Latest Housingblight Podcast Episodes

Ep. 10: Starfish Solutions: What can we do if we try?

Nobody's Home - October 21, 2018 01:00 - 30 minutes ★★★★★ - 23 ratings
In the series finale, we examine how to get people who aren’t directly affected by vacant housing to care about finding a solution. How do you focus policymakers on a problem with so many different moving parts?

Ep. 9: Marshall Plan: How to Fix Vacant Housing

Nobody's Home - October 14, 2018 01:00 - 44 minutes ★★★★★ - 23 ratings
If housing blight costs money, renovating vacant housing and creating new affordable housing also costs money. Where might that investment come from? An examination of community land trusts and the Community Reinvestment Act.

Ep. 8: Sweat Equity: What Does it Cost to Build a Home?

Nobody's Home - October 07, 2018 19:00 - 23 minutes ★★★★★ - 23 ratings
The crisis in affordable housing has its roots in the high cost of building entry-level single-family homes. But why does it cost so much to build a house? And what did previous generations do to build affordable housing?

Ep. 7: "You're either growing or you're dying"

Nobody's Home - September 30, 2018 01:00 - 35 minutes ★★★★★ - 23 ratings
Small towns across the country struggle with vacant housing as much as cities, even though some of those places have plenty of jobs. Geography and a declining population lead rural communities to make hard choices that often play themselves out in unexpected ways. 

Ep.6: The New Blue Collar Job

Nobody's Home - September 23, 2018 01:00 - 33 minutes ★★★★★ - 23 ratings
People need jobs to afford housing, but how can cities attract more jobs to places that need them the most? And what happens to a neighborhood when drug activity and crime move in after blue-collar jobs move out?

Ep. 5: The American Dream: Is Homeownership Really the Answer?

Nobody's Home - September 16, 2018 01:00 - 30 minutes ★★★★★ - 23 ratings
The 2008 financial crisis nearly destroyed the global economy, and was driven by an asset bubble in what has been among the most secure financial products: the home mortgage. Can policymakers expand homeownership without endangering the financial system? Should they?

Ep. 4: “Brown in a Different Way”: The Gentrification Dilemma

Nobody's Home - September 09, 2018 01:00 - 36 minutes ★★★★★ - 23 ratings
What happens when neighborhood revitalization is too successful? Some cities have managed to eliminate their vacant housing problems. But now many of them face acute shortages of affordable housing, which can lead to nefarious results for renters.

Ep. 3: Building From Strength: Inside Cities’ Battle Against Blight

Nobody's Home - September 09, 2018 01:00 - 26 minutes ★★★★★ - 23 ratings
What does it take to combat vacancy in neighborhoods where it has taken hold? A look into one neighborhood in Baltimore that has bucked the trend, and the approach that city planners use to reinvest in blighted communities.

Ep. 2: Dead Pledge: The Rise and Fall of Urban Homesteading

Nobody's Home - September 09, 2018 01:00 - 26 minutes ★★★★★ - 23 ratings
The idea of urban homesteading was supposed to shore up flagging cities in the 1970’s and 1980’s, but why did it fall short? An examination of how home values are decided, and how the financial system intersects with people’s attitudes.

Ep. 1: “Do You Hear Me?": How Blight Is Hurting America

Nobody's Home - September 09, 2018 01:00 - 24 minutes ★★★★★ - 23 ratings
Poverty. Crime. Vacant housing isn't just about empty homes and abandoned lots. It's a problem that is blighting communities across the United States. Nowhere is it more apparent, however, than Baltimore. With 16,000 vacant properties and another 14,000 vacant lots, some residents think they hav...

Trailer: Nobody's Home: A new podcast exploring the other housing crisis

Nobody's Home - September 05, 2018 20:55 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 23 ratings
There's a problem in America. Homes are decaying all over the country, even as affordable housing is becoming more scarce. Can we rebuild these communities before it's too late? A trailer introducing a special ten-part podcast series by American Banker.