Transcription
[music] >> This is America, and this is a special episode on the affordability crisis in the United States. >> When costs exceed incomes, people are forced to make painful trade-offs. >> Stagnating incomes and rising costs mean more and more people are having to decide whether they go further into debt >> or if they choose to give up food, fuel, and medicine in order to get by. >> Affordability [music] is a serious challenge from one coast >> to the other. It doesn't matter >> if you're middle class or on a low or fixed income. >> Everyone [music] is feeling the pinch. >> So, let's take a closer look >> at the affordability crisis in the United States.
For people right across America, everything has been getting more expensive. From food to fuel, healthcare to heating, everyone's feeling the pain. But, if you're a pensioner or living on a low or unpredictable income, that's when people are being forced to make some very tough decisions. A mother weighing up how to feed her family with how to get to work, the elderly deciding whether to buy all or some of the medicine they need. That's the reality of the affordability crisis here in the US, but it's not just food and gas prices that have been the problem. It costs more to insure homes, health insurance has soared, electricity bills are up. All of those factors combined are pushing people who used to have financial breathing space to the brink of poverty.
Well, the signing of the memorandum of understanding to end the war with Iran has helped ease the financial pressure just slightly, but it will still take months for prices to fall to pre-war levels. Well, we've sent our teams to five different states to see how the affordability crisis is affecting people. Kristen Salumi begins our special report from Manhattan in New York.
>> New York is home to some of the most expensive real estate in the country, and it's not just the fancy high rises on Billionaires' Row, prices are high all around the city. About 2/3 of New York households are rentals, and rents hit new records this year. In Manhattan, the median now tops $5,000 a month.
>> We still have some bagels left.
>> Forcing some families to make tough choices, even families in working-class neighborhoods who own their home.
>> So, this is the space. We have the bathroom.
>> Cat Casey is a clinical social worker. She uses part of her home as an office during the week, but rents it out to tourists on the weekends to help make ends meet.
>> Pick out the chippies you want.
>> Her husband works on the technical side of the theater industry, and with three children, they have to get creative to make ends meet.
>> We have gotten smart and had to get smarter and tighter along the way with eating out and groceries, and so we've had to shift into buying bulk meats at Costco and then freezing them in smaller portions, but it it is a constant consideration in our lives of, you know, where can we be a little bit more efficient?
>> The cost of food is rising, too.
>> As of April, grocery prices nationwide have gone up 3.2% over last year, and some basic staples are even higher. Things like ground beef, coffee, and tomatoes.
>> In the last year, the federal government has made it tougher to qualify for food assistance.
>> The city of New York has a network of food pantries and mobile markets like this one designed to help people in need, no questions asked. And in the last 5 years, they've noticed a very disturbing trend. The number of families with children seeking food assistance has doubled.
>> City Harvest estimates their food pantries receive a million visits a month from families with children.
>> The high cost of living is one of the reason residents have been fleeing New York in recent years. Their top destination, New Jersey, across the Hudson River, but still within commuting distance. Their second most popular destination, Florida, and that is where we find Phil Lavelle.
>> Yeah, Kristen, this is why lots of New Yorkers and people from other states migrate south to Florida. You've got the sunshine, the beaches, that illusion of an idyllic lifestyle, but there is a darker financial side to life here. There it is, insurance, and this is a big problem for a lot of people.
>> I'm 51 and facing palliative care.
>> That's Leah, and this is her home, a car parked on waste ground near Tampa.
>> I didn't give up my whole career and everything and everyone just to come down to my hometown and die in my SUV. That's not what I'm here for.
>> But where she lives, that is the least of her worries. Leah has severe health issues.
>> End stages of anorexia and bulimia, and I'm to be under care of a cardiologist. It's going to end my life.
>> She tells us she desperately needs help.
>> Just a few weeks ago, I was almost in full-blown cardiac arrest.
>> But she has no medical insurance, so no safety net.
>> I'm worth helping, you know? Absolutely, and I'm worth insurance. I'm worth going to see a cardiologist. I know I can get myself well, but I can't do it by myself. I need my helpers.
