Housing

[kmaherali]

How Climate Disasters Are Making Mobile Homes a Huge Risk

Millions of Americans, many poor and vulnerable, live in mobile and manufactured homes. When catastrophe strikes, they’re often on their own.


A mobile home destroyed by flooding from Hurricane Helene in the Mountain View Mobile Home Park in Damascus, Va.

By Hilary Howard and Christopher FlavellePhotographs by Caitlin Ochs
Hilary Howard reported from North Carolina, Virginia and Florida, and Christopher Flavelle from Washington.

Oct. 14, 2024

By the time the murky brown water in the house reached his chest, Joe Rogers realized it was too late to leave safely. Then, in an instant, his mobile home shifted violently, creating a wave that swept up furniture and trapped his wife, Sandra, in their bedroom.

Mr. Rogers pleaded with his wife to leave, but she was stuck. He said he would break the bedroom window from the outside. He went to his front door, grabbed a rope thrown by a neighbor, and pulled himself to the nearest perch, pausing to catch his breath.

Before he could return to the trailer, it broke loose from its foundation and was pulled into the adjacent Pigeon River, churning with rain from the remnants of Hurricane Helene. He watched his home smash into a bridge, his wife still inside.

Her body was recovered days later, 16 miles from where they had lived in Clyde, N.C.

ImageJoe Rogers, with long gray hair pulled back in a pony tail, a gray beard, and a worried expression. He is looking into the distance.

Joe Rogers has been staying with a friend since the catastrophe.
Image
A gray shed-like house is askew, leaning on top of a tree.

A damaged home in Clyde, N.C., where Mr. Rogers lived with his wife Sandra.
Image
Joe Rogers stands next to a tall pile of broken planks of wood, snapped two by fours and other debris that is mixed with dirt and muck.

Mr. Rogers inspected a pile of debris and belongings near the site of his former home.

Back-to-back catastrophic hurricanes this fall, first Helene and then Milton, have exposed the risks climate change poses to the 16 million Americans who live in mobile or manufactured homes. Built in factories and lighter than conventional houses, manufactured homes are transported to a property and secured to the ground.

They are among the least expensive forms of housing; those who live in mobile home parks are three times as likely to live in poverty as those who live in traditional housing and are more likely to be older or disabled. Manufactured homes are also more likely to be located in flood zones, according to data compiled by CoreLogic, a property information and analytics company.

Manufactured homes make up 6 percent of the nation’s housing stock. But the proportions were much higher in several areas hard-hit by Milton and Helene. In western North Carolina, 14 percent of homes were mobile or manufactured. Around Tampa Bay, Fla., the share was 11 percent. South of Tampa, in Manatee County, 14 percent of homes were mobile or manufactured.


Number of mobile homes per county

1,000

2,500

5,000

10,000

25,000

MAINE

VT.

WISC.

N.H.

MICH.

N.Y.

MASS.

CONN.

R.I.

PA.

N.J.

OHIO

ILL.

IND.

MD.

DEL.

W.VA.

VA.

KY.

N.C.

TENN.

S.C.

MISS.

ALA.

GA.

Helene

Milton

WIND SWATH

FLA.


Sources: U.S. Census, NOAA National Hurricane Center By Mira Rojanasakul/The New York Times
Climate Disasters Are Shattering the Lives of People Who Live in Mobile Homes - The New York Times

The people who live in mobile homes are often poorly served by federal disaster programs, experts say. The result is compounded loss as they are uprooted from their communities with nowhere to go.

“Manufactured housing shows how the affordable housing and climate crises collide,” said Andrew Rumbach, a senior fellow and expert on the issue at the Urban Institute, a Washington research organization. “Our most affordable housing supply is the most vulnerable to climate disasters and often falls through the cracks during recovery.”

Just how sturdy mobile and manufactured homes are during a disaster is the subject of some dispute.

Mobile homes built before 1976 were typically not required to meet any type of building code. That year, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development set the first building standards for mobile homes, and it has since updated them several times. Prefabricated houses built after that year are called manufactured homes.

Across the United States, there are 1.3 million mobile homes built before 1976, according to data compiled by the Urban Institute, and they are generally considered unsafe in a disaster. In the North Carolina counties hit by Helene, there were 19,000 of these aging mobile homes. In the Tampa area, there were about 50,000. It is unclear how many were destroyed by the storms.

Image
Dozens of people, all carrying bright red gasoline cans, stand in line at the pumps at a gas station, waiting their turn to fill their jugs.

The line for gas at a filling station near Bradenton, Fla., on Friday.
Image
A man with gray hair, dressed in a gray T-shirt and wearing sunglasses, scratches his head with his left arm. He is standing in front of a white mobile house with a collapsed roof.

The owner of a mobile home in Plant City, Fla., surveyed damage.
Image
Shreds of pink insulation cover a street corner by a brown utility pole in a residential neighborhood.

Insulation and other debris around the home of David Kraus in Bradenton, Fla., on Saturday. “I’m tired of hurricanes,” said Mr. Kraus, who plans to resettle in Alabama.

In Manatee County, at the Bradenton Tropical Palms mobile park, many of the homes predate 1976. Three days after Milton, David Kraus was examining the damage to two of his homes, both of which were built in 1969 and had lost their roofs. He estimates repairs will cost up to $20,000 per home, neither of which was insured.

“I’m tired of hurricanes,” said Mr. Kraus, 76, who plans to resettle in Alabama.

The manufactured home industry maintains that homes built under modern federal standards are as safe as conventional structures if they are correctly installed, though experts say proper installation isn’t guaranteed. Taking no chances before Milton hit, officials in the Tampa Bay area ordered people in all manufactured homes, regardless of when they were built, to evacuate.

At the Piney Point Mobile Home Park, north of Bradenton, Tyler Johnston, a contractor, was assessing the damage to a manufactured home built in the 1990s. He said the unit had been built using wooden studs more narrow than traditional two-by-fours, and the roof had been attached with screws instead of reinforced with metal straps that are standard for newer units. That roof was sitting in a lake.

Image
A yellow tracked loader lifting a large piece of debris out of a lake.

Fishing parts of a home out of a lake at the Piney Point community in Palmetto, Fla.

Sandra and Joe Rogers had made their home in another one of those manufactured houses built after 1976.

The couple had found each other later in life. In 2006, Mr. Rogers was coming off a rocky divorce when he reconnected with his high school flame, Sandra Unrath, who was in a toxic relationship. “It was like no time had passed,” said Mr. Rogers, who manages the deli in a Food Lion.

Mr. Rogers was living in a 1995 manufactured home that his father had bought for $10,000, on a lot that flooded in 2004. Neighbors assured Mr. Rogers that such floods happened every 40 years in their corner of the world.

