Another fall for stocks on Friday had the S&P 500 flirting with a 20% drop from its peak set early this year, putting it within the grasp of what Wall Street calls a bear market.

The benchmark index was down 0.4% for the day in afternoon trading and on pace for its seventh straight losing week. Rising interest rates, high inflation, the war in Ukraine, and a slowdown in China's economy are all punishing stocks and raising fears about a possible U.S. recession. The last bear market was in 2020, an unusually brief downturn that sliced 34% off the S&P 500.

The index finished the week off with a 3 percent loss, which was its seventh straight weekly decline, the New York Times reported. It's the longest window of losses since 2001.

Surprisingly low earnings reports from Target and Walmart this week didn't help either which contributed to dragging the markets even lower. The New York Times points out that since World War II, recessions almost always follow bear markets.

RUIDOSO, NM — There’s a lot to love about the sleepy mountain town of Ruidoso, New Mexico, but life the last few years have been anything but simple for the service industry.

"After the pandemic hit, I mean, It was like, where did everybody go," said Chon Caswell, the general manager of two restaurants in town.

"Everything's short-term rentals, Airbnb. It's tough living for the backbone of this economy," he added.

"Just like everywhere in the United States, we're severely handicapped when it comes to workforce and one of the biggest contributing factors to that is housing," said Mayor Lynn Crawford.

It’s a similar story in tourism-driven places across the nation, but further hardship this town is facing may be able to change mindsets that were once against the idea of affordable housing.

In April, a wildfire wiped out around 200 homes in an area of town that primarily housed folks who were part of the local workforce. It's kicked off a scramble for affordable housing that reached a new need to re-evaluate zoning laws to allow more people to live on less land.

"The community's always been 100% for it until you pick a spot and then it's, well not, you can't do this. We don't want you to do that," said Crawford.

Changing neighbors’ minds about affordable housing is one of the biggest hurdles to its creation.

A 2019 Redfin study showed that home buyers and sellers are nearly twice as likely to oppose housing density in their neighborhoods than they are to support it and more than half support zoning policies that limit density while 27 percent support it.

The National Low Income Housing Coalition guesses that the country is short 7 million rental homes for low-income renters. That’s about 1 in 4 of all rental households nationwide.

"A lot of it is the narrative that's been put out the, that the people that live there are being brought in from outside the community, they're the dregs of our community," he said.

The data, though, disproves that stigma. The National Low Income Housing Coalition says building 100 affordable housing units generates $11.7 million in local income, $2.2 million in taxes and 161 local jobs in the first year alone.

Mayor Crawfoird says Ruidoso is beginning to see the necessity as well as the benefits of having affordable housing.

"What this fire has done and the devastation is put faces. These are some of our firemen that have lost their homes. These are people that work at the hospital. These are people that work at our restaurants, our grocery stores that stock your shelves. Those are the people that have been affected," said Crawford.

The village is working on several solutions including an enterprise fund for housing, tax credits and building modular homes. Crawford says this is possible because the state and local governments, as well as the community, are working together.

"We've been working on these plans constantly, but now some of the doors are opening and we're running through those and those people are working with us and we do appreciate everything," he said.

For business folks like Caswell, he hopes more communities change their perspective on affordable housing.

"Hopefully we can get a change of hearts and minds," he said.

If a person has to go to the bathroom while out in public, it may be difficult to find a toilet without some sort of catch. Often, it’s in a coffee shop, a convenience store, a pharmacy, or another private building, so it’s not a true public toilet.

The U.S. has eight public toilets per 100,000 people. That number is comparable with the rate in Botswana and far behind Iceland’s world-leading 56 public toilets per 100,000.

So why is it so hard to find a public toilet in the U.S.?

It’s a question with a complicated answer, and that has a long history. Surprisingly, it relates to many different issues, including public health, social services, and almost every form of discrimination imaginable.

Public toilets were a fact of life in the U.S. and elsewhere for centuries — at least as far back as the Roman Empire. But they were pretty public, without any walls or barriers between them. The expectation for privacy while going to the bathroom in a public space emerged in the 19th century, with the industrial revolution and houses with modern plumbing.

Later on, in the 19th century and into the early decades of the 20th century, sanitation became a greater priority. As leaders began understanding sanitation's role in containing outbreaks of waterborne diseases, cities built and celebrated their public toilets.

Temple University history professor Bryant Simon, who has studied and is writing an upcoming book on the history of toilets, shared more about how toilets used to be a big deal.

"City officials get on their soapboxes and brag about how much they spend on public bathrooms," Simon said. "They brag about the touch points in these bathrooms. They brag about the brass fittings. They brag about the marble countertops. They brag about the floors. They're proud of their accomplishment."

Bathrooms quickly became points where people were segregated. Bathrooms were split up by gender, as they still frequently are. But the splits can be broader than that and lead to discrimination against many different groups.

For example, public toilets started closing as early as the 1930s, with the LGBTQ community as a target.

"Beginning in the 1930s, 1940s, that early, public officials begin to complain about perversions," Simon said. "They begin to complain about same-sex sex in bathrooms. As there are fears about gay sex in bathrooms, there's fear about people drinking in bathrooms. It's not a very popular city sort of thing to build anymore."

In the first half of the 20th century, bathrooms often were segregated by race, with Black Americans, or Latinos in the Southwest, having their own separate facilities.

"The bathroom sort of operates as a kind of hardware of inequality because, essentially, you needed a public bathroom or a bathroom of some sort in order to be out and in public," Simon said.

Racial segregation in toilets may sound like a distant thing or a footnote, but that legacy extends into the present.

