Millions of low-income Americans live in old homes that are crumbling, worsening the housing shortage. A first-of-its-kind program in Pennsylvania aims to help whole communities damaged by disrepair.
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
The country’s massive housing shortage is getting worse because some of the most affordable homes are falling apart. NPR’s Jennifer Ludden reports that that is fueling a push to not only build more housing but also help people stay in the places they already have.
JENNIFER LUDDEN, BYLINE: In rural western Pennsylvania, the tiny borough of Glen Campbell was settled as a coal-mining town, and the houses are old.
(SOUNDBITE OF KNOCKING ON DOOR)
LUDDEN: Melissa?
MELISSA COX: Yes, hi.
LUDDEN: Hi.
M COX: Hi.
LUDDEN: Melissa and Robert Cox think their cozy but crumbling three-bedroom dates to the ’20s or ’30s. It was all Melissa could afford when she left a bad marriage with her three children. She bought it, rent to own, a dozen years ago, $7,000 total. But it’s come with a slew of costly problems.
ROBERT COX: Just be careful. These steps are OK.
LUDDEN: Robert leads the way to the basement.
R COX: Sorry about the smell, but up to this point, we had sewage backing up and some water.
LUDDEN: He points out an open shower drain in the corner. When it rains, sewage seeps in because the old terra cotta piping broke. In another corner, the home’s original foundation, made of rocks and cement, is peeling away.
M COX: It’s not on the plan.
LUDDEN: Then we head up to the second-floor bedrooms.
M COX: When I moved in here, it was raining in this room, so we had to completely redo this.
LUDDEN: Where was the water coming in?
M COX: Over here. There was a closet, which was ripped out, and now it’s the boys’ room.
LUDDEN: Melissa is a family therapist. She got a recent raise to $25 an hour. Robert is on disability for an autoimmune disease. They’ve struggled to put in new floors, new siding, a new roof.
M COX: When I did the roof, my uncle cosigned on a loan for me to do it because I didn’t even have any credit.
LUDDEN: But they got a cheap roofer and say the work was shoddy. Meanwhile, there’s that awful sewage smell.
M COX: I would be putting air fresheners in the vents, sticking them everywhere, on top of the dehumidifiers. I mean, I’ve done bleach down there to try and take the smell away, vinegar.
LUDDEN: Across the U.S., nearly 7 million households face problems like this, and that’s likely an undercount. They’re disproportionately poor and people of color. Todd Swanstrom of the University of Missouri-St. Louis calls it trickle-down. Developers build new places for better-off people while older homes deteriorate until they’re deemed affordable, like the Cox’s home in Pennsylvania. They’re often starter homes, but he says lower-income families have nowhere near the means to fix or maintain them.
TODD SWANSTROM: People have treated the housing quality issue as separate from the affordability issue, and in fact, they’re two sides of the same coin.
LUDDEN: Nationally, there’s a patchwork of home repair programs – federal, state and non-profit – but Swanstrom says they’re underfunded with years-long waitlists and lots of restrictions on how the money can be spent.
SWANSTROM: You might get 5,000 or $6,000 to weatherize your home, but meanwhile, the roof is leaking. Well, what good does it do to weatherize the home if the roof is leaking, right?
LUDDEN: A first-of-its-kind program in Pennsylvania aims to help. Whole-Home Repairs was enacted two years ago, and here’s how it’s different. It’s more flexible with how money can be spent, and that makes it easier to fix the most urgent problems, then coordinate with other repair programs that could kick in more money. The goal is to help not just families but entire communities damaged by disrepair.
LUANN ZAK: I see more and more vacant houses yearly just being abandoned.
LUDDEN: LuAnn Zak helps direct planning in Indiana County, where the Cox family lives. She says the Whole-Home Repairs Program is making a difference, and she thinks of another woman who’d been asking the county for help for decades.
ZAK: She applied back in the 1990s, and we would always run out of funding before we would get to her. So we finally, with this program, are able to come in.
LUDDEN: The state program is funded by pandemic aid, and counties coordinate the repairs. They decide who qualifies, based on income, and can spend up to $50,000 per household. There’s also money for construction workforce training to combat an industry shortage.
R COX: And then they’re going to put railings here and replace these steps.
LUDDEN: In Glen Campbell, Melissa and Robert Cox say repairs on their house will start soon. They’ll include making the tiny first-floor bathroom more accessible for Robert and their oldest son, who has Down syndrome and can struggle with walking. Robert says they are grateful.
R COX: I just brought all my kids down, and we prayed about it, and I thank God for it because it is a blessing. It is a blessing.
LUDDEN: Several states have taken up this model for repairs, and a proposal in Congress would scale it nationally. But Pennsylvania lawmakers did not renew funding for it this year, leaving 18,000 homeowners on the wait list. Supporters say they’ll try again. For now, counties are spending down what they have. Among the lucky ones is Velma Fishel, whose house was built in 1890.
VELMA FISHEL: I’ve been here since ’93.
LUDDEN: One day a few years ago, she leaned back in her chair and saw her ceiling and bright pink walls were separating. It turned out the foundation had shifted and the entire back of her house was sagging.
FISHEL: How could I fix it? I’m on Social Security. I mean, I was sick, chest pains. All I wanted to do was sleep because I got into that funk, you know?
LUDDEN: Now her foundation has been replaced. She’s also got a new front porch because that was collapsing, and soon they’ll fix a gaping hole in her kitchen ceiling.
FISHEL: I can get on with my life in peace and be content and not have to worry about it, you know? I like this stress-free thing.
LUDDEN: What a relief, she says, to relax again in her own home. Jennifer Ludden, NPR News, Glen Campbell, Pennsylvania.
CHANG: This story was produced by NPR’s Marisa Peñaloza.
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