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Inflation is making homelessness worse
ECONOMY
Inflation is making homelessness worse
Rising prices and soaring rents are taking their toll across the country
By Abha Bhattarai and Rachel Siegel
July 3, 2022 at 8:00 a.m. EDT
Sabrina Barger-Turner and her older son, Aiden Turner, 13, go through her to-do list on June 30 in Abingdon, Md. She was unable to pick up prints she had ordered from the Abingdon Public Library because they asked for a library card number, for which she is not eligible. Print sales are one of Barger-Turner’s sources of income. (Maansi Srivastava/The Washington Post)
The sheriffs arrived at 6 a.m. in early June to tell Josanne English what she already knew: She was being evicted.
She’d lost her job as a project manager near Sacramento in April, then fell behind on rent as $6-a-gallon gas and higher costs for food and utilities depleted her monthly budget. By the time she lost her home two months later, she owed $9,160 in rent and late fees, and her bank account was nearing zero.
She received $1,300 in housing assistance from the county, but that didn’t go very far in an area where the average asking rent has ballooned to nearly $2,800 a month. After a week in a hotel, English and her partner sent their three children to live with relatives while they slept in their Hyundai SUV and showered at the gym.
{snip}
“I made good money — last year I made almost $100,000 — and I can’t believe this happened to me,” she said. “But with prices the way they are, it can literally happen to anybody.”
{snip}
By Abha Bhattarai
Abha Bhattarai is the economics correspondent for The Washington Post. She previously covered retail for the publication. Twitter https://twitter.com/abhabhattarai
By Rachel Siegel
Rachel Siegel is an economics reporter covering the Federal Reserve. She previously covered breaking news for the Post's financial section and local politics for the Post's Metro desk. Before joining the Post in June 2017, Rachel contributed to The Marshall Project and The Dallas Morning News. Twitter https://twitter.com/rachsieg
Inflation is making homelessness worse
Rising prices and soaring rents are taking their toll across the country
By Abha Bhattarai and Rachel Siegel
July 3, 2022 at 8:00 a.m. EDT
Sabrina Barger-Turner and her older son, Aiden Turner, 13, go through her to-do list on June 30 in Abingdon, Md. She was unable to pick up prints she had ordered from the Abingdon Public Library because they asked for a library card number, for which she is not eligible. Print sales are one of Barger-Turner’s sources of income. (Maansi Srivastava/The Washington Post)
The sheriffs arrived at 6 a.m. in early June to tell Josanne English what she already knew: She was being evicted.
She’d lost her job as a project manager near Sacramento in April, then fell behind on rent as $6-a-gallon gas and higher costs for food and utilities depleted her monthly budget. By the time she lost her home two months later, she owed $9,160 in rent and late fees, and her bank account was nearing zero.
She received $1,300 in housing assistance from the county, but that didn’t go very far in an area where the average asking rent has ballooned to nearly $2,800 a month. After a week in a hotel, English and her partner sent their three children to live with relatives while they slept in their Hyundai SUV and showered at the gym.
{snip}
“I made good money — last year I made almost $100,000 — and I can’t believe this happened to me,” she said. “But with prices the way they are, it can literally happen to anybody.”
{snip}
By Abha Bhattarai
Abha Bhattarai is the economics correspondent for The Washington Post. She previously covered retail for the publication. Twitter https://twitter.com/abhabhattarai
By Rachel Siegel
Rachel Siegel is an economics reporter covering the Federal Reserve. She previously covered breaking news for the Post's financial section and local politics for the Post's Metro desk. Before joining the Post in June 2017, Rachel contributed to The Marshall Project and The Dallas Morning News. Twitter https://twitter.com/rachsieg