Ms. Unrath, a hair stylist who by then went by the name Sandra Lynn Justus, moved in. They married in 2021.

That year, Tropical Storm Fred flooded their trailer with three inches of water. The Federal Emergency Management Agency gave the them about $12,000 and the couple decided it was time to move.

They ordered a new manufactured home for a parcel of land on higher ground that they had bought with a loan a few years earlier and that they were still paying off. They were weeks away from relocating when Helene tore through Appalachia.

Sandra and Joe Rogers often slept in a queen bed with their seven dogs, who were like her children, he said. On the day of the storm, firefighters knocked on their door, telling them to evacuate.

Ms. Rogers, 57, got dressed but worried it would be too hard to get the dogs out safely. “She decided right then and there, ‘I’m not leaving my babies.’”

As the house filled with water, Ms. Rogers changed her mind and asked her husband if he could get the dogs to safety. More water gushed in and five of the dogs swam out into the storm.

Image
Joe Rogers caresses the faces of two black and white dogs.

Mr. Rogers with the dogs that escaped his home before it was washed away.
Image
A close up of a hand wearing a silver wedding ring with the name Sandra engraved on it.

Mr. Rogers reconnected with his old high school flame, Sandra Unrath, in 2006.
Image
A yellow ribbon, white sheeting and red and yellow flowers are attached to cross made from worn wood. Another white cross stands in the foreground.

A memorial for Sandra Rogers at the site of the home she shared with Mr. Rogers.

Now, Mr. Rogers, 58, seems visibly stunned all the time. After the catastrophe, a FEMA official told him they could put him up in a hotel for four days if he could show them his driver’s license. But his license was in the river, along with the rest of his life.

So, he moved in with a friend. A few days ago, before “wearing out my welcome and friendship,” Mr. Rogers said, he moved into his new home, although it has no power or water. A family member lent him a truck to get around.

Federal policy disadvantages people in mobile homes in myriad ways as they try to rebuild, experts say. Survivors need to prove they owned the home, which isn’t easy when documents are damaged or destroyed, though FEMA has relaxed its requirements recently.

FEMA spends billions of dollars each year to protect communities against disasters like flooding by investing in bigger berms and storm pumps while elevating structures and other types of public infrastructure. But mobile home parks seldom benefit from that spending.

“It is a challenge for us to provide assistance directly to privately owned companies,” said Julia Moline, FEMA’s deputy assistant administrator for logistics operations.

Areas with mobile homes


PRECIPITATION

N.C.

Area of

detail

Swannanoa

Asheville

Clyde

Canton

Fletcher


Sources: UrbanFootprint (mobile homes), NOAA National Weather Service. Note: Map shows 7-day precipitation totals on October 1, 2024. By Mira Rojanasakul/The New York Times
Climate Disasters Are Shattering the Lives of People Who Live in Mobile Homes - The New York Times
The challenges don’t stop there. Americans in standard housing often have insurance, which, together with FEMA payments, can help cover the cost of repairs. But people in mobile homes are less likely to have insurance, according to Dr. Rumbach.

In the Plant City mobile home community near Tampa, residents were trying to make repairs. Olga Summers, 61, whose uninsured home was damaged when a tree fell on it, expects that her husband will try to fix it himself.

“Most of these people don’t have insurance,” said Lauren Cook Wike, 68, who lives in the same community. “We will all work together.”

FEMA provides disaster survivors up to $42,500 for emergency repairs, which can be put toward a new home. (That maximum payment increased by $1,100 for disasters declared after Sept. 30.) But new manufactured housing typically costs more than twice that amount.

Image
Lauren Cook Wike carefully steps over rocks on a street that is filled with brown, murky water in a neighborhood of manufactured homes.

Lauren Cook Wike cleared debris from her yard in Plant City, Fla.
Image
Olga Summers, in a patterned dress, stands beneath a large tree that has crashed into the roof of a white house.

Olga Summers and the tree that fell on her house in Plant City during Hurricane Milton.
Image
A grey manufactured house sits on a spit of grass on a lot that is otherwise filled with dark water. A For Sale sign is in the window.

A CountryWood mobile home community in Plant City, Fla.

And even if a survivor can afford to replace a mobile home, other hurdles exist. After a disaster, mobile home parks must be repaired to comply with current local building codes, which require things like elevating foundations above the expected height of future floods.

Those changes are expensive, said Jesse Keenan, a professor at Tulane University who studies climate adaptation. The cost often gets passed on to residents in the form of higher rent. Or park owners decide to sell to developers, who build permanent housing because it’s more profitable.

“Many of these mobile home parks are being converted over because they’re in prime locations,” Dr. Keenan said.

Areas with mobile homes


Plant City

Clearwater

Tampa

St. Petersburg

Gulf of

Mexico

Tampa Bay

Bradenton

HELENE

Sarasota

Area of

detail

MILTON

Fla.

Myakka River

State Park


Source: UrbanFootprint (mobile homes). By Mira Rojanasakul/The New York Times

Park owners can sell to FEMA or the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which will sometimes buy flood-prone land to clear it and prevent anyone from living on the property again. The system works well for homeowners, who get money to start fresh somewhere else.

But with mobile home parks, the buyout money goes to the park owners, not the residents, who typically only rent the ground beneath their units. Residents can qualify for relocation money from FEMA but they still need somewhere to live.

Those challenges are now playing out for Dee Wolfe, 84, a retired librarian in Damascus, Va., who lived in a mobile home by the Laurel Creek River that was demolished by Hurricane Helene.

Ms. Wolfe moved into the Mountain View Mobile Park in 2010. She got a loan for a new $32,000 mobile home; after home and flood insurance, her monthly payment was $350, plus $240 to rent the lot. With an annual income of about $22,000, Ms. Wolfe was on a tight budget.

On the day that Helene struck, the river breached the berm surrounding the park. Rescuers arrived and Ms. Wolfe grabbed what she could and left. By the time the storm had passed, most of the homes wound up wrapped around trees.

Though she had flood insurance, the company is asking her to itemize, by serial number and receipt, every item she lost. Her belongings are rusted, and her receipts, if they exist, are now pulp. Ms. Wolfe’s insurer told her to keep making mortgage payments, despite her home being uninhabitable, until it decides what to do.

Image
A crumpled, leading manufactured home appears to have been ripped from the ground. It sits among broken tree branches and other debris.

The Mountain View Mobile Home Park in Damascus, Va.
Image
Dee Wolfe, with short gray hair and sunglasses, a white shirt and jeans, leaning against her mobile home, which was damaged by flooding.

Dee Wolfe at her damaged home in the Mountain View park in Damascus.
Image
Nikki Wolfe stands in the ruined kitchen of a manufactured home, scratching her head as she surveys the damage.

