“No society can be fully understood apart from the residences of its members.”
I’ve that quote (from “Crabgrass Frontier,” the seminal historical past of America’s suburbs) taped to a wall behind my desk. It summarizes why I really like overlaying housing for The New York Times and appear by no means to expire of issues to put in writing about. Housing is the whole lot. It’s the place we stay and lift our households. It is most individuals’s largest retailer of wealth. Whether you personal, you lease, otherwise you sleep exterior, the place you grasp your head defines a lot of your existence.
Over the previous few many years, and particularly for the reason that pandemic, housing has gone from a logo of American power to an on a regular basis disaster. Aspiring owners have gotten without end renters. People stay in more and more crowded households, the availability of unlawful housing has surged and homeless camps have multiplied. People are fleeing costly states for cheaper ones — which has in flip created housing issues within the cities the place they find yourself.
There have additionally been new alternatives: The rise of at-home places of work has allowed many individuals to relocate to cheaper housing markets and prompted quite a lot of households to stop their 9 to 5s and redevelop property or turn out to be landlords. In California and elsewhere, the legalization of yard properties has impressed quite a lot of owners to turn out to be builders by creating small rental items on their properties.
For the previous a number of years, I’ve lined just about each side of America’s housing disaster, from the general public officers attempting to sort out it in statehouses to the folks dwelling its penalties. I write about tenants in addition to landlords, builders in addition to environmentalists, public housing in addition to personal — even an try to construct a brand new metropolis from scratch.
My tales vary in subject and are available from across the nation, however the widespread thread is that they’re rooted within the accounts of individuals and the locations that make them. Which is why I need to hear from you. I need to know what sorts of housing pressures you’re coping with and the way they’ve affected your life, household, friendships and neighborhood. And I need to know what tales or subjects you assume want extra consideration. The articles I write are impressed by the tales folks inform me.
I learn all submissions. I additionally at all times attain again out to ask extra questions and ensure I’ve acquired my details proper earlier than I publish something. I gained’t publish something with out your express permission, and I gained’t use your contact data for another goal or share it exterior the newsroom. If you wish to submit data anonymously, please go to our suggestions web page.
Source: www.nytimes.com