“No society could be absolutely understood aside from 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 Instances and appear by no means to expire of issues to jot down about. Housing is every part. It’s the place we reside and lift our households. It’s most individuals’s largest retailer of wealth. Whether or not you personal, you lease, otherwise you sleep outdoors, the place you hold 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 power to an on a regular basis disaster. Aspiring householders have gotten without end renters. Folks reside in more and more crowded households, the availability 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 quite a lot of households to stop their 9 to 5s and redevelop property or develop into landlords. In California and elsewhere, the legalization of yard houses has impressed quite a lot of 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 side of America’s housing disaster, from the general public officers making an attempt 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 personal — even an try and construct a brand new metropolis from scratch.

My tales vary in subject 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 might be coping with and the way they’ve affected your life, household, friendships and group. And I need to know what tales or subjects you assume want extra consideration. The articles I write are impressed by the tales individuals inform me.

I learn all submissions. I additionally all the time attain again out to ask extra questions and ensure I’ve acquired my info 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 another function or share it outdoors the newsroom. If you need to submit info anonymously, please go to our ideas web page.