Nikki Wolfe, Ms. Wolfe’s daughter, in the kitchen of her mother’s home.

Even if she gets money to buy a new mobile home, it’s not clear where to go. Mike Smith, who owns the park that Ms. Wolfe lived in, said removing the debris, fixing the sewage and electric service and making other repairs would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

In most places, FEMA would pay much of the cost of those repairs after a storm. But privately owned communities like mobile home parks have difficulty getting federal recovery funds.

“I’m not going to rebuild it,” Mr. Smith said. “I’m just done.”

In North Carolina last week, Mr. Rogers walked where his home used to be. There was nothing left. At the bridge that had split his house into pieces, he spotted his old pine bed, its box springs sticking out. His Jeep lay nearby, upside down. His other two cars were also destroyed.

The five dogs that escaped the trailer bounded out from behind a barn and surrounded him, barking. The other dogs have not been found.

Those five survivors now have space to run on his new property, which is up a hill and surrounded by trees. “It was our dream house,” he said.

His wife was particularly looking forward to their new home. Sandra had designed sliding doors, Mr. Rogers said, so that she could walk outside whenever she wanted.

Image
A man walks out the front door of a brand-new empty manufactured home.

Emily Cochrane contributed reporting from North Carolina.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/14/clim ... 778d3e6de3

[kmaherali]

How would Harris build 3 million new housing units?

Video: https://vp.nyt.com/video/2024/10/15/127 ... g_720p.mp4

Luke Muir and his wife moved to Phoenix from Louisiana two years ago for a better-paying job. They prepared for higher temperatures and low housing costs. The weather has lived up to their expectations; housing prices have not.

Pretty much since they arrived, Mr. Muir and his family have been trying and failing to find a single-family house for no more than $500,000. The options have been too small, too remote or too much of a fixer-upper.

“I’m like, ‘Wow, I thought this would be a more affordable place to live,’” said Mr. Muir, who is 44 and works in financial services. “It’s not like it’s San Diego or L.A. or some other place that is just known for astronomical prices.”

Across the country, rising prices and rents have become a crisis — eroding family budgets and leading to doubled-up households and multiplying homeless camps. The root of this pain is a decades-old housing shortage.



A newly constructed housing and apartment complex through a construction fence, where another housing complex is underway.

The remedy proposed by Vice President Kamala Harris is contained in a housing plan that, among other things, calls for the construction of three million new housing units over the next four years — a 50 percent increase over the current pace of building.

Vastly expanding the supply of housing is the only thing economists believe will make a meaningful difference in an affordability crunch. They disagree, however, about whether Ms. Harris’s plan would actually do that. (Economists also agree that former President Donald J. Trump’s housing plan, which aims to free up housing by deporting immigrants, would probably make the housing crisis worse by devastating the construction work force).

Reduced to its essence, Ms. Harris’s plan aims to flood the system with money for builders and buyers in the hope that it will jolt the construction market. It calls on Congress to expand a federal tax credit for subsidized rental housing while creating a new tax credit for developers to build starter homes, and another credit for families looking to rehabilitate their own worn-down housing stock. It also creates a $25,000 credit for first-time home buyers.

Mark Zandi, the chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, who has advised the Harris campaign, called it the most aggressive plan to increase the nation’s housing supply since modern suburbs were built after World War II. And if the numbers were to pencil out as neatly as they do in Ms. Harris’s 82-page economic plan, Mr. Zandi’s superlative would be accurate.

But that “if” creates pause.

Developers in Phoenix and elsewhere are naturally amenable to a federal plan that would reduce their taxes. Many developers said the idea of giving first-time home buyers money, which buyers would then give to them, sounded nice, too.

The question, as ever, is where and how they will build. This is why other economists, such as Ed Pinto at the market-oriented American Enterprise Institute, have said Ms. Harris’s plan would make shortages worse by inflating housing demand (because the home buyer credit would give families more to spend) without doing enough to increase supply.

Over the past half-century, Phoenix grew into one of America’s largest cities by building low-slung neighborhoods further and further outward. That playbook kept housing affordable for a long time, but no longer.

The average price of a home in Maricopa County, which surrounds Phoenix, is now $470,000, up about 50 percent since the pandemic. And that pattern of expansion is resulting in the same problems — congestion, smog, water shortages, sprawl — that many residents moved there from California to escape.

The Arizona Legislature recently passed several laws designed to speed construction and make neighborhoods denser — to build more housing per lot — but it will take more than a few years for that to translate into ramped-up building.



A street lamp and residential homes, which are protected with concrete fencing.

“We can turn 40 acres of cotton field into a subdivision in the blink of an eye,” said Jason Morris, a land use attorney at Withey Morris Baugh in Phoenix. “But that is much easier than trying to do 75 apartments in the middle of a neighborhood.”

Ms. Harris’s plan includes a $40 billion “Local Innovation Fund” that would, among other things, encourage cities to make building faster and easier by cutting the regulations that consume local zoning meetings. But for that to work, cities in Arizona and elsewhere have to want to change how they grow, which so far many are reluctant to do.

Even Mr. Muir, the frustrated home buyer, is leery of neighborhoods becoming too compact. Many of the new developments he sees when he is house-hunting are town-home projects or ones built so closely together that they might as well be apartments, he said.

“It’s baffling that people can reach out their window and touch the neighbor’s wall,” Mr. Muir said.

Would this housing, smaller and tighter, fulfill the American dream of people like Mr. Muir?

The solution to the country’s housing shortage will almost certainly require some sort of federal program — one that may be tough to get through Congress. But for a rush of money to work, cities and states also have to want it.

Ms. Harris’s main challenge will be convincing them to build. And then persuading Americans to be happy with it.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/202 ... olicy.html

[kmaherali]

Home Sales in Flood Zones Are Booming. Here’s Why Buyers Take the Risk.

New Yorkers are spending billions on houses in flood-prone areas despite growing awareness of the effects of climate change.


Last year, about 20 percent of the one- to three-family homes sold in New York City were likely to flood before the end of a 30-year mortgage, according to a new report from a nonprofit organization.Credit...José A. Alvarado Jr. for The New York Times

At first sight, Carmen Borrero fell in love with a three-bedroom bungalow built in 1940 with a white picket fence and a driveway, steps away from the beach. She bought it in February for $270,000.

The house is in the New Dorp Beach area of Staten Island and sits in a flood zone on the island’s eastern shore. Ms. Borrero, a benefits administrator for a teachers’ union, said the possibility of storms and flooding was a necessary gamble to be near the sand and surf.

“If you want a house with a good view, close to the water, you know what the deal is,” she said.

Ms. Borrero is not alone in accepting that risk.

For many New Yorkers pursuing the American dream of homeownership while navigating the realities of a housing crisis, low-lying areas remain an affordable and popular option despite the mounting effects of climate change — including rising sea levels and more intense rainstorms.

