August 20, 2024: The Housing Affordability Crisis

Voices of Reason invited guest Shannon Lancaster to join co-hosts Margie and Barbara to talk about the housing affordability crisis in Savannah.   Shannon explained that she is now living in a one-room motel while she searches affordable, accessible housing in Savannah that is on a bus line.  She uses the internet and referrals from friends to identify potential housing and submits applications to the very few apartments within her means that she is able to identify.    Meanwhile, she and her possessions crowd into that one room that include a bed, table, bathroom and kitchenette. 

Margie had to give up her apartment in a Section 8 building a few years ago when SCAD acquired the building to create more housing for students.  She was one of the lucky tenants approved for a Section 8 voucher and accepted into an apartment complex on Savannah's southside.  She is grateful for her spacious one-bedroom that accommodates her and her dog Daisy.  But, unlike the apartment she had to give up, it is in a food desert and not on a bus line.  Barbara lives with her son about 60 miles southwest of Savannah and has begun looking for affordable apartments in Savannah that she will qualify for on her income of social security and a small pension.   We have the commonality of facing a housing market in Savannah where prices are rising and affordable housing production is not meeting need and demand, but also the lack of the difficulty of locating and applying for existing affordable housing.  We agreed that like so many Savannahians, we are the victims of a housing affordability crisis.  

Tune in next week to Voices of Reason as we talk about the history of the labor movement and the state of labor in 2024.