Richard Fausset

Thread: 1. A few days ago my friend @williamwidmer , the New Orleans photographer, came up to North Charleston, S.C.--home of the worst known eviction crisis in the U.S.--to document the last moments that Shanatea Turner would spend in the house she couldn’t afford.

2. North Charleston’s 2016 eviction rate was 16.5%, the highest rate found by Princeton’s Eviction Lab. Local advocates and judges have launched a fledgling housing court; it gives some renters about to be booted access to a pro bono lawyer once their landlord files on them.

3. Housing court is where I met Shanatea. She sparred with her landlord over all kinds of problems that her little house had. But the reality was that she was just broke. Her lawyers helped her craft a move-out agreement that saved her some money and bought her some time.

5. In US cities, we have watched as big public housing units have largely been dismantled. Some argued they were a failed policy experiment. No room here to (re)litigate this. But it happened. And here we are. Today, according to the Eviction Lab….

6. “most poor renting families spend at least 1/2 of their income on housing costs, with 1 in 4 of those families spending over 70% of their income just on rent and utilities. Incomes for Americans of modest means have flatlined while housing costs have soared.” Moreover…

7. …”Only one in four families who qualifies for affordable housing programs gets any kind of help.”

8. Millions of people like Shanatea are one small slip-up away from being on the street, or improvising some kind of temporary, painful, unacceptable housing fix. If this concerns you, ask your elected officials…