In 2018, two Black men were blocked from using the restroom at a Starbucks location in Philadelphia’s Center City. The incident prompted Starbucks to act as America's de facto public toilet. It changed its policy to allow people to use the restrooms at its more than 15,000 U.S. locations without buying anything.

While money can be a barrier to private toilets in stores, historically, it’s limited access to public standalone toilets. By the 1960s and '70s, public toilets requiring small payments sprung up, but those ended up closing after concerns about gender discrimination.

The other big push to remove public toilets came in the 1980s as part of a broader push to drive unhoused people to the edges of cities by taking away their access to public spaces and aggressively enforcing public urination laws.

Now if you don’t have a home of your own, it can put access to a restroom pretty far away.

"Most of us are used to having our own bathroom," said Raven Drake, Street Roots ambassador program manager. "Where I lived when I was unhoused, the nearest bathroom was a one-mile walk away. Imagine walking a mile to the bathroom, and most of us can't fathom walking 50 feet to our bathroom, much less a mile."

Drake works with unhoused people in Portland as part of the local newspaper Street Roots. She’s an advocate for bathroom access as a central part of addressing homelessness, and she was unhoused herself in late 2019 and early 2020 during some of the strictest shutdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We ran a survey around bathrooms, around the importance of bathrooms and access to clean water with the Joint Office of Homeless Services, and a resounding amount of people answered that they had no access to public restrooms," Drake said. "So we took forth on this initiative of placing throughout the city 172 port-a-potties."

Underinvestment has been a major concern, too. If public toilets aren’t funded or attended to, they can fall into disrepair. They can potentially become unsafe or unhygienic.

Starbucks announced in July that it would close 16 stores due to safety concerns. CEO Howard Schultz said in June that the coffee giant might restrict its currently public restrooms to customers only as part of its broader push for store safety.

So, if Starbucks decides to no longer serve as America’s public restroom, where will people be able to go? Even if a person isn't homeless, bathroom access advocates like American Restroom Association president Steven Soifer point out this is an issue.

"For everyone, for people with shy bladder, for people with incontinence, for people with bladder issues of different sorts," Soifer said. "People who had health issues and families with children who often struggle to find a place."

Soifer is calling on government officials to step up here, but it may have to be local officials taking the lead.

"There are going to be fewer and fewer options for people to be able to relieve themselves, and that becomes a public health issue as well," Soifer said.

The consequences can be deadly for communities if no bathrooms are available. In 2017, at least 16 people died, and hundreds more got sick in San Diego in an outbreak of hepatitis A.

The disease spread largely due to contact with fecal matter and public defecation.

The city acknowledged that a lack of public restrooms, especially for unhoused people, was part of the issue and helped contain the outbreak by installing public toilets and handwashing stations.

But even then, a lack of funding or upkeep can quickly lead to toilets disappearing. Earlier this year, San Diego State University researchers reported that many toilets were closed after the COVID-19 pandemic. That nearly half the county’s census tracts, home to 40% of the population, had no public restrooms.

Other cities are moving ahead with plans to install new public toilet facilities, including Portland, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. But there’s still a shortage of public toilets in the U.S., and it’s pretty dire.

In 2011, a United Nations independent expert, Catarina de Albuquerque, studied water and sanitation rights on a mission to the U.S. Her report found an instance in Sacramento, California, where public restroom closures and enforcement of public urination and defecation laws led to a homeless person traveling miles to dump a whole community’s human waste.

In the report, she indicated that the laws had a discriminatory effect and led to "a violation of human rights that may amount to cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment.”

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New research found that 35% of families in the United States that work full-time year-round do not have enough money to cover the costs of basic needs.

The study was conducted by researchers at Brandeis University’s diversitydatakids.org program at the Institute for Child, Youth and Family Policy.

Researchers said more than half of full-time working Black and Hispanic families cannot afford basic needs. The study showed that 25% of white families and 23% of Asian and Pacific Islander families who work full-time cannot afford basic needs.

According to the study, the situation is especially dire for low-income families with children. The researchers found that 77% of those who work full time do not earn enough to cover housing, food, and child care.

The researchers said that in order for families to afford the necessities, they should be making about $11.00 more per hour.

Black and Hispanic families would need to earn more than $12.00 per hour, the researchers said.

“Full-time work alone isn’t enough to cover the everyday essentials most families need to support themselves, which creates significant financial hurdles to support children,” said Pamela Joshi, Ph.D., senior research scientist and lead study author. “We’re seeing that full-time work provides even fewer necessary resources to Black and Hispanic families. That’s a problem because it drives inequities in child well-being. These results are a wake-up call for decision makers to prioritize policies that address income inequality and racial and ethnic equity and extend real opportunities for economic self-sufficiency.”

BERRLIN, Vt. — Off the side of a busy road is a humble motel that has been remodeled to fit a growing need similar to that seen in communities across the country.

This is the only empty room at this shelter owned by Good Samaritan Haven in Central Vermont and it will only be empty for another hour as someone who needs shelter is moving in. The goal here is to move people out into permanent housing, but that permanent housing is getting harder to find. Some are waiting months to a year for the next available housing.

"There's a big bottleneck of housing options so that that leaves people to whether they might be ready or not to move on. The housing options might not be there. They simply aren't there," said Julie Bond, the co-executive director of the organization.

This area right outside the state’s capital is feeling the crush of a lack of available housing and the intense need to house people. Co-executive directors Julie Bond and Rick DeAngelis say they have been scrambling to help 100% more people than they were serving in 2019.

"I'm not even sure I can tell you why, except that there is a rental house in crisis in Vermont and that together with other factors has left a lot of people in a tough spot," said Rick.

