Meeting today’s challenges requires answers based on deep research and collaboration that seeks lasting success. Last year, Pew joined with Indigenous governments, the governments of the Northwest Territories and Canada, and other partners to...
Insights & Perspectives
Policymakers could increase the supply of multifamily housing in their states and localities by revising outdated building codes that require more than one stairway in small apartment buildings. If enough states and cities enacted this simple change, it could reduce the nationwide shortage of multifamily housing.
In too many American cities, numerous downtown office buildings sit barely used, their absence of workers gutting nearby businesses. Meanwhile, hundreds of residents, too poor to afford shelter, sleep on the streets. Addressing these problems is within our grasp.
Trust Magazine
Manufactured housing represents a critical opportunity to create and preserve lower-cost housing options in the United States, but many of these homeowners do not own their land—and millions don’t have leases that could prevent unexpected rent increases or eviction, according to a survey by The Pew Charitable Trusts.
The nation’s housing challenges are often framed within the context of cities: Boston’s high and rising rents, San Francisco’s brutal and persistent homelessness, and New York’s cramped and expensive apartments.
An estimated nationwide shortage of 4 to 7 million homes has pushed rents to all-time highs, with a record share of Americans spending more than 30% of their income on rent.
It’s not exactly news that Americans are mistrustful of their federal government. What you may have heard less about is that trust in some historically respected institutions has also taken a hit in the post-pandemic years.
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The nation’s housing challenges are often framed within the context of cities: Boston’s high and rising rents, San Francisco’s brutal and persistent homelessness, and New York’s cramped and expensive apartments.
In fiscal year 2023, the combination of expiring federal COVID-19 pandemic aid, slowing tax revenue growth, and rising costs for Medicaid led to an increase in the share of state revenue dedicated to Medicaid of 17.8%, or $44.4 billion, over the previous year—the largest single-year rise in at least two decades. States spent 15.1% of every state-generated dollar on Medicaid, up 2.2 percentage points from the previous year, though still about half a cent less than the 15-year average.
Philadelphians’ views of their city have improved dramatically since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2022, despite lingering concern about public safety and personal finances. In a Pew survey conducted from January to March 2025, nearly two-thirds of respondents cited crime as the top issue facing the city. Half of those surveyed reported hearing gunshots in their neighborhood in the previous year.
After two consecutive fiscal years of widespread tax revenue declines, states had fewer resources to work with at the start of calendar year 2025 than they had in recent years, which limited their capacity to fund tax cuts, expanded public services, recession preparedness, and other priorities.
Hurricane Helene ravaged the southeastern United States for three days in September 2024, leaving a path of destruction and hundreds of casualties throughout North Carolina and five other states. Record-breaking rainfall devastated western North Carolina and triggered landslides that left many areas cut off from essential services for days. The mountain tourist hub of Asheville faced unprecedented destruction, including widespread property damage and disruptions to critical infrastructure.