Gerardo Benavides, MPP ’23, Interviewed about Immigrant Housing Hardships Report

October 18, 2022

As part of a summer 2022 internship, Bloustein School MPP student Gerardo Benavides worked with Make the Road New Jersey to collect 400+ surveys and contribute to a report titled Housing Insecurity: A survey of tenants in Elizabeth, Passaic and Perth Amboy.

Watch video interview: https://www.njspotlightnews.org/video/immigrant-renters-face-extreme-hardships-report-says/

Abstract

New Jersey faces an affordable housing crisis that has reached unprecedented levels. The crisis predates COVID-19, but its severity and size have only been exacerbated by the pandemic’s impact on the state’s economy and social fabric. The soaring cost of housing has an outsized impact on renters.

Based on an extensive survey and in-depth interviews with nearly 400 low-income tenants of color and immigrant tenants in these cities, the study shows the extreme hardship and severity of the housing crisis as experienced by immigrant renters of color. After analysis of the survey responses, we provide a series of policy recommendations for how our state and local governments can respond to the mounting housing insecurity.

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