With American Rescue Plan money, the state has been able to afford to take people out of congregate shelters and into motels and hotels, along with other rental and emergency assistance, which helped greatly but that money from the one-time federal payment will be spent in the spring.

"There will be some percentage of the folks who are in motels that will stay there with state assistance, but I am expecting that the lion's share will be, it'll just be over and they'll have to find, um, some other place to live," said Rick.

After skipping a year due to the pandemic, the latest point-in-time data from HUD shows 582,462 people were homeless in 2022, a .3% increase since 2020, however, the number of unsheltered people jumped almost 4%.

Although the ARPA funds are drying up, there is hope for more aid.

In December, the Biden administration announced the ‘All In Federal Strategy to End Homelessness” which hopes to reduce the number of unhoused people 25% by 2025, with an emphasis on “housing first” policies. The omnibus spending package also includes $6.4 billion for HUD than the year before to address housing.

"My hope is that as a state, we are coming together for more affordable housing options that are, that are creative, that are quick, that are things that are going to, to help in the, to stave off the immediacy of the need," said Julie.

While these long-term plans fall into place at the federal level, Rick and Julie say they’re still running out of time to fit the needs of today.

They are hoping for more action on local levels to address housing needs more efficiently; programs like home sharing or people using their short-term rentals for long-term homes are a couple of solutions they want to see.

"Is there a way to shift from a profit-minded space to a compassion and heart-centered need-based economy right now? You know, that's the, that's the hope," Julie said.

Big federal plans are a good thing, they tell me. But to address the day-to-day realities they see, actions at this point are necessary to continue the good they still need to do.

"We're just not meeting the need enough. There are so many people suffering with substance abuse and mental health issues. We provide a very basic service here, and I wish we could be providing more," said Rick.

This week the National Association of Realtors reported that median existing-home sales went up at a pace of 15.4% on a year-over-year basis. The median home price for a home in January was $350,300. It was the highest median price on record for the month of January, as CNN reported.

In December, Zillow predicted that the 12-month rate of home price growth would drop by 11%, but then revised that forecast saying that 2022 would finish up 16.4%. Now the company is predicting that the year-over-year rate for growth of home prices could peak at 21.6% by May.

According to the National Association of Realtors, in 2021 around 25% of homes, that sold, had one offer, but 75% had more than one offer.

And even with the price hikes, buying a home may still be a smart move in 2022 for some. The trade publication Mortgage Reports said that buying a home could work for investors, given "how inflation will push rent prices higher."

Jess Kennedy, a co-founder and COO at Beeline said, "When you look at where the housing market is right now, you still see big gaps between available supply and demand. Until that demand is lowered due to rising rates, housing prices won’t go down."

Kennedy said, “As supply and demand come into line with one another, we will see a normalization of the market but I don’t anticipate that housing prices will come down – they just won’t continue to grow exponentially as they have in the past year. In the short term as buyers look to find a property before higher rates impact them, we could actually see home prices driven higher.”

By the end of January, for sale home inventory fell to an all-time low of 860,000, CNN reported. Which was down by 16.5% from last year.

As NAR reported, the current environment has become even tougher on first-time home buyers. These new buyers accounted for a smaller share of the market than before, at around 27% according to the REALTORS Confidence Index Survey.

The survey found that homebuying demand outpaced supply, and that caused properties to stay on the market for a shorter amount of days compared to a year ago. Last month houses averaged days on the market, compared with 21 days a year before that. The group said that 79% of property listings stayed on the market for less than a month.

STANTON, Iowa — Small towns are often known for their charm and community spirit.

Jenna Ramsey is the community development director of Stanton. It's a small town located in southwest Iowa.

“Stanton is a small but mighty community with Swedish heritage," Ramsey said. "Our population is 689. Wherever you go, you know people. There’s no stoplights. You can run in and get a cup of coffee.”

While she says Stanton is a very affordable place to live compared to a larger city, it still lacks affordable housing for young families.

“We just know that all the costs of everything seem to be going up right now, so that is what makes the affordable housing challenging,” Ramsey said.

Small towns all over rural Iowa are facing the same issue. To keep the communities growing and thriving, they’re turning to innovative solutions like 3D-printed homes.

“We are building the first prototype 3D-printed home here in Hamburg, Iowa,” said Tamara Brunow, founder and president of Brunow Contracting.

Brunow is a key partner in the 3D Affordable Housing Project.

“I'm very passionate about affordable housing because I needed affordable housing at one point in my life," Brunow said. "I was a single mom for 13 years and I had the luxury of having a house that was fairly affordable to me. What we're seeing right now in the housing industry, the starting point, the entry point is so cost-prohibitive to young families and a lot of areas, they're just not going there.”

On an empty patch of land in Hamburg, the hope is to build 25 to 35 residential units that will be for sale to future homeowners. The 3D Affordable Housing Project is a collaboration between Brunow Contracting, Iowa Economic Development Authority, and Iowa State University.

Julie Robison works in the college of design at Iowa State University. She says it will be a learning process to find out whether 3D-printed homes will actually save money.

“Part of our work is going to be to actually answer that question, what are the benefits of 3D printing?" Robison said. "We think that you can reduce the amount of time that it takes to actually construct homes, that you can seriously reduce the amount of time and labor hours to put up walls.”

Brunow says they will be testing materials, design, and energy efficiency to confirm if using 3D-printing technology will be a sustainable solution for affordable housing in rural Iowa.