There are thousands of dollars of hidden costs to consider when purchasing a home in a flood-prone area, experts said, from flood insurance to major construction projects. At the same time, there is a growing psychological toll on homeowners who have already relinquished the lower floors of their homes to water and mold, as they continue to pour money into repairs or improvements while waiting for disaster relief or buyout offers.

“I get panic attacks every time it rains,” said Amrita Bhagwandin, who has lived through six floods in Hollis, Queens, spending more than $160,000 on repairs to her house.

But the drive for homeownership remains strong, some real estate experts said. “The demand is insatiable,” said Joseph Tirone Jr., a broker with the real estate firm Compass, who was instrumental in organizing buyouts of damaged homes on Staten Island after Hurricane Sandy walloped much of the borough in 2012. “There’s really not much else people can buy,” he said. “So they buy in flood zones.”

Across the five boroughs, over $3.6 billion worth of one- to three-family homes sold last year were likely to flood before the end of a 30-year mortgage, according to a new report from Rebuild by Design, a climate resiliency nonprofit. That represents roughly one out of every five such homes sold in New York City in 2023.

Until 2022, when climbing mortgage rates slowed the real estate market, sales in the city’s flood-risk areas had increased by almost 24 percent over the preceding eight years, according to further analysis of the Rebuild report.

New Dorp Beach on Staten Island sits practically in the shadow of where hundreds of homes were bought out in the years after Sandy as part of managed retreat programs — when the government buys damaged properties and returns the lots to nature. This history didn’t scare Ms. Borrero away.

Image
A woman wearing a black dress and glasses stands on the steps leading into a house in the New Dorp Beach neighborhood.

Carmen Borrero found her dream home in a flood zone on the eastern shore of Staten Island. She plans to spend thousands of dollars to elevate the home. Credit...José A. Alvarado Jr. for The New York Times

She is no stranger to hurricanes, having lived in Puerto Rico and Florida. And she loves the beach and the laid-back vibe of her neighborhood. But she is also a realist who intends to elevate her house.

“I’m doing my research to see if FEMA can help,” she said, referring to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which can assist homeowners whose properties have been damaged by a federally declared disaster (her house flooded during Sandy under different owners). “But if not, I’m going to get a loan,” she said. She estimates that the project would cost somewhere in the broad range between $80,000 and $300,000.

A notable number of new residents of coastal Staten Island are immigrants, who have been snapping up properties there and in other low-lying parts of the city because of their affordability, some real estate experts said.

For example, in the New Dorp and Midland Beach areas, where almost three-quarters of residents own the properties they live in, the Chinese immigrant population grew fivefold between 2012 and 2022, from just under 2 percent of the total population in the area to almost 12 percent, according to a census analysis by Social Explorer, a demographic data firm. Last year, about 30 percent of one- to three-family homes sold on Staten Island were in areas at risk of flooding, according to Rebuild.

Some community activists have expressed concern that in cases where there are cultural differences or language barriers, home buyers may not be fully aware of the risks.

Many Chinese home buyers are debt-averse, preferring all-cash real estate transactions, said Thomas Yu, the executive director of Asian Americans for Equality, a nonprofit organization. Mortgages for homes in high-risk flood zones require flood insurance, he explained, but those who pay in cash could be left unprotected if they skip the expense or aren’t aware of the requirement. “When a disaster strikes, they could be screwed,” he said.

Flood insurance premiums can range from $350 to $10,000 a year, depending on the size and type of home, policy specifics and the flood history and zone of the area, said Monroe Shannon, a program manager for resiliency and insurance at Neighborhood Housing Services of Brooklyn, a nonprofit group.

Image
Shoppers exit an Asian supermarket in the New Dorp neighborhood of Staten Island.

Shoppers at an Asian supermarket that opened in the New Dorp neighborhood of Staten Island in 2022. In the New Dorp and Midland Beach areas, the Chinese immigrant population jumped fivefold between 2012 and 2022. Credit...José A. Alvarado Jr. for The New York Times

As the Rebuild report notes, flooding in New York is not limited to surging coastal waters. Stormwater flooding, the result of more extreme rainfall caused by climate change, has become a menace across the city.

It is especially bad in central Queens, where portions of neighborhoods like Hollis and East Flushing were inundated, resulting in several fatalities, when the remnants of Hurricane Ida came through in 2021.

That year, Gina Boehler and Nick Sadiku, who run a dog rescue nonprofit, bought a condo in Middle Village, a quiet middle-class neighborhood in central Queens.

But a few months after they moved in, Ida flooded their basement and destroyed their belongings. After the storm, they paid $3,000 to install check valves, which close and reroute the flow of water when it reaches a certain level, and now run a fan in the basement to prevent mold.

Despite their efforts, the water still creeps in. Last month, a storm caused a “nasty” pileup of water and sewage on their street and in their home, Mr. Sadiku said. He cleaned the basement with bleach rather than report the incident to their insurance company, for fear of their rates increasing, he said.

Mr. Sadiku, who grew up one neighborhood over from Middle Village, assumed flooding would never be a problem in his new home, and no one told him otherwise during the purchasing process, he said.

A state law that went into effect in March could help protect buyers from such omissions: It requires sellers to disclose a home’s flood history before the sale is final. There is no federal requirement for this kind of disclosure, though slightly more than half of states have flood disclosure laws, according to a recent report by the Natural Resources Defense Council.

New York’s new measure has some critics, however. Amy Chester, managing director of Rebuild, thinks that past flooding should be mentioned earlier in the sales process, like in listings.

On the other side of the issue, some real estate lawyers on Staten Island have introduced a rider waiver that allows sellers to opt out of flood disclosure entirely for a $500 fee, said Mr. Tirone, of Compass. The fee is passed on to the buyer as a credit once the sale closes.

For New Yorkers who want to assess their homes’ flood risk, the website floodhelpny.org uses mapping by FEMA to show where flood zones are across the city.

But FEMA mapping does not account for stormwater, said Bernice Rosenzweig, a professor of environmental science at Sarah Lawrence College and a contributor to a new report on flooding in New York City.

“There’s a misperception that if you’re not in one of these mapped flood zones, then you don’t need flood insurance, and that’s really not the case,” she said.

City leaders, aware of the discrepancy, have been updating stormwater maps since 2021. And floodhelpny.org is scheduled to include stormwater risk by early 2025.

But in the end, residents outside high-risk zones must make the decision on their own to buy flood insurance, which is separate from home insurance, experts say.

Image
Stacey-Ann Meikle, wearing teal scrubs, sits on a couch in a living room and looks off to the side, one arm leaning on a large blue plastic barrel with its lid on the floor.

