“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 like overlaying housing for The New York Occasions and appear by no means to expire of issues to jot down about. Housing is all the pieces. 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 cling your head defines a lot of your existence.

Over the previous few a long time, and particularly for the reason that pandemic, housing has gone from a logo of American energy to an on a regular basis disaster. Aspiring householders have gotten endlessly renters. Folks stay in more and more crowded households, the provision of unlawful housing has surged and homeless camps have multiplied. Individuals 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 workplaces has allowed many individuals to relocate to cheaper housing markets and prompted quite a few households to give up their 9 to 5s and redevelop property or develop into landlords. In California and elsewhere, the legalization of yard houses has impressed quite a few householders to develop into builders by creating small rental items 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 folks 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 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 wish to hear from you. I wish to know what sorts of housing pressures you might be coping with and the way they’ve affected your life, household, friendships and neighborhood. And I wish to know what tales or matters 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 bought my info proper earlier than I publish something. I received’t publish something with out your express permission, and I received’t use your contact info for another goal or share it exterior the newsroom. If you need to submit info anonymously, please go to our ideas web page.