>> People like Leah simply fall through the system here, and this is why. Although nationally, there is some protection for those with little money coming in, here, no income, no dependent children, those people in Florida, they simply don't register. And health insurance is only part of the story, because remember where this state is situated geographically, by the warm waters of the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf Coast. Hurricanes are a fact of life. This state gets more than any other. 41% of those that make landfall hit Florida. On average, that is nearly seven separate billion-dollar weather disasters a year. Here on the state's west coast, they had two big ones back-to-back in 2024. Helene caused catastrophic flooding. 13 days later, Milton's winds devastated communities and spawned tornadoes. A combined cost of more than $7 billion in insurance payouts. So, you have health insurance. Then, there is hurricane or wind insurance. On top of that, there is flood insurance, which is mandatory for some people with a mortgage. One could also throw in auto insurance because people have got to drive. They all start to add up. And then, for some people, it comes down to a simple choice. Which of these can they afford to lose or not to lose?
>> I woke my husband up at midnight and said, "We have to start moving things upstairs. Water's coming in."
>> Linda's home was flooded by Hurricane Helene.
>> Our house was damaged. We lost two vehicles.
>> So, she and husband Mark know how important insurance is. They own this personal training studio, which also needs coverage. But, their healthcare premiums shot up in January, like millions of Americans, after changes to the system.
>> We were paying $238 a month, and then our plan went up to over $3,000 a month.
>> And something had to give.
>> We've had to give up hurricane insurance and flood insurance on everything but our home. Our business does not have wind insurance because that was going to be over $20,000 a year just for the wind insurance in addition to the property and the liability insurance.
>> And all of this, as we enter the 2026 hurricane season, with every chance another storm or storms could hit. For some people, there just isn't enough money to go around, period. It's either home or it's health or it's neither. Perhaps Leah says it best.
>> We can do better.
>> So, that's part of the story here in Florida. Let's take it over to the other side of the country to the West Coast and John Hendren in California.
>> Phil, here in California, we have the same insurance problem but different natural disasters. Here it's mudslides and earthquakes and wildfires. Most of the town of Pacific Palisades back there was wiped out in last year's fires. People were lucky to get out with their lives and an insurance policy that maybe covered most of their homes. Now comes the rebuilding and reinsuring at skyrocketing prices if you can find insurance at all. Life in California comes with risks and an ever-rising price tag. What draws people here? Swimming pools, movie stars, public beaches that run the length of the iconic coastline in a state that from Silicon Valley to Hollywood runs the world's fourth largest economy. But prosperity here comes with a price. You can see California's economy at work here on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills where the well-heeled go to cover them. It's a good life for those who can afford it. The median home price statewide over $900,000. With rising inflation, even those who earn well above average strain to pay that. People like Allison and Matt.
>> I make close to $200,000.
>> I make about $100,000 a year.
>> Our housing is, you know, 3650. Um uh like electricity, all like the major bills that come together as a whole, probably around 600 a month. And um our the grocery bill was never this though. This is next level.
>> The state is home to luxury sedans and sports cars that would look at home on a racetrack. Those prices are driven up by higher taxes, tighter regulations, and the Iran war, which is hurting middle and lower-income drivers hardest.
>> I pay more for my gasoline for my car than I do my car payment. I have an Audi Q3. Uh I pay, you know, 120 to 130 dollars a week now for gas. So, it's it's it's ludicrous. I mean, it's gotten to a point now where I feel like I'm lower class.
>> But, the over-the-top wealth comes with an underbelly of poverty just a few miles away. These people join a quarter of the nation's homeless on the California streets. For generations, the Golden State represented the promise of a better life.
>> And now, for a growing number of middle-class families, as Heidi Jo Castro found in Pennsylvania, the challenge isn't reaching the American dream, it's holding on to it.
>> John, those same concerns are true for people living here in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. 50 years ago, this was a booming steel town. Jobs paid well, people lived in a thriving community. But, the plant closed in the '90s because it couldn't keep up with cheaper steel from overseas. And now, nearly a third of people living here are in poverty. And their struggles are only getting harder as prices keep climbing.
>> Where are you going?
>> It's the first week of June, time for the Civic family's monthly reunion of grandparents, siblings, and the newest grandbaby.
>> We always all get together, go out to eat, we go out for ice cream, go shopping together, and spend time as a family.
>> The family is surviving on disability payments from the government. And now, it's even harder for them to celebrate because they're all chipping in to buy baby Maya's supplies.
>> As a family, we all have to pinch our money together and afford to like put towards uh diapers and wipes for the baby.