Stacey-Ann Meikle, a dental hygienist in Brooklyn, uses plastic barrels to protect items in her basement from floodwater.Credit...José A. Alvarado Jr. for The New York Times

Stacey-Ann Meikle, who owns a home in Canarsie, Brooklyn, is not in an official high-risk flood zone, so she does not have flood insurance. As a single mother on a dental hygienist’s salary, she cannot afford it anyway, she said.

Her house, blocks away from Jamaica Bay and other bodies of water, is prone to both tidal surges and stormwater flooding. As Ms. Meikle put it, she has seen both “fish and feces” floating in her basement.

She has spent more than $25,000 renovating the basement, but threw in the towel after Ida. Now, she only uses it for storage, with blue plastic barrels at the ready to contain small items and elevate larger ones whenever it floods.

Her rotted-out sewer pipes — the source of the flooding and of an ongoing stench, engineers told her — will require more than $40,000 to fix. Even if she had flood insurance, it is unclear whether it would cover those repairs.

“If I had the money, I’d go and fix it,” said Ms. Meikle, who hopes to replace the pipes soon. “I love my home, but I can’t afford it.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/14/nyre ... 778d3e6de3

[kmaherali]

How to Sell a Haunted House (or Not)

Even the most skeptical real estate agents say they think twice about the existence of ghosts, especially after unusual encounters.



A real estate agent, Mike Fabbri, still remembers the chill of opening the door of an apartment near Washington Square Park in Manhattan.

His client, a media planner in her mid-20s, was on the hunt for a quiet, one-bedroom in Greenwich Village. She walked in and immediately walked out. “She said, ‘I’m fine with a nice ghost, but I felt really evil energy in that apartment,’” Mr. Fabbri recalled.

He sympathized. “I said, ‘You know, there are things you can change in an apartment, like the wallpaper. But you can’t change an evil spirit or a demon without priests. Let’s move on.’”

Mr. Fabbri helped her find what he called a “charming” unit in a prewar co-op. No ghosts.

Haunted houses, if one believes, can be problematic for real estate agents. The New York Times talked to agents who have embraced the macabre or have at least learned how to navigate it, as believers themselves or as sympathizers.

They are the kind of agents who confess to would-be buyers that something might be amiss — an acknowledgment that many agents are not necessarily bound to. According to a 2023 Zillow analysis of state laws, only Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey and New York require agents to disclose suspected haunting or paranormal activity.

Some houses considered “stigmatized” are the sites of grisly murders or criminal operations. Others have been rumored to harbor ghosts. The rumors aren’t always just rumors, in the experience of Cindi Hagley, a real estate agent in the San Francisco Bay Area.

“I try to disclose everything,” Ms. Hagley said.

Ms. Hagley, who says she grew up in Rome, Ohio, in a house haunted by a shadowy presence, is considered an expert of sorts in selling houses with spectral presences. Among her specialties listed online are “professional athletes” and, of course, “stigmatized homes.”

Spooked agents from across the country, she said, have called her for consultations. She said she was called to provide guidance on a five-bedroom house in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles. The house, notorious for a gruesome 1959 murder, has changed hands through the decades. It sits empty because of what Ms. Hagley calls its “dark energy.”

When a situation is too much to handle, she calls in Mark Nelson, a psychic in North Carolina.

“He’ll talk to the spirit and do whatever he needs to do to find out why the spirit is there,” she said. “Maybe it doesn’t know it’s dead and needs help crossing over.”

He tries to clear a gentle path for them. Mr. Nelson does not perform exorcism, but burning sage and splashing holy water are sometimes necessary. “It can help push out negative spirits,” he said.

Ms. Hagley is a believer in Mr. Nelson’s tactics and the results. “I know it sounds nuts,” she said. “But I trust him 100 percent.”

Most agents just go it alone.

Mr. Fabbri relies on his personal experiences. “I’ve had a fascination with the paranormal since childhood,” he said.

His vacation home in Litchfield, Conn., has spirits — benevolent ones, he said. So does his apartment in the Gramercy neighborhood, he added.

He’s prepared for ghostly energy, particularly in New York’s historic neighborhood. The haunting of the apartment where he supported his client in walking away wasn’t a surprise, he said. “Because it’s an old part of town,” Mr. Fabbri said. “There are bodies buried all over Washington Square Park.”

Other agents are more skeptical, but they have had encounters that have made them think twice.

Julie Brown, an agent in Marshall County, Ala., recently sold a house to a couple relocating from the Northeast. “Right after they bought it, they called and said, ‘There’s a little brown dog dancing every night in the living room,’” she said. The couple didn’t know that the seller’s wife, who had recently died, had a small brown dog who had also recently died.

She’s now not as eager to dismiss them as hoaxes anymore. “I still don’t know if I believe in ghosts. But maybe,” Ms. Brown said.

Jennifer Stauter, a real estate agent in Wisconsin, recalled how she listed a house whose owners mentioned it was haunted by a ghost who liked to make phone calls. At an open house, she heard banging noises coming from the basement. Then the landline rang three times, with only static on the other end.

“If you tell me your house is haunted, I’m not going to say you’re crazy,” she said.

In Bensalem, Pa., Scott Geller sold what he believes may be a haunted townhouse in his own neighborhood twice: first to a woman who told him she felt an eerie coldness in the front bedroom, and years later to a man who stopped to chat with his wife on the street. “He described the exact same thing,” Mr. Geller said.

Before, “when people would tell me about flickering lights or cold spots I would say, ‘OK, call an electrician or an HVAC person,” Mr. Geller said.

He is still mostly doubtful ghosts exist. But “I think there could be something going on, some kind of spirit energy that gets left behind.”



The State of Real Estate

Whether you’re renting, buying or selling, here’s a look at real estate trends.
Rent or Buy?: Investing time and money in a home is especially complicated these days. We spoke with three families about how they made their choice. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/202 ... -quiz.html

The Hunt: Wishing to be closer to their children and grandchildren, a couple left Philadelphia to check out townhouse communities in the Hudson Valley. Here’s what they found for $500,000. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/202 ... -sale.html

A New Wedding Trend: More couples are adding a house fund to their wedding registries to raise cash to buy a home, eschewing traditional gifts like small appliances and linens. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/15/real ... uying.html

Living Small: When sharing a weekend house in upstate New York with friends didn’t work out quite as planned, a couple built a separate 710-square-foot house next door. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/04/real ... ty-ny.html

Ask Real Estate: Do you have questions about rent-stabilized apartments, landmark buildings, property taxes or other New York real estate issues? We’ve got answers. https://www.nytimes.com/column/ask-real-estate

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/21/real ... 778d3e6de3

[kmaherali]

For Sale: Hundreds of Abandoned Churches. Great Prices. Need Work.