“The places 3D-printed homes have been implemented right now, are in the South," Brunow said. "They don't have the swing and temperature difference that we do up here in the Midwest. So we deal with a lot of freeze-thaw. We have wind loads, snow loads. So all of that engineering has to kind of go back to the basics.”

If it does work out, they hope to expand into other small towns around Iowa, potentially serving as a national model for the entire Midwest. Robison says the project will also allow the university to develop a curriculum for workforce training to help educate the next generation.

“Our mission is transformation and research and technology-driven outcomes that can then change the economy and change lives,” Robison said.

Even though technology will be what draws people to the small towns, it’s the human connection that will keep them there.

“Especially since the pandemic, people want that sense of community, they want to know who their neighbors are," Brunow said. "They want to be a part of something.”

 

We're entering year three of a scorching hot housing market, but even if the economy recovers as expected, that won't immediately solve the housing supply shortage across the U.S. The shortage existed before 2020, but the pandemic made things even worse.

There's a lack of materials due to supply chain bottlenecks, and building companies have struggled to fill jobs amid the great resignation. Low supply matched with high demand has sent prices soaring.

"Homes that were $380,000 are now $520,000," developer Ed Pavicic said.

The average household income in United States is just over $67,000, and if you follow the advice of conventional financial planners, you shouldn't buy a home worth more than three times your salary.

That means the average household should shoot for a home around $200,000. However, that's half of what they're going for these days, on average.

The good news is some experts say a turnaround is coming as the U.S. Federal Reserve prepares to raise interest rates.

Chairman Jerome Powell said earlier this month that interest rates could rise at least three times or more this year if inflation doesn't fall. But it's still unclear how quickly that will happen, or just how much it might bring prices down.

This story was originally reported by Bianca Facchinei on Newsy.com

The National Association of Realtors sees signs that the housing market could normalize in the new year.

Even though interest rates are rising, they say rates will still stay historically low — and that comes with perks.

"Interest rates will lock in for the next 30 years and (buyers) know exactly what your payments are going to be," said Jessica Lautz with the National Association of Realtors. "If you are renting right now, your rent is likely to increase next year, and that's going to stay, along with inflationary pressure. That's probably going to increase as landlords know that they can really increase that rent, and that's going to be difficult."

The National Association of Realtors predicts more inventory coming to the market next year. That could help slow down rising prices.

The association says the most important thing potential buyers need to know is how much to save and have for closing costs and down payments. Buyers should also track the fundamental changes brought on by the pandemic that can allow them to look for properties in less expensive areas.

"The other big thing that's different is the idea of what people want in their home, because CEOs are allowing that flexibility for remote work, and that's going to continue for the foreseeable future — at least a hybrid schedule that allows buyers to look at overlooked areas that they probably counted out in the past," Lautz said.

CAPE COD, Mass. — Around this time of year, Homeless Prevention Council in Cape Cod is busy matching donor families and businesses with the more than 200 local families in need. Donors buy gifts and clothes to help make this time of year more cheerful for folks going through so much.

"We've got such a community-focused, giving, and thoughtful community that really is aware of the unique needs of the seasonal nature of our economy," said Hadley Luddy, chief executive officer of Homeless Prevention Council.

It certainly is a bright spot during an incredibly challenging year. Like many areas with “seasonal economies” – think beach or mountain towns – her area is going through an affordable housing crisis.

With people now working remotely, families who can afford to do so, have moved away from urban areas to these seasonal economies for the space and pace of life. That, unfortunately, is making housing for people who work at local restaurants, landscaping companies and other small businesses difficult to find.

"This is not just a Cape Cod problem. It is a national problem. Um, so we're hearing stories all the time and actually seeing lots of amazing pilot projects and programs that are popping up all over the country," said Luddy.

While this problem continues to persist, Luddy says that one positive that has developed over the last few months is that residents are becoming more aware of the issue and beginning to understand that this is something that needs everyone’s help to solve it.

"The Cape Cod Times ran a story that really outlined the degree to the severity and how the housing crisis is really affecting people of all incomes, and one of the nice results of the story was we had two people call with rental housing available," said Luddy. "To see people reading the newspaper, making the connection, it goes back to our efforts all the time to say we're all part of creating a housing solution."

She says a lot of the focus now should be on educating people about the problem, but most importantly, on how they can be a part of the solution by using their own resources to create affordable housing.

"We really need to make this whole process much more user-friendly for the person who wants to be a part of the solution, so I think that's much of the first step that needs to happen and then we'll start to see more and more people as they're better informed, bring rentals online," she said.

Women in the U.S. have made lots of sacrifices during the COVID-19 pandemic. But when it comes to building a better future for their families, they're not slowing down.

According to the National Association of Realtors, single women have always been second to married couples in terms of who is buying homes. But single women are now buying homes at double the pace of single men, even though they historically make less and sacrifice more financially to make it happen.

"That's a good long-term investment for themselves because they know exactly what their mortgage is going to be for the next 30 years and they're not at the whim of a landlord who may increase their rent next year, or ask them to move," said Jessica Lautz of the National Association of Realtors. "So, this provides stability and not only for themselves but also for their family."

Single women buy homes faster because they're often the caregivers of children or aging relatives. They want stability, but they also want to be close to family and friends.

"That provides wealth stability for her family, maybe that means better school districts," Lautz said. "But it also means if she earns equity in that home, maybe she can help pay for college later on in the future, or actually give them a loan for a down payment when they go to purchase a home as well."

In terms of income, single women homebuyers typically make around $65,000 a year, while single men who buy homes make nearly $80,000. That leaves women more likely to cut down on spending, take on a second job or cancel vacations so they can afford a down payment.

