Gwen Quezada didn’t choose to have a stroke, go on disability nor have her rent raised. Still, she found herself without a home earlier this year. Like too many in Statesville, she found herself on the wrong side of the city’s housing issues.
“I lived there for 11 years. I was never late for my rent and stuff like that. I paid everything on time,” Quezada said.
Quezada said her previous landlord had been good to her and she paid $500 a month even after she found herself on disability. She said when her previous landlord sold the property during what they had told her was their own financially tough times, she found she was going to have to move. With the lack of housing, and affordable housing, one could say it was the natural flow of supply and demand, but that would hardly be comforting to Quezada and others in situations like hers.
Even with the home she was renting, there were issues with the safety and level of care, to say the least.
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“In December, they shot up my house and the neighbors’. That’s not even the first shooting,” Quezada said, then talking about another incident from a year before. “One day, me and my grandson were there, out in the yard picking up papers before mowing the yard, then they started shooting back and forward like they were in a western movie.”
Even so, it was a roof over her head even with the dangers of the neighborhood, something she said she fought against through her charity and faith.
“I always went to pray for people,” Quezada said, saying some referred to her as the ‘preacher lady’. “Some of them, doing their little stuff on the streets, I told them I’d be praying for them; they’d say you just don’t know ma’am, but I told them I’d be praying for you.”
But with rent going up in the area and her struggles with her health, Quezada found herself figuring out where to live.
Quezada said she initially was staying with a family member, but that arrangement quickly proved not to be ideal. She said she soon didn’t feel welcome nor were they, she said, helping take care of her as she recovered from her stroke. Quezada said while often being left in a room by herself was troubling enough, the people she was living with soon appeared to contract COVID-19, but didn’t seem worried about spreading it to her.
One test later, Quezada herself tested positive.
With everything that happened, it was clear to her she needed to move out, despite having nowhere to go. She would return to the relative’s home, but after she said a family member stopped a medical worker from checking on her in a home visit, she ended up going back to the hospital for treatment.
But she knew that could only last so long, even with the staff’s understanding of the situation.
“There was so much stuff going on, but here I am thinking, here I am, homeless again,” Quezada said.
While Quezada found herself in a near-homeless situation due in part to health and ability to work, even for those working the issues in finding housing they can afford comes back to supply and demand issues in Statesville.
Supply and demand
The issue is straightforward for Michelle Knapp, the executive director of Fifth Street Ministries.
“As far as the challenges for the city of Statesville, we currently lack adequate housing in Statesville to house all the families that currently need assistance. The housing that is available will either not pass inspection or the monthly rental amount is more than most people can afford. We have people on the waiting list that applied almost a year ago. The waiting list is not moving, because we cannot locate housing. We have been able to move a few people, but we have a long way to go to meet the current need.”
Addressing that need, however, isn’t a simple task.
Deborah Owen, Fifth Street’s Rapid Rehousing coordinator, said that the issue is layered as recent conditions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic compounded issues that have existed in Statesville for some time. A federal moratorium on evictions meant openings were even less likely over the past year, exacerbating the issue. While the Supreme Court struck down the ban in August, the rush of evictions hadn’t transpired yet. Owen said while single-person housing has always had a long list, the last 18 months have seen the supply of homes for more than one person shrink rapidly.
Owen said while Section 8 and other programs can help, the cost of housing, and finding suitable living spaces, is difficult. While she wasn’t speaking directly to Quezada’s situation, she said someone who was living off disability would roughly have $800 to spend for all their costs.
That means often people are looking at the open market. While there are homes under $700 to rent, the supply is limited. Even so, low-income renters are looking at spending most of their income on housing. She also said other factors, such as the cost of utilities in older homes, can quickly turn even affordable rent into a tougher financial situation.
“There’s a lack of what most people would consider affordable housing, especially for people that have low income and aren’t able to add to it for whatever reason,” Owen said. “Until you really get into it and try to do what we do here day today, (then) you can really see the amount of rent that has gone up in the past two years or year.
“It’s supply and demand.”
Darbah T. Skaf, the executive director of the Statesville Housing Authority, said that is an issue that affects what those owning properties are willing to do to improve the quality of housing. While some do invest regularly in upgrades, the market allows some to handle some issues with less urgency.
Owen said for Fifth Street as well, there are a number of homes that are available but aren’t up to the standards that allow them to be used with grants or other programs paying some or all of the rent.
At the Statesville Housing Authority earlier this year, Skaf said they were already assisting 1,435 people and there were 8,323 people on its waiting for help list.
“The need is so great, we all need to come together,” Skaf said.
To address these issues may require more incentives for property owners than there are currently, but it’s something Skaf said they should be aware of, especially if owning property in lower-income areas.
“If you’re wanting to rent to a certain demographic, you’re going to have to recognize certain things have to be done,” Skaf said. “You have to adjust your rents if you want to rent affordable housing. If you’re renting in the south side of town, I’m assuming that’s part of your mission, part of your model… you have to work with that community to have it make money for you.”
More than a housing issue
With the current economic situation, those working struggle to pay rent as well. Even with businesses now offering higher wages in an effort to lure workers back, Owen said she wasn’t sure if it would offset the rise in rent.
Skaf said those supply and demand issues, as well as finding work, made the last two years hard on low-income renters.
“A lot of low-wage workers, restaurants, hotels, things like that, were laid off and that increased the hardship that’s going on right now,” Skaf said. “The two things are having quality inventory, and economic factors.”
She said studies show inadequate housing correlates with other social issues. Previously, Dr. Jeff James, superintendent of Iredell-Statesville Schools, has noted the difficulties for students from low-income homes, which he said has a strong correlation with test scores. That would reinforce Skaf’s point that the city and county have an interest in addressing these issues as well.
She noted that on nearly any piece of paperwork, a person’s name and address are the first things you fill out, highlighting the importance of housing.
“We need to make sure those addresses are places that people want to call home. It is our responsibility, whether we advocate, whether we participate, whether we hold another accountable, but it has to be done,” Skaf said.
Moving on
Working or not, with a disability or not, finding affordable housing in Statesville isn’t easy nor will it be for some time.
While some of the local nonprofits couldn’t speak directly to Quezada’s case, they do say they could have helped. Even so, it is obvious there are limited resources for how organizations and others can address the issue when the market makes it easy for landlords to find renters when demand outpaces supply.
All of Statesville faces increases in the cost of housing, those with a smaller margin of error have even fewer options. That was the case for Quezada and others in the southern parts of Statesville where stories like this are more common.
Council members Doris Allison and Frederick Foster, who represent the wards that compromise most of South Statesville, said they’ve been working to address the issues that make that part of the city underdeveloped economically. Skaf too has said she has been meeting with local leaders to make changes to benefit not just South Statesville, but the county as a whole.
Still, it will take years for any plans to be executed, or to see their effects.
For Quezada, she said thankfully she was able to live with her grandchildren’s mother while she got back on her feet, both literally and physically while she recovered from her stroke.
And now she is set to move into her own place after being approved for Section 8 housing, but is still looking for a place to live.