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Affordable-Housing Crisis In St. Louis Area Mirrors National Trends, Says Urban Strategies President

Esther Shin is president of Urban Strategies, a national nonprofit that is headquartered in St. Louis.
Evie Hemphill | St. Louis Public Radio
Esther Shin is president of Urban Strategies, a national nonprofit that is headquartered in St. Louis.
Esther Shin is president of Urban Strategies, a national nonprofit that is headquartered in St. Louis.
Credit Evie Hemphill | St. Louis Public Radio
Esther Shin is president of Urban Strategies, a national nonprofit that is headquartered in St. Louis.

A 2018 study by the National Low Income Housing Coalition showed that a St. Louisan who earns minimum wage would have to work 81 hours per week in order to afford a modest apartment. That reality is part of what Esther Shin describes as a “national affordable-housing challenge” stretching from San Francisco to New York City.

Shin is president of Urban Strategies, Inc., a national nonprofit based in St. Louis that is among several organizations working to address the crisis.

“There is a shortage of 7.2 million units of housing across the country,” she told host Don Marsh during Wednesday’s St. Louis on the Air, “and on average there are 3.5 million individuals that are facing homelessness every year. And about a third of those are children.”

Shin is on the team responsible for managing a $30 million Choice Neighborhood Grant that aims to improve life in north St. Louis. The group is also involved in managing a grant intended to help residents of East St. Louis.

Some families, Shin said, are in a situation where they are “housing burdened,” with few financial resources left for food and other necessities after covering shelter.

“[That’s] where you’re spending over 50 percent of your household income on housing, and we’re seeing more and more families [facing that],” Shin explained.

The affordable-housing crisis overlaps with a range of issues, she noted.

Some of Urban Strategies’ work involves supporting residents in skill building and financial empowerment “so that [people] can actually afford to live in safe, quality, affordable housing.”

“I think that we need to advocate to ensure that families aren’t struggling with the benefits cliff,” she added, referring to the so-called “disincentive to work” where housing benefits decrease and work time increases. “Oftentimes our families have to make a tough decision about working or losing their housing benefit.”

St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. St. Louis on the Air host Don Marsh and producers Alex HeuerEvie HemphillLara Hamdan and Jon Lewis give you the information you need to make informed decisions and stay in touch with our diverse and vibrant St. Louis region.

Copyright 2021 St. Louis Public Radio. To see more, visit St. Louis Public Radio.

Alex Heuer joined St. Louis Public Radio in 2012 and is the executive producer of St. Louis on the Air. Alex grew up in the St. Louis area. He began his public radio career as a student reporter at Tri States Public Radio in Macomb, Illinois and worked for a few years at Iowa Public Radio. Alex graduated summa cum laude from Western Illinois University with a degree in history and earned a teaching certificate in 6 - 12th grade social studies. In 2016, he earned a Master of Public Policy Administration with a focus in nonprofit organization management and leadership from the University of Missouri-St. Louis. He has won local and national awards for reporting and producing and his stories have been featured nationally on Morning Edition and All Things Considered.
Evie Hemphill joined the St. Louis on the Air team in February 2018. After earning a bachelor’s degree in English literature in 2005, she started her career as a reporter for the Westminster Window in Colorado. Several years later she went on to pursue graduate work in creative writing at the University of Wyoming and moved to St. Louis upon earning an MFA in the spring of 2010. She worked as writer and editor for Washington University Libraries until 2014 and then spent several more years in public relations for the University of Missouri–St. Louis before making the shift to St. Louis Public Radio.