When it comes to the value of the home single women end up buying, it's not too far off from the value of homes purchased by single men.

The CEO of Better.com, an online mortgage lender, will be spending time away from the company.

A letter from the company's board of directors, which was obtained by Vice, says the decision was made after "very regrettable events over the last week."

Vishal Garg faced backlash after firing approximately 900 employees over Zoom last week.

During the Zoom call, Garg told the employees that his decision to reduce the company's workforce was made due to changes in the housing market.

Following the backlash, Garg apologized.

"I realize that the way I communicated this news made a difficult situation worse," he said. "I am deeply sorry and am committed to learning from this situation and doing more to be the leader that you expect me to be."

The board said it has brought on an independent 3rd party firm to do a leadership and cultural assessment of the company.

They plan on assessing the recommendations to improve the culture at the company

"We have much work to do and we hope that everyone can refocus on our customers and support each other to continue to build a great company and a company we can be proud of," the board's letter says.

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. —

Away from the Veteran Day parades and celebrations on Thursday, there is renewed hope and housing for veterans who are living houseless in California.

The Santa Cruz County Veteran's Memorial Building Trustees closed escrow on Jaye's Timberlane Resort in California.

"I was ready for suicide. I was ready to check out," said Air Force veteran Darren Barthl fighting back tears.

Barthl found hope after suffering through personal disappointment and physical injuries.

He is now one of a handful of vets housed at Jaye's Timberland Resort.

"Me and my buddy David kind of made it. We were the two that kind of pushed it that said we could do this," Barthl said.

What they did was push for the first-ever Veterans Village. The village is a permanent affordable housing solution for veterans and their families.

"Getting the vets isn't even the problem. There's 58 vets with Section 8 housing vouchers in this county that aren't even using them. Why wouldn't we take that opportunity to house our vets even among the community?" said Marine Corp veteran, David Pedley.

Partners like Housing Matters have already screened individuals to make sure that they're eligible for Federal Administration housing vouchers," said Susan True, Community Foundation Santa Cruz County CEO.

The property has 10 cabins, a four-bedroom three-bath home and an office that will provide services for veterans.

It can immediately house up to 18 veterans with the possibility to expand.

"So, obviously there's a lot of hurdles to get to the point of opening. Ideally, we'd like to open with that 18, and continue to develop the property to house a few more veterans on top of that," said Chris Cottingham, executive director of the Santa Cruz County Veterans Memorial Building of Trustees.

The Community Foundation is one of several organizations involved in Veterans Village.

It's hoping to raise more money with a $75,000 donor matching program through November.

And as for Barthl, he's fitting nicely into his new community, after all, this is home now.

"Feel accepted and Housing Matters really made a difference. They made it so I had a plan to stay and I can grow and I am back," Barthl said.

Watch the video above for the full story.

With unemployment filings continuing to come in, many are unsure when or if they can pay the rent. Evictions are happening across the U.S. and experts predict it could get worse.

“Most states, at this point, I would say have some sort of statewide policy in place. Although again many of those are expiring,” said Lavar Edmonds, a Research Specialist at Eviction Lab.

Edmonds is talking about evictions. As state moratoriums end, the impacts on renters and landlords are unknown.

“I would imagine you're looking at millions of households that are at risk of facing eviction in the coming months,” he said.

The Eviction Lab has a team of researchers tracking the issue. Two years ago, they published a national database of evictions based on records. Now, they are looking at how states are handling COVID-19 and evictions.

“In some places that has meant a stopping of eviction hearings,” Edmonds said. He continued to note it could also mean some places are stopping filings, others late fees, and a bunch of different rules.

More than 40 million people have filed for unemployment since COVID-19 hit the U.S. according to the U.S. Labor Department. Studies show nearly 78% of renters were able to pay their April rent in the first week of the month, according to the National Multifamily Housing Council.

This could be due to additional weekly payments provided by the CARES Act to those who are unemployed.

“I now am on unemployment,” Desiree Kane said. “I’m concerned about that though, because the $600 a week pandemic support ends on July 31.”

Back in March, Kane, a freelancer, found herself in a situation many others also experienced.

“Over the course of 72 hours in the middle of March, I lost 100% of my clients and leads because of COVID,” she said. “I went from living by myself to living in an apartment where we’re splitting the rent multiple ways so that its affordable. But it’s a very small apartment and a lot of people.”

Kane helped create the Colorado rent strike group on Facebook, a group calling for change with evictions and homelessness in the state. While she continues to look for a job, she fears that July 31 end date.

“They’re calling it a cliff, and I very much feel that cliff,” Kane said.

It's a cliff that landlords are also concerned about.

“I have talked to a lot of landlords though that are worried their tenants aren't going to be able to pay their rent,” said Tom Orlando, owner of real estate firm Housing Helpers. “Business slowed down quite a bit.”

While each rental situation is different, for many property owners, no rent payment means no mortgage payment.

“I do see both sides. “I feel for the tenants who have lost their jobs,” Orlando said. “It’s also unfortunate for the landlord because they need to pay their mortgage. Most landlords do have a mortgage on their properties.”

The Eviction Lab is now examining what states are doing to help. They rate states using a scorecard system.

“Essentially a state by state look at what policies states are taking to combat evictions during the pandemic,” Edmonds said.

Moving forward, the potential for evictions is unknown and varies state to state.

“In 2016, we saw somewhere around 3.7 million filings, eviction filings,” Edmonds said. “I think it’s not so much a stretch to believe we’re gonna see something comparably, if not more severely, devastating for renter households.”

Detective Scott Mandella is hiking near Burien, Washington. With him are two outreach workers. They’re looking for homeless people who, Mandella says, live in the woods.