>> I help my daughter with her baby. I buy her diapers, wipes, whatever she needs. And it's just like rough.
>> It wasn't supposed to be like this in Johnstown. Donald Trump had promised people here during his last presidential campaign that he would lower prices.
>> We will defeat inflation very quickly and we will make America affordable again.
>> That message resonated and 70% of voters in the county sided with him, helping to deliver the pivotal swing state of Pennsylvania.
>> I think the people that live here have seen a lot of hardship and I think that they believed what he was telling them and they really wanted to believe that he was going to change things and make things better.
>> But since then, the economy has further declined, pricing already poor people out of gas and groceries. One in five people in Cambria County receive federal food aid. About 2,000 are losing that help after the president insisted Congress cut the program's funding in order to offset tax cuts. Non-government charities like this one that gives away food to school children say they've seen a surge in need.
>> We have a 63% increase from last year at this time. So we're serving a lot more families and we're just so thankful between food donations and community donors and the support of the community.
>> At this emergency shelter for families who've lost their homes, the staff has had to make resources stretch.
>> It's a struggle and um I try to the best of my ability to meet everyone's needs and sometimes I'm it's not enough. And that hurts, you know?
>> I asked the Civic family who they blame for the affordability problem.
>> We're trying to uh survive and get past with all these prices with Donald Trump making all the prices go up.
>> Making us broke.
>> There's a lot of us who's not doing really good in life and we just need the money to survive.
>> Others here say they still support President Trump and feel he just needs more time to fix the economy. But when day-to-day survival is your main focus, politics takes a backseat to securing food and health care and both become greater challenges for older Americans who live on fixed pensions. Let's learn more about that from Manuel Rapalo in Monroe, Louisiana.
>> Life here moves at a different pace. Long roads, small communities, and lower housing costs than many parts of the country. But for older residents, affordability isn't measured in what things cost, but whether retirement income can keep up.
>> Everything is so expensive.
>> At an affordable housing community outside Monroe, neighbors gather around a table not to talk about politics, but to compare notes on something more immediate. How to make the month last.
>> I just might have to juggle stuff, you know, make decisions on what I'm going to buy and what I'm not going to buy, even if I need it. When people say you they retired, they ain't retired. They just
>> [laughter]
>> They just can't work no more, so.
>> Though they come from different backgrounds, one thing they do have in common is a fixed budget. Monthly expenses often force difficult choices, including when to refill medical prescriptions.
>> Last month, I didn't get my medicine at all. I couldn't afford it until this month. So, I had to put off. And all, I'm a type 2 diabetic.
>> They raised our cable, they raised our rent. What else have they raised? That those main two things I know. Yeah, everything goes up.
>> Like millions of Americans, older residents of northeast Louisiana rely heavily on social security, which here averages around $1,800 a month. One of the lowest state averages for Social Security benefits in the country.
>> Now, I paid all this money to Social Security and now they got me living off of $1,278 a month. Can't do that.
>> While these monthly checks provide a vital safety net, the system was never designed to be a person's sole source of income. Yet, millions of older Americans have no other financial options.
>> One in 10 Americans over the age of 65 lives below the poverty line. That means that on this road, statistically, one out of every 10 mailboxes belongs to someone who worked their whole life and still came up short.
>> Just down the road in Morehouse Parish, Jackie Williams, a retired assembly line worker for General Motors, says rising prices are making it harder to stretch a dollar.
>> The money is just scarce. It it is is is a hard time here. It really is.
>> Jackie lives on a fixed income of around $1,400 a month. It's just enough to get by, but she says every day is marked by difficult financial decisions.
>> We talk about it all the time in church. We're having a difficult time here. And it's not just Morehouse Parish, it's everywhere.
>> For many, food assistance has become part of the routine.
>> The Food Bank of Northeast Louisiana says they're seeing more older Americans turning to food assistance than ever before. For some, a box like this is meant to supplement a tight budget. For others, this is the budget.
>> The money runs out and then you wonder where you going to get your next meal from.
>> This specific food program operates across 12 communities in the region. And while the assistance doesn't replace income, it does help stretch it.
>> I believe we would fall through the gap, but I thank God for having this um program to meet the need and see that we needed help and help is here.
>> In Northeast Louisiana, generations of factory closures, limited economic opportunities, and persistent poverty have left many older residents with little savings to fall back on.
