Working people living in motels are considered a "hidden homeless" population. An alliance of nonprofits are working to move 1,000 affected families in Atlanta to stable housing by next summer.
For decades, public housing providers could subsidize heating bills but not air-conditioning. New Biden administration guidance changes that, but critics say it doesn’t go far enough.
Researchers following a group of American children for decades found that even short periods of housing instability increased the chances of poor mental and physical health years later.
The new development on Macon’s east side, called the Tiny Cottages, are exclusively available to people who meet the federal definition of homelessness.
The housing market continues to be impacted by high mortgage rates. That's reducing the supply of available housing, sending home prices to an all-time high.
Officials in Atlanta and Denver believe that micro communities, unlike shelters, offer residents stability that, when combined with wraparound services, can more effectively put them on the path to secure housing.
What’s “affordable” housing depends on what’s in your wallet. But zoom out to all of coastal Georgia, cross-reference a federal guideline and it shows most four-person families can “afford” housing ranging from zero up to about $2,300 per month. Here’s how numbers work to determine policies, challenges for families.
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens is set on making Atlanta the best place to raise a family by 2030. That’s his “North Star,” he told the Jewish community on Tuesday at the Jewish Federation in Midtown.
A group of nonprofits are working to help 1,000 families in the Atlanta metro area go from living in motels to stable, permanent housing by June of 2025.
For the first time in its history, the Macon Housing Authority plans to develop affordable housing outside of Georgia through one of its subsidiary corporations.
Karen MacDonough of Quincy, Mass., was enjoying her tea one morning in the dining room when she sees something odd outside of her window: A group of people gathering on her lawn. A man with a clipboard tells her that her home no longer belongs to her. It didn't matter that she'd been paying her mortgage for 17 years, and was current on it. She was a nurse with a good job and had raised her kids here. But this was a foreclosure sale, and she was going to lose her house.
Karen had fallen victim to what's called a zombie second mortgage. Homeowners think these loans are long dead. But then the loans come back to life because they get bought up, sometimes for pennies on the dollar, by debt collectors who then move to collect and foreclose on people's homes.
On today's episode: An NPR investigation reveals the practice to be widespread. Also, what are zombie mortgages? Is all this legal? And is there any way for homeowners to fight the zombies?
This episode was hosted by Chris Arnold and Robert Smith. It was produced by Sam Yellowhorse Kesler. It was edited by Jess Jiang with help from Bob Little. And it was fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. Engineering by Robert Rodriguez with an assist from Patrick Murray. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer.