Right now, he’s looking for someone in particular: a man by the name of Ed Davis.

“Have you made any efforts to reach out to the VA lately? What do you got going on man? You deserve a lot more than this,” Mandella said to Davis after locating him.

Davis replied, "Well, I applied for the stimulus and all that."

Davis says he’s lived in these woods for about three years. It's been three years with no heat, dealing with the elements, and fighting to survive.

His story is a lot like others who end up homeless. He made some mistakes, and now he’s paying for them.

“Years ago, I sold my house, out in the peninsula. I had good intentions of reinvesting it," he recalled. "When I have problems, I kind of get into a self-destructive mode, and I blew the money. Started doing drugs and everything. You know, I battled with it for quite some time and ended up out here,” said Davis.

It may not look like much, but Davis has built a walkway down to where he sleeps, decorated his front entrance, and he even keeps fresh milk from spoiling by cooling it in the stream that runs by.

He isn’t the only one who lives here. The outreach workers brought sandwiches and left some for the other people living in the camp, who were present at the time.

But Mandella came for a different reason, and it was to let Davis know he has to leave his home in the woods. Mandella says the city parks department is going to evict him, and the others who live in the woods, within a few weeks because of complaints from walkers and people who live nearby.

Davis likely only has a few weeks left before he’s forced to leave the place he has called home for the last three years. He hopes to get a hold of his stimulus check and use it to find a place to live.

He said he's hoping to find a new place to live that offers some solitude. Solitude he may have to cherish for just a few more weeks before he faces more uncertainty.

Despite more out-of-work Americans amid the pandemic, housing has gotten more expensive during the coronavirus pandemic, especially in rural America.

According to findings by Redfin, during the four-week period ending August 2, prices for homes in rural areas jumped 11.3% from 2019 figures. The median house price in urban areas increased by 6.7%. Suburban areas jumped 9.2%.

Redfin’s data also indicates more home buyers are looking to move to rural or suburban areas, shying from urban locales. Before the pandemic, 37% of home buyers were searching for homes in urban areas; now it’s 19%. Forty-three percent of home buyers were searching in suburban areas before the pandemic; now, it’s 50%. Nine percent of home buyers were home searching in rural areas before the pandemic; now it’s 19%.

During the coronavirus, living close to restaurants, bars, social events and offices is not nearly as much of a priority for many home buyers.

"We've been speculating about increasing interest in the suburbs and rural areas since the start of the pandemic," said Redfin economist Taylor Marr. "Now we're seeing concrete evidence that rural and suburban neighborhoods are more attractive to homebuyers than the city, partly because working from home means commute times are no longer a major factor for some people. And due to historically low mortgage rates, interest is turning into action. There will always be buyers who choose the city because their jobs don't allow for remote work or they place a premium on cultural amenities like restaurants and bars—which will eventually come back—but right now the pendulum is swinging toward farther-flung places."

However, when the coronavirus ends and it becomes safe to return to offices and social events, will buyers regret purchasing a home in far-flung locales?

"Newly remote workers from New York City are buying properties in rural areas like Warren County, NJ and Sussex County, NJ, but I expect that some of these buyers may eventually catch post-COVID buyer's remorse," said Darlene Schror, a Redfin agent in northern New Jersey. "Post-pandemic, buyers may realize that while their new neighborhoods make for a nice weekend getaway, the long commute may become unsustainable should things go back to normal. And they'll miss city amenities like high-quality restaurants, shopping centers and walkability."

The median price for homes in urban areas are more affordable than suburban and rural regions, but the homes being purchased in non-urban areas are generally larger.

The median home price for an urban house in the four weeks ending August 2 was $275,873, according to Redfin. Meanwhile, the median cost for a rural home was $286,750, and the median cost for a suburban home was $322,900.

But per square footage, urban homes still were more expensive, costing $176.17 per square foot, compared to $158.76 in the suburbs and $142.58 in the country.

DENVER, Co. — While a spotlight has been shown on the affordable housing supply crisis, experts say how we got here has been a decades-long journey.

"There simply aren’t enough homes for anyone who wants to buy them," said Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin.

Supply and demand are causing home prices to skyrocket this year. The average home price is up 13.2%. That’s already a record, but in other spots around the country, it’s worse. The average home price for Phoenix rose 23.5%, Salt Lake City and Denver rose around 20%.

"We got into this mess, partly because in the last decade there were fewer homes built, but in any decade, going back to the 1960s and even before then, we were falling behind on building entry-level homes. Back in the 1980s, about 40% of new construction homes were entry-level. And now, that's down in just single digits," said Fairweather.

A few factors have gone into the lack of entry-level homes, one of them being that construction slowed down to a halt during the great recession, which impacted supply, and now entry-level homes are not being built, because demand has driven up the price of land.

"If a developer wants to buy a piece of land, they want to put the most luxurious building on it so they can recoup the expense of just acquiring that land," she said.

Another factor is zoning laws. Many neighborhoods in cities across America, where land is pricey, are zoned for single-family homes. The power to change that lies on the hyper-local level, but that has proven to be a contentious issue.

"It's very easy for a group of homeowners to rally together, to get a multifamily zoning block. They can show at the town hall meetings and they have vested interest in keeping their property values high. Even if that goes against the community interest and keeping housing affordable. So it's a very hard problem," said Fairweather.

Jonathan Cappelli is an affordable housing advocate in Colorado. He says 37% of all single-family homes in the state are rentals, not owned by the families living in them.

"We're seeing that trend just increase," he said.