>> Being a senior citizen is where we check on one another. Make sure we're fed and we got so many people that don't have homes, don't have jobs, I don't know where to go, I don't have nobody to lean on.
>> For many older Americans here, affordability is simply about making it through the month together.
>> It's kind of hard, you know, because sometime I get depressed. Sometime I feel hopeless, you know, but these people around here, they they keep me in sync, you know.
>> The importance of being part of a community around
>> Yes, being part of a community is what helps.
>> Well, there you have it. From east to west, people across the US are suffering and recent polling done by Fox News found most people are pessimistic about the state of the economy and their own financial situation. 44% say they are falling behind financially, while just 12% say they're getting ahead. More than half of people say Trump's economic policies benefit people with more money than they have. Less than a quarter of people approve of Trump's handling of fuel prices. Well, for more on this, we're joined by Cassandra Martinstock, food security and financial well-being expert at the Urban Institute, and by Mahogany Thomas, chief program officer at Bread for the City. It's been great getting to know you both before I introduce you there. Thanks so much for your time. Cassandra, if I can start with you because economists are calling this a perfect storm of problems at the moment. We're talking about global energy prices being impacted in the war in Iran, sticky housing costs, supply chain issues. Can you set the scene for us about this domino effect and why this appears to be something systemic and potentially long-term?
>> Yeah, I think what we're seeing here is after 5 years, folks are experiencing persistently higher prices than they faced before. And this financial pressure isn't just coming from one aspect of their household budgets, it's coming from many. In fact, Urban Research found that in 2023, um about one in two Americans lived in a household where they had enough resources to economically thrive. What we're seeing today is those who aren't able to thrive are also experiencing a lot of challenges meeting their basic needs. The pressure on housing, child care, food prices is manifesting um in terms of their day-to-day challenges, just being able to eat. For example, in 2025, one in four adults reported being food insecure. And that was There are folks who had higher incomes who were food insecure. This is a very broad-based challenge and pressure that households are facing.
>> Mahogany, you're working at the coalface of all of this. Your organization's been helping people in DC for 52 years, providing food, medical care. What are you seeing? What sort of shifts are you seeing? What kind of people come through your doors?
>> Absolutely. We're seeing more people enter in our food pantry than we ever have. Um I mean, it is clear that we are in a moral crisis and an ethical dilemma right here in the nation's capital. Our food pantry, um it's seeing 30% more clients and households served this time this year compared to this time last year. And the numbers just keep increasing because people can't afford to live.
>> Alexandra, even though inflation, we understand, has kind of leveled off, I think it's around 4% at the moment here. Grocery prices, we've just heard it very clearly from the examples given in those reports. Grocery prices are structurally much, much higher than they were a few years ago. So, who Is it possible to say who is going hungry in America right now?
>> I think we've always seen disparities in food security where folks with lower incomes, Black and Hispanic families, families with children have always experienced higher rates of food insecurity. What we're seeing now, right, is between 2020 and 2025, food at home prices increased 32%. And most families don't have the financial breathing room to take on that price increase without sacrificing something else. And we've actually seen um about one in four adults reported taking on debt when paying for groceries with their credit card. And many more are also using buy now, pay later, cash from payday loans to be able to make those ends meet.
>> Right. So, people are getting in debt just to just to try to afford the basics of putting food on the table. I mean, Mahogany, there are federal safety nets. There are things like food stamps still. The queues of people seeking help from you are getting longer.
>> I mean, the thing about food banks and food pantries are we're meant to supplement you. We're not necessarily designed, right, to take care of all of your food needs as much as we try. And so, what we're finding is that even programs like SNAP, because of the restrictions, because of the work requirements that are now being enforced, particularly in the District of Columbia, more and more people are at risk of losing their benefits, more and more folks are receiving a reduced amount of this aid that they are they're accustomed to, that they need to live. Um and it's just it's really hard. I mean, we can't We are trying our best to keep up as all food pantries are, and it's just we're just unable to because the need is that much.
>> Yeah, of course, as we were saying earlier, as everybody feels the squeeze, the number of people financially donating to your organization is having a knock-on effect, right?
