-priced apartments.

And, while the national study indicates that a household needs 1.6 wage earners to afford housing, many households have only a single wage earner or, for those living on a fixed income, no wage earner.

“They’re always living paycheck to paycheck,” Clement said. If they miss work because of illness, that money needs to be made up some other way, she said.

Clement said the people hit hard by the lack of affordable rents include workers who provide vital services in the economy: daycare workers, store clerks and home health aides, as examples.

The report came out as the national foreclosure crisis continues to dominate headlines, overshadowing the persistent problem of a lack of affordable rental housing for those unable to buy a house.

“The news is worse,” Sheila Crowley, president of the national coalition, said in an afternoon conference call.

The group’s benchmark measure, the national housing wage, rose from $17.32 last year to $17.84, Crowley said.

Rhode Island’s housing wage of $18.76 compares with an estimated average actual wage for renters of $12.01, according to the coalition’s report, titled “Out of Reach 2009.”

The study found that the fair-market rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Rhode Island — $976 a month — compares with a median household income of $1,833 a month. That means more than half of that household’s earnings would have to go to rent. The coalition considers housing affordable only if it costs 30 percent or less of household income.

Rhode Island’s housing wage ranks 13th-highest in the nation. Last year, Rhode Island ranked ninth.

Regardless of the ranking, Clement said that the goal of housing advocates is simple: “We’re not happy or satisfied until everybody has a safe place to lay their head at night.”

pparker@projo.com