As church congregations across the United States wither and disappear, the buildings they leave behind are becoming private homes.

An empty church with white cinder-block walls, a wood cathedral ceiling and round stained-glass window

The Mount Olive East Missionary Baptist Church, in Detroit, sat vacant for years before being purchased by a local family. As fewer Americans attend local churches, more of the buildings are being converted to private residences.Credit...Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

By T.M. Brown
Oct. 25, 2024

When Louis Cahill was growing up in southern Virginia, a neighbor bought an old Catholic chapel and turned it into a home, which fascinated him. So in 2022, when he and his wife Kathy were looking toward retirement, they decided to do the same. They were enamored with the soaring ceilings and massive timber beams found in houses of worship across the South.

“They build churches that way for a reason,” said Mr. Cahill, 62. “To uplift the spirit and to make people feel inspired.”

From their home base in Atlanta, the couple — both of whom grew up religious and eventually became atheists — scoured the Southeast. Finally, on a scouting trip last year, they stumbled upon the former Deyton Bend United Methodist Church in Green Mountain, N.C., a bohemian community in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The 3,127-square-foot brick structure, built in 1943 on about an acre, had just one bedroom. There was a kitchen downstairs, a meeting room, an open common space and a screened porch. It had been listed for $325,000 in May 2023, then reduced to $275,000 a few months later.

Image
A woman in a pink shirt stands next to a man wearing an eye patch who is reclining in a church pew.

Kathy and Louis Cahill in their new home in Green Mountain, N.C., formerly the Deyton Bend United Methodist Church.Credit...Mike Belleme for The New York Times

“There was something familiar and comfortable about the building,” said Ms. Cahill, who grew up Methodist. “It just smells like a church, which I really like.”

The Cahills bought it last November for just $232,000, joining a wave of buyers who are scooping up abandoned churches from coast to coast as congregations wither and disappear. Since about 2000, the number of Americans who belong to a church, synagogue or mosque has plummeted from around 70 percent to around 47 percent in 2021. The decline has been attributed to several colliding factors, including younger Americans rejecting organized religion, the rise of regional megachurches, internal church schisms, and even the Covid pandemic.

Small churches have been especially vulnerable. In 2020, the median size of a congregation at an American church had shrunk to just 65, with countless empty buildings left behind.

“There were only three of us left by the time we made the decision to close up the church,” said Travis Abernathy, 81, one of the last congregants at the Deyton Bend United Methodist.

After he and the other two members decided to join another church and sell off the building in Green Mountain, they wanted a new congregation to come in and take it over, but struggled to find any takers. That’s when the Cahills showed up. “We were glad to sell it to Louis and Kathy,” Mr. Abernathy said. “We couldn’t have chosen someone better than them to come and take care of this place.”

The Cahills have budgeted around $150,000 for renovations, which will include a new roof and a wall to transect the main hall to create living spaces. The primary bedroom will replace the raised altar platform, and they’ll build a loft under the timber beams to serve as a library. Mr. Cahill is repurposing the pews, some of which he’s making into headboards or using as dining room seating, and the altar, which he’s transforming into a bar. “If you think about it, it is a purpose-built table for pouring wine,” he said.

Image
A red brick building stands on the side of a two-lane road with trees in the background and a rainbow overhead.

The Cahills’ new home sits on a quiet stretch of road in western North Carolina. When they bought the church last November, there were only three congregants left.Credit...Mike Belleme for The New York Times
Image
Wood church pews face a red carpet and white walls. A dog sits on a white bed in the corner.

The Cahills have budgeted about $150,000 for renovations, including a new roof and a primary bedroom where the raised altar platform was. For now, they’ve set up a simple bed and office space.Credit...Mike Belleme for The New York Times

Despite converting the church into a home, the couple see themselves as stewards of a community pillar. They gave many of the pews to members of the dispersed congregation, and they repaired the old belfry, which had gone silent years ago. They now ring the bell on Sundays — a welcome return of a familiar sound in Green Mountain.

“We had a neighbor come visit, a woman who was very involved with the church, and she asked if the bell was staying,” Mr. Cahill said. They assured her it was, then asked if she wanted to ring it herself. “She was giddy,” he said. “There’s something about the sound of that bell ringing that is so joyful.”

As a market emerges for private buyers with a taste for belfries and grand facades, ideas abound for how to turn a church into something else: St. Mary Magdalene Church, in Homestead, Pa., became a ropes course. In St. Louis, the abandoned St. Liborius Catholic Church was turned into a skatepark by a community group. (St. Liborius burned down last year.).

“There’s no question that there are more churches for sale today than a few years ago,” said Eric Knowles, who leads the religious and educational facilities group at the brokerage Kidder Mathews. He estimates there are roughly 1,100 former churches currently for sale in the United States, but the design idiosyncrasies don’t always lend themselves to commercial conversions. “If a small, rural church doesn’t have parking then it has a pretty limited commercial conversion potential, which means most of the time it ends up becoming a residence.”

Image
A red brick building is partly submerged in a flood of light brown water, surrounded by trees.

The Cahills’ home was damaged last month in the flooding caused by Hurricane Helene. “It was amazing to see everyone pull together,” Mr. Cahill said. “We really feel bonded to this community now.”Credit...Louis Cahill

Churches are typically cheaper than conventional homes on a price-per-square-foot basis, but they tend to sit on the market much longer. Prospective buyers often must navigate a complex rezoning process and significant renovations. “Those 100-year-old churches often have historic designations, so developers aren’t as attracted to them, which means there’s lower demand,” Mr. Knowles said.

Out in Michigan, Mike Messier has been selling church properties for more than 40 years. At first, he said, most of his business involved churches selling to other churches. But that has changed. “Now we’re seeing a lot more conversions to schools, day care centers and residences,” said Mr. Messier, who works with Real Estate Professional Services in Utica, Mich. “There are people who know what it takes, but it can still be very expensive.”

Churches often lack bedrooms, a kitchen or adequate bathrooms. Older ones present the same challenges as any neglected home, including HVAC, electrical and plumbing issues. It’s a lot for any buyer to take on.

“The real estate market isn’t prepared for what to do with all those empty properties,” said Ryan Burge, a professor at Eastern Illinois University and author of “The Great Dechurching.” Mr. Burge, who also is a pastor, recently saw his own church, First Baptist Church, in Mt. Vernon, Ill., close due to a dwindling congregation and high upkeep costs.

He said that appraisers hired by the church had little idea of how to price the building, and used commercial properties with similar square footage as comparables. The congregation rebuffed an offer from one residential developer, opting to donate the building to a local Classical Christian school.

Image
A man stands beneath the window of a white building with a small tower on the left side.

