“No society may be absolutely understood other than 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 Occasions and appear by no means to expire of issues to put in writing about. Housing is every thing. It’s the place we stay and lift our households. It’s most individuals’s largest retailer of wealth. Whether or not you personal, you hire, otherwise you sleep exterior, the place you dangle your head defines a lot of your existence.

Over the previous few many years, and particularly because the pandemic, housing has gone from an emblem of American power to an on a regular basis disaster. Aspiring owners have gotten ceaselessly renters. Folks stay in more and more crowded households, the provision of unlawful housing has surged and homeless camps have multiplied. Persons 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 various households to stop their 9 to 5s and redevelop property or grow to be landlords. In California and elsewhere, the legalization of yard houses has impressed various owners to grow to be builders by creating small rental models on their properties.

For the previous a number of years, I’ve lined nearly each facet of America’s housing disaster, from the general public officers attempting to sort out it in statehouses to the individuals residing its penalties. I write about tenants in addition to landlords, builders in addition to environmentalists, public housing in addition to non-public — even an try to construct a brand new metropolis from scratch.

My tales vary in matter and are available from across the nation, however the frequent 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 group. And I need to know what tales or matters you suppose want extra consideration. The articles I write are impressed by the tales individuals inform me.

I learn all submissions. I additionally at all times attain again out to ask extra questions and ensure I’ve bought my information proper earlier than I publish something. I received’t publish something with out your specific permission, and I received’t use your contact info for some other function or share it exterior the newsroom. If you need to submit info anonymously, please go to our ideas web page.