Like Fairweather, he agrees that one solution would be to change zoning laws to add more apartments and condos that families looking to buy their first home can afford.

"Density is really synonymous with equity right now," said Cappelli. "If you're against making room for low to moderate income people in your community, then you're kind of taking the ladder that you climb to get to where you are and you're kicking it out for the next year."

He says the best solution is for policies to become more affordable and equitable and that communities need to recognize and embrace that.

With homeownership tied to wealth building, experts and advocates alike say that while it wasn’t our decision to end up in a low housing supply, it’s up to local government and citizens to help fix it.

ATHENS, Ga. — From the edge of the city, you can see the outline of the campus.

The city of Athens, Georgia, would hardly exist without the University of Georgia. The largest school in the state holds nearly 40,000 students. It is an institution.

Around town are reminders of what institutions can bring … and what they can take.

“You cannot come by here without associating what could have been,” said Hattie Whitehead, as she stares across Baxter Street at three dorms. “This could have been a Black, middle-class community if it was left alone.”

Whitehead and dozens of other families grew up where a series of dorms now stand. They knew it as Linnentown.

“Linnentown was a small, Black community where adults worked hard, and they reached 66% homeownership,” recalled Whitehead. “Home felt safe. The [wider Athens] community didn’t feel safe, but home felt safe.”

It was safe, until the early 1960s. That’s when the University of Georgia and the city of Athens targeted Linnentown for urban renewal. They used eminent domain to purchase residents’ land for cheap, literally paving the way for the dorms that stand there now.

“Our parents did not know what urban renewal was,” Whitehead said. “It means taking property – just taking it – from poor areas, particularly targeting Black communities. It means they want the land and they want it cheap, so this is a way to get it cheap, all under the name of the law.”

A study by the University of Richmond estimates the federal government gave at least $13 billion from 1950 to 1965 to fund urban renewal projects. Those projects displaced more than 300,000 Americans, largely people of color, in all but seven states. Institutions wielded power and served some over others.

But this story isn’t just about an event six decades in the past. It’s about the ripple effects that continue to the present.

“I would say they’re mixed,” Mayor Kelly Girtz said about race relations in Athens. “We have to be honest and reckon with our history.”

Nearly 3 in 10 Athens residents are Black. Among students at UGA, it’s fewer than 1 in 10.

“The Board of Regents [at UGA] has been named by the last three conservative governors of the state,” said Mayor Girtz. “There are times where they haven’t wanted to touch these issues with a 10-foot pole.”

But it’s not just campus. It’s the lack of affordable housing as rents and home prices skyrocket. It’s the bar downtown that only last year changed its name from that of a Civil War general. It’s the first sight off the highway being the Plantation Buffet. It’s the tensions in the institutions that bubble under cities and towns across America.

“If you look in terms of census tracts, in terms of demographics, it’s evident that Black Athenians have long held less home wealth than White Athenians,” Mayor Girtz said. “And I’ve gotta be conscious on how we move the meter on that.”

This past June, Athens passed a budget that includes fare-free transit and a $15/hour minimum wage for all city employees. And four months earlier, Mayor Girtz read aloud a proclamation passed by the city that honored Linnentown and promised to provide reparations for its descendants – the first act of reparations in the state.

“People told me they thought it would never happen,” said Whitehead. “When it happened, it brought me to tears, like, ‘Finally! We got an apology from the city of Athens.’”

There are plenty of hurdles. It’s unclear how much the community will receive, and Georgia’s own Constitution prevents giving state and local dollars directly to third parties. As for the campus that once held the homes of Linnentown, university leaders have chosen not to participate in the project. They also have not granted permission to place markers of recognition on campus.

“The University System of Georgia declined to participate … since the Board of Regents lawfully purchased this tract of land,” wrote UGA spokesperson Greg Trevor in a statement. “It will be up to the University System of Georgia to approve any physical markers on the property.”

Trevor also offered information on the school’s various recent efforts to increase enrollment of Black and other under-represented students, which can be found here.

Despite the complications, Hattie Whitehead emerges with hope – “and faith,” she said.

“It’s been recognized, in a small way. So, it makes a difference.”

SHELBYVILLE, Ken. — The nationwide eviction moratorium expired at the end of July and leaders at the Veterans Administration are concerned it will lead to a large increase in homeless veterans. One Kentucky program is working to house veterans before the moratorium ends.

Nearly 40,000 veterans experienced homelessness on any given night in 2020, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness. Paul Elliott was one of them.

“Living out of your van, or whatever, you just get tired of it," Elliott said. “There is a saying when you go into service is they try to 'break the civilian out of you' and once that civilian is gone, you never go back.”

For Elliott, and many like him, homelessness wasn’t a choice, but it is a common outcome.

“Even when you sleep, you’re not sleeping. This is where PTSD comes in, where you’re always wired," Elliott said.

As Elliott experienced, nothing feels safe. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs reports that 11 to 20 out of every 100 veterans who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan have PTSD in any given year.

Jeremy Harrell knows that feeling too. It’s why he started the Veterans Club in Shelbyville, Kentucky, to help people just like Elliott.

“It’s emotional for me because I’ve been in those same positions that everyone that we help have. I struggle with PTSD myself," Harrell said. “It’s not enough just to say, 'hey we want to get vets off the street.' But I remember how I felt when I felt like I had no one. And I don’t want that ever to be the case that we’re around.”

Through partnerships, the club recently started its Veterans Village, a community of tiny homes for veterans in need.

“The homes are foundational. What that does is it tears down any barriers you have about where am I going to sleep and what am I going to eat. So we get rid of that for you," Harrell said.