Rob Oliverio outside the two-room church he bought in Newry, Maine, for $150,000. When the town opted to sell it following a 15-10 vote, Mr. Oliverio saw an opportunity to convert it into a small eco-lodge.Credit...Greta Rybus for The New York Times

Other developers are finding better luck. Last year, Rob Oliverio bought the disused North Newry Community Church in Newry, Maine, for $150,000. The two-room clapboard building from 1904 with a modest belfry sits alone on a country road a few miles from Puzzle Mountain. When the town voted to sell it — the yeas defeated the nays 15-10 — Mr. Oliverio and his wife, Hannah Ramsey, saw an opportunity to convert it into a small eco-lodge.

After “a bit of an uproar,” he told the congregants that he would maintain the building’s integrity. “A lot of people came up to me and told me about their relationship to the church,” said Mr. Oliverio, who lives in Key West, Fla., where he owns an eco-tourism business. “Everyone there has some sort of tie to it — baptisms, weddings, funerals, you name it.”

When renovations are complete, the couple hope to list it on short-term rental platforms.

Image
A couple sit on mattress in a wood-paneled room with a blue-and-purple window shade on the right.

Mr. Oliverio and Hannah Ramsey have set up a makeshift kitchen, bedroom and living room in the church. When renovations are complete, they hope to list it on short-term rental platforms.Credit...Greta Rybus for The New York Times

Brooks Morton, who was baptized in the Newry church as a child, was one of the 10 who opposed the sale. “I wanted to see the church go to a faith-based organization,” he said, “but the town wanted no part of it.”

Mr. Morton, 72, recalled going to classes in the one-room schoolhouse next door to the church: “When you walk in there, it’s walking back a hundred years ago.”

Mr. Oliverio, 51, has some experience with converting churches. In 2016, he bought the Key West Christian Science Church and Reading Room and made the attached Sunday school into a two-bedroom apartment for himself and his family. The church building still holds services, and he has invited the local literary community to use the space for readings and workshops.

“I’ve been interested in church architecture ever since I was little,” he said. “There is such significance in them. A lot of love and energy went into these buildings.”

Image

Mr. Oliverio also owns the Key West Christian Science Church and Reading Room, in Key West, Fla.Credit...Courtesy of Rob Oliverio
Image

He made the attached Sunday school into a two-bedroom apartment. The church building still holds services.Credit...Courtesy of Rob Oliverio

In other regions, empty churches are waiting for someone to come along and save them. For 15 years in the historic Indian Village neighborhood of Detroit, the 4,000-square-foot Mount Olive East Missionary Baptist Church sat vacant, an abandoned kirk among rows of handsome Tudor and colonial revival homes. The deserted building landed in the Detroit Land Bank Authority, which struggled to find a buyer willing to bring it up to code for a residence. (“Bring your historic architect!” declared the listing.) Finally this month, a local family purchased it for $399,000 and plan to make it their primary home.

James Bufalino, the broker handling the sale, said that the combination of the neighborhood’s historic designation and the significant renovation costs made it a difficult sell, even when buyers fell in love with it. “It was tough,” Mr. Bufalino said. “You needed someone with the experience and the money to complete the project.”

Taranta Gatson-White, a public policy analyst for the city of Detroit who has lived across the street from the church since 1987, was relieved when it sold to a family. She’d been worried that if it became a commercial space, it could change the character of the neighborhood and impact zoning. “It was a small congregation but always very welcoming to the community,” said Ms. Gatson-White, 67. “The reason I’ve stayed here so long is because of the community.”

Image

When the disused Mount Olive East Missionary Baptist Church, in Detroit, landed on the market, the listing cited “important historic rehabilitation expectations.”Credit...Tony Cenicola/The New York Times
Image

“It was tough,” said James Bufalino, the listing agent, of finding a suitable buyer. “You needed someone with the experience and the money to complete the project.”Credit...Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

Honoring a community that feels some sense of loss can be the secret ingredient in these conversions. Last month in North Carolina, the Cahills’ home was severely damaged in the flooding caused by Hurricane Helene. Access to drinking water and electricity has been scarce. The couple have been helping their neighbors recover.

“It was amazing to see everyone pull together,” Mr. Cahill said. “We really feel bonded to this community now. All the problems we have with the house can be fixed. There are blessings in everything.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/25/real ... 778d3e6de3

[kmaherali]

Tiny Homes Face the Ax in Hong Kong, Leaving Many Families Worried

The government says the city’s smallest apartments need more regulation. For some of Hong Kong’s poorest, that could mean higher rents or even eviction.


Liu Lanhua in her subdivided apartment in the Kwun Tong district of Hong Kong. Such homes are among the starkest examples of the city’s vast income inequality.Credit...Billy H.C. Kwok for The New York Times

As she surveyed her home in Hong Kong, Liu Lanhua tried not to be bothered that her narrow kitchen doubled as the family’s only bathroom.

Colanders, pans and hairbrushes dangled above the toilet. Jars of chili oil were precariously balanced on water pipes. A stew of chicken wings and chestnuts warmed on an electric stove a few feet from the shower faucet.

She and her 12-year-old daughter are among 220,000 people in Hong Kong living in subdivided homes, which have long been among the starkest examples of the city’s vast income inequality.

Now her home is under threat. Hong Kong’s leader, John Lee, last month announced that the city would impose minimum standards on the size and fixtures of such apartments. The policy is expected to phase out more than 30,000 of the smallest subdivided homes.

In Ms. Liu’s home, there was no space for a sink; the only spot for two pet turtles was in a basin under the fridge. “If we had money, these would be in separate rooms,” she said, looking at the cluttered kitchen and toilet.

Beijing has urged the Hong Kong government to get rid of subdivided units and other tiny homes by 2049, because it regards the city’s housing shortage as one cause of the antigovernment unrest of 2019.

Image
A pair of legs sticks out from a raised bed space compartment facing a fridge.

The new rules will not address living conditions in so-called coffin homes or cage homes like this one, which are the smallest housing units in Hong Kong.Credit...Billy H.C. Kwok for The New York Times

But Mr. Lee’s plan has raised concerns among experts and advocates of more public housing, who say it would raise already high rents for the poor and evict a number of people without clear plans for their resettlement. It also doesn’t address the worst types of housing in the city: rental bed spaces so small they are known as coffin, or cage, homes.

Of Slums and Slumlords

Hong Kong’s subdivided homes, created when apartments are carved into two or more units, are usually in old tenement buildings in densely packed, working-class neighborhoods. Despite their often dilapidated conditions, the units are in high demand because affordable housing is in short supply.

Hong Kong has among the world’s most expensive homes, and highest rents. The average living space per person is 64.6 square feet — less than half the size of a New York City parking space. Owners of tenement apartments partition the units into smaller ones to rent them to more people.