>> That's right. So, um individual donations, like we are we live on donations, and we're so grateful, but you're even seeing folks who used to donate to us who now need our food pantries, particularly federal workers who have been impacted by this affordability crisis. You're seeing our donations, like when you think about diapers for example, we were receiving 30,000 diapers just this time last year from the diaper bank and now we're only receiving 15,000. So that each every kind of space along the way are being deeply impacted by these by these numbers.
>> Cassandra, people looking in the United States from the outside will say, "Look, the US is meant to be an agricultural superpower. So where and how is the government exactly failing the working poor?"
>> I think there are a lot of different factors that influence whether or not families are able to meet their day-to-day needs. If we're looking at the data, we're seeing that families paychecks aren't going as far as they used to. At the same time where we're seeing changes in the eligibility and generosity of different safety net programs. So what we're really seeing is this pressure where expenses are becoming more burdensome. Real wages haven't kept pace with inflation, so your resources aren't going so far and you're getting fewer supports whether that be from, you know, safety net program changes that have occurred over time or even charitable food organizations not having as many resources to be able to provide to families. So it's more just this constant pressure. There's not one I wouldn't call it a failure one, you know, silver silver bullet here. There's just a lot of compounding factors.
>> perfect storm issue. Let's let's talk about what we can do about this because Mahogany, you your group and you personally have championed something called radical hospitality, keeping communities empowered. What does that mean?
>> Yeah, so we at River the City, I mean, because we're really working to meet the basic needs of folks through food, clothing, legal, social services, advocacy. I mean, we're trying our best to kind of channel everything into into one place so that you can then have more space to determine your own future. And so for me, radical hospitality is a way of living. It's a way of giving generously, particularly those who are able to foundations who have more to give, we're pulling on you. Corporate donors, we're asking you, right, to give more to meet the need. Radical hospitality for me is kind of orienting your way of life in a way that moves away from being siloed or really just thinking about your own self-interest and to how can we show up and make it better for one another and for all.
>> Hey Cassandra, we can't really talk about this discussion without looking at the big battle in Washington right now. I mean, the Federal Reserve, the US Central Bank, has kept interest rates high to kind of try try and take some heat out of the economy. It's an economic orthodoxy used all over the world. You you know, put you put up interest rates, it brings down inflation, but at the same time, we're talking about unaffordable mortgages. We're talking about car payments going through the roof. We're talking about the loans that are completely out of the reach of ordinary people. I just wonder from your view on this whether that is the right path to take. Donald Trump thinks no. The Fed says yes.
>> I admittedly am not an economist at the Federal Reserve, but I think I focus a lot more on the trade-off that families have to make when they're facing not only high basic needs costs, but if they're putting it on their credit card and revolving a balance, they're also experiencing that higher interest rate when they're repaying that debt as well and what it means for them. Um so something that I'm thinking about in terms of what my working families need is that when families have to take on debt at high interest rates, it can be not only an an indicator of their current financial distress and how difficult is them for it is for them today, but it can also have long-term implications on their future financial well-being, right? Today's affordability challenges can kind of constrain future economic mobility for families, and that's something that we need to think about when we think about what feels like the right path.
>> Mahogany, we've got about a minute left. I wonder if you can explain to us what you think would make the biggest difference to families right now who are really feeling the pinch.
>> We really need to figure out how to eradicate poverty. I mean, we just have to do it. The wealthy have access to resources, and they have to share. Um I think it's as simple as that. Um poverty is keeping people bound, and poverty is no respecter of persons. Um it is impacting all age ranges and um people across a variety of abilities. I mean, and I think if we can get to the root of that, the root of eradicating poverty, then we can help orient people towards thriving, and that's what we should be doing.
>> Cassandra, we've got 30 seconds. Your final thoughts. How do we get over this situation?
>> I think addressing affordability is a complex phenomenon, and it really requires a multifaceted policy agenda. As we've discussed, families are feeling constrained from all places. There's no silver bullet here. We do need to get under the structures and the main drivers of this, and I don't think 30 seconds can give you one policy to address
>> sure we could probably have a few hour-long program. Well, Cassandra and Mahogany, it's been a joy having you both on the program. That's Cassandra Martincich, food security and financial well-being expert at the Urban Institute. And Mahogany Thomas, chief program officer at Bread for the City. Well, that's all from the team here in Washington. If you want [music] to catch up on this episode of This is America or previous ones, search Al Jazeera English on YouTube. We're on air Monday to Friday 18:30 GMT, 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time. [music] See you soon.