Elliott says his life has been a revolving door, until a few weeks ago

“I had a hard time readjusting to civilian world and at this time I still do. I find being here at the Veterans Club, I think being around other veterans and this community that’s going to be a brotherhood and a family, I think this is going to help me get established and have a home," Elliot said.

“Create that same bond that we had while we were in service and that’s not replicable in the civilian world really and so that’s a powerful tool that we have," Harrell said.

That’s just the beginning.

“Then we have case managers who kind of sit down with them, clinicians who sit down with them and kind talk about hey these are the challenges you have but what are your goals? We come up with a 3, 6, 9, 12-month plan.”

They pay extremely close attention to every detail.

“Then we start working on financial literacy, we start working on employment, we start working on supportive services, we start working on education, we do training, we just want to fill the toolbox," Harrell said.

For Elliott, it’s been years since he’s had a place to call his own. With those worries lifted, and a comfortable support system he’s working on his next step.

“I want to go back to work. I’ve injured myself. I’ve been dealing with injuries," Elliott said.

Harrell gets calls about veterans who could benefit from their services across the country. The reality is, there aren’t many programs like this out there.

“It’s hard work in a way that it could work for a year and then in a day it could all go south," Harrell said. “When you’re dealing with recovery of any kind whether it be mental health, whether it be substance abuse, you can put a lot of effort in and not produce any fruit.”

Delaware, Connecticut, and Virginia are the only states that have virtually eradicated veteran homelessness, according to the National Conference of State Legislators. But until that’s the case nationwide, Harrell and his team won’t stop helping veterans like Elliott.

“If it was up to me, I’d be in trouble again. I’d be on my own somewhere trying to deal with something on my own and you can’t do it on your own," Elliott said.

The hard work of helping yourself and others is what fuels the Veterans Club.

“Oftentimes, it’s looked at as a person may be lazy or they don’t want to work but oftentimes that’s not the case at all," Harrell said. “We can’t get so comfortable and so arrogant that we think for a minute that that can’t be us. And how would you want to be treated if it was you? And if we just start asking ourselves that throughout daily life in general I think our country would be in a lot better state than it is now.”

CINCINNATI —

Much of Over-the-Rhine has been remade, the Cincinnati riverfront has been revitalized and now Price Hill is starting to think its time could soon arrive.

There was some groundwork for a neighborhood renaissance laid years ago. Now, new single-family home construction is in the works.

After decades of deterioration and decline, Price Hill brims with captivating views and potential.

Don Johnson of Cutler Real Estate walked around his old stomping grounds Friday to show us some of it.

"From this property we're going to have four and on the other side we're going to have six townhouses," he pointed out at the far southern end of Grand Avenue.

Dozens of infill lots like the one at Mt. Hope have been bought up for market-rate housing.
You heard that right. The market seems to be light-years from where it was just a few summers ago when properties could be had for $40,000 and $50,000.

"It's a whole different market over here now," Johnson said. "It really picked up momentum."

He grew up around here as an Elder grad and handles sales and marketing for the homebuilder, who also grew up around here as an Elder grad.

Kim Knoppe made his mark in Columbus and came back to find lots of empty lots and no plan beyond tear downs.

"And it just struck me that what that area needed was new home construction, something that would lift the entire neighborhood up," Knoppe told us during an interview today.
He has control of close to 80 lots throughout the city, including Harrison, Sayler Park, Mt. Auburn and East Riverside Drive.

He is still in buying mode and will break ground for new home construction on Hawthorne Avenue in Price Hill next week. The homes will be in the $400,000 range.

Knoppe is hoping for a ripple effect throughout the west side.

He is candid about the risk, saying he doesn't know if it'll go and that he feels a little like Don Quixote.

"Read the book, saw the opera," he said with a hearty laugh. "It takes that kind of risk sometimes to turn the table."

Knoppe is playing off the success of the Incline District where the Public House is a regional magnet.

He grew up on Grand Avenue and now just four blocks away he is planning to construct ten three-story, three-bedroom, two-car garage homes with rooftop terraces.

"I can't tell you what a warm feeling it gives me to be able to go into my old neighborhood and improve it," he said.

We saw the type of breathtaking view he plans to capitalize on with wood beam ceilings, brick fronts and 15-year tax abatements.

"Young people get good jobs and they move out of Price Hill. And they would love to be there with family and friends. So, hopefully, they'll be attracted to this type of housing as well," he said.

One woman in a new condo overlooking the Ohio River told us the neighborhood is ripe for change.

"It'll take a while," she said and then added, "I love it here."

2020 was a record-breaking year for home sales, and a major indicator of this pandemic surge in housing was the speed in which many homes were sold.

And so far in 2021, indications show sales are off to an even stronger start. According to Redfin, 55% of homes were in contract within two weeks of listing for the week ending Jan. 24.

Redfin says last week set the highest percentage since 2012, when it began recording such data.

By comparison, the same week in 2020 had 35% of homes in contract within two weeks. For the year 2020 as a whole, 43% of homes were within contract within two weeks.

That’s because, according to Redfin, home sales are up 30% from this time a year ago. Also, supply of homes has dropped significantly, leading to an increase in housing prices.

"Buyers are incredibly hungry for listings, but unfortunately there isn't much to choose from, and that scarcity is making buyers all the more frenzied," said Redfin chief economist Daryl Fairweather. "As a result, the majority of the homes that hit the market are getting multiple offers right away. Not only do you have to be fast to win a home, you have to be prepared and resourceful. I recommend that buyers on a tight budget target homes that are priced 5 to 10 percent below their maximum price so they have room to increase their offer in a bidding war."