“These are effectively slums and the landlords are slumlords,” said Brian Wong, a researcher at the Liber Research Community, an independent group in Hong Kong focused on land use and urban issues.

He added that the landlords who rent out subdivided units are often upper-middle-class residents looking to maximize profits. Paradoxically, the rent price of such units, on a per-square-foot basis, is usually higher than that of larger private apartments.

Ms. Liu pays $500 a month for her home of about 80 square feet, about a quarter of what she earns working at a construction site. Her unit is in a 60-year-old tenement building with peeling pink and yellow paint in Kwun Tong, a district in east Kowloon that was once an industrial heartland, with cotton mills and a soy sauce factory.

Image
Residential buildings are shown packed closely together, their units illuminated by indoor lights against a night sky.

Kwun Tong is the most densely populated district in Hong Kong, and the poorest.Credit...Billy H.C. Kwok for The New York Times

“I will live where it’s cheap,” she said, adding that she wanted to pay for after-school classes for her daughter. She has been waiting for six years to move into public housing but has no idea when that might happen.

Ms. Liu and her daughter sleep on bunk beds in the 60-square-foot main room, pushed against windows that are covered with paper for privacy and always closed to keep rats out. Ms. Liu appreciates that her neighbors don’t complain when her belongings spill into common spaces.

Kwun Tong is the most densely populated district in Hong Kong, and the poorest. People are drawn to it for its connectivity and services. Ms. Liu moved there six years ago to take a housekeeping course. Her daughter rides two stops on the subway to attend public school and studies with a tutor nearby until dinnertime. Their apartment is close to a large wet market.

The Hong Kong Leader’s Plan

Ms. Liu’s home would not meet the standards required under the policy outlined by Mr. Lee, the city’s chief executive, which stipulates that each home must have a separate bathroom and kitchen. It would likely require significant renovation or remodeling.

The policy also calls for apartments to be at least 86 square feet and come with windows.

Ms. Liu’s bathroom and stove are in a narrow cubicle that is slightly more than 20 square feet, separated from the main room by a common hallway. There is one faucet but no shower cubicle or sink, so she soaks ingredients in a bowl on the floor. The fridge faces the toilet.

Image
A woman cooks green vegetables in a wok on an electric stove. In the background is a toilet.

Ms. Liu’s bathroom and stove are in a small, narrow cubicle separated from the main room by a common hallway. Credit...Billy H.C. Kwok for The New York Times

Merged toilet and kitchen setups like this are common in subdivided apartments. Some apartments come only with toilets or kitchens that are shared with other households.

The government estimates that 30 percent of the city’s 110,000 subdivided homes will fall short of the new standards.

The Housing Bureau said in a response to questions from The New York Times that the rules were needed to improve living conditions. It said it would inspect apartments and that landlords could face prison time for not complying with the rules.

The bureau also said that landlords would have a few years to renovate their units to meet the standards, and register them in a centralized system.

Plan Leaves Much to be Desired

At a recent meeting between social workers with the Kwun Tong Subdivided Home Concern Group, a nonprofit, and residents of the district, questions were raised about the government’s plan. What are the standards for a proper toilet? If rents go up, will the government provide tenants with subsidies? Will those evicted be given priority in housing wait-lists?

Image
People holding red plastic bags containing food outside a storefront with metal shutters rolled down.

Volunteers gathering food to distribute to cage homes in another Hong Kong neighborhood, Sham Shui Po.Credit...Billy H.C. Kwok for The New York Times

“The standards have been raised but our finances haven’t,” said Moon Tang, a mother of three. She also wondered what would happen to people if they were evicted. “If they had money, they would have rented a more expensive space in the first place,” she said. “Where do they go?”

In its emailed response to questions, the Housing Bureau said the government would “adopt a gradual and orderly approach” to the changes and would help residents “where necessary.” Most affected tenants would be able to turn to an increased supply of permanent and temporary public housing apartments by the time the rules come into force in the coming years, it said.

Experts note, however, that the new policy also fails to address problems faced by those living in “cage homes” or “coffin homes” — bed spaces separated by wired metal or panels of wood. (Such spaces are regulated by a separate law.)

Image
A boy lies on a reclining chair in a rooftop space enclosed by a fence, overlooking other buildings in the distance. A fridge is in the background and above the boy are clothes hanging to dry.

Resting in a rooftop cage home in Sham Shui Po.Credit...Billy H.C. Kwok for The New York Times

Siu Ming Chan, an assistant professor at the City University of Hong Kong who researches poverty and housing, said the rules could lead to a rise in rents, making apartments even more unaffordable. The government should increase subsidies for those affected by the policy, many of whom are older and live alone, he added.

Ben Shek, 68, a former technician who lives alone in a 60-square-foot Kwun Tong apartment that would likely be considered substandard, does not want to move. He suffered a stroke more than a decade ago that left him with a limp and unable to work. He shares a bathroom with two other families, inside a carpentry workshop. He likes his place because it is on the ground floor, making it easy for him to get around.

“Since I’m not working anymore, I don’t get to have too many expectations,” he said. “And even if I did, they can’t be too high.”

Image
A man, seen through a slightly open door, sits on a bed. Outside his room are shelves packed neatly with items, along with a fan mounted on a wall and a calendar.

Ben Shek watching TV in his subdivided home in Kwun Tong.Credit...Billy H.C. Kwok for The New York Times

Hong Kong’s Housing Crisis


Tiny Apartments and Punishing Work Hours: The Economic Roots of Hong Kong’s Protestshttps://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/07/22/ ... ality.html


In ‘Coffin Homes’ and ‘Cages,’ Hong Kong Lockdown Exposes Inequality https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/26/worl ... ality.html
Jan. 26, 2021

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/05/worl ... 778d3e6de3

[kmaherali]

How To Get An Accurate Home Value Estimate Online


By Quinn Weston

Home value estimates are essential for homeowners looking to sell or refinance their properties. Online tools and local real estate agents provide valuable insights based on recent sales data and unique property features. Learn how to get a home value estimate online!

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What is my House Worth Now: https://search.questionswiki.com/click? ... is=589x435

Home Value Calculator by Address: https://search.questionswiki.com/click? ... =425&ny=39

Estimate My Home Value: https://search.questionswiki.com/click? ... =382&ny=42

Property Values by Address: https://search.questionswiki.com/click? ... is=589x435

How Much is My House Worth Instantly? https://search.questionswiki.com/click? ... =490&ny=50


Read More...

Quinn Weston
Contributor

Quinn is a curious writer who thrives on exploring the quirky side of everyday life. With a talent for storytelling and a knack for finding hidden gems, Quinn brings a fresh perspective to topics that others might overlook. When not blogging, Quinn can be found mastering the art of baking bread or tracking down obscure vinyl records.

https://questionswiki.com/real-estate/h ... 5730&type=