美国国家公共电台 NPR Rural America Faces A Crisis In 'Adequate Housing'

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Home prices are skyrocketing in some places that might surprise you, including remote towns in rural America. And the problems facing those places may be especially hard to solve. As part of our series on the new housing crisis, NPR's Kirk Siegler sent this report from rural Nebraska.

(SOUNDBITE OF CARS PASSING)

SIMON: Along the country roads that fan out from the Ogallala, Neb., there are abandoned, old farmhouses¹ and weathered, caved-in barns - a remnant of the hardscrabble settlers who first tapped the Ogallala Aquifer², turning these dry, high plains into lush wheat and corn fields. Like a lot of the rural heartland, Western Nebraska slowly emptied out over the years.

(SOUNDBITE OF CHURCH BELLS)

KIRK SIEGLER, BYLINE³: So why then is there a housing shortage today in Ogallala, population 4,500? The answers are complicated. But if you ask Mary Wilson, she'll tell you it's more like a shortage of adequate housing.

MARY WILSON: People aren't updating their homes before they throw them on the market. People are living in their homes, I think, longer here.

SIEGLER: On average, people are living in their homes twice as long as they did before the Great Recession. So the market is tight. When Wilson moved to Ogallala from Colorado, drawn⁴ back to the small-town Nebraska she grew up in, she and her husband had a hard time finding something suitable.

WILSON: You know, we had to settle for what was available.

SIEGLER: Wilson is in charge of economic development here. She's driving down a quiet, leafy street of larger old homes in the center of town. They were built for a far different time when you needed big families to work the farms. A lot of them now are outdated⁵. The few that are for sale need 40 grand worth of rehab at a minimum. And most people either can't or aren't willing to pay that.

WILSON: My role as the economic development director is bringing business and industry to town - retaining the business and industries that we have, you know, doing what I can to expand that tax base. Well, it's difficult to do that when we don't have adequate housing.

SIEGLER: This is the classic chicken and egg that's long plagued rural America but is being magnified now by the national crisis in the housing industry - a crisis blamed on lots of factors. Lumber⁶ is hugely expensive due to tariffs⁷ on Canadian wood. And there's a labor⁸ shortage, made even worse in an isolated⁹ small town like Ogallala. Doug Davis is a longtime local real estate man and developer.

DOUG DAVIS: In the bigger cities, you have a selection. I mean, I couldn't go out and get like 5 bids on a plumber¹⁰ to do this house because they're all busy.

SIEGLER: And a lot of the contractors¹¹ who are here are getting older and looking to retire.

DAVIS: I think the need is there. If we could build 40 houses in the next two to three years, we'd sell more.

SIEGLER: For now, Davis is just proud to have gotten three homes built - no small feat¹² in a town that hadn't had a new private home put up since the 1990s. And they sold in less than three weeks, one even before it was finished.

DAVIS: I tried to make it, so it all flows. You know, like I said, it's 1,300 square foot.

SIEGLER: Now this place closed at just under 200,000. That's a lot in Ogallala where wages are depressed¹³ from the boom and bust¹⁴ of farm commodity prices. The few other homes on the market right now are mostly selling north of 300,000 too. As in a lot of smaller markets, newcomers are driving up prices.

DAVIS: Yep, the folks I sold the house to next door are from Denver. And they just got tired of the Denver hassle. The houses I'd built up on 10th Street, I think that was a win-win situation because those were all three people that came from outside the community.

SIEGLER: Now, the easiest answer is just to build more homes. But small towns like this are still considered risky¹⁵ by most outside developers. They can make a lot more money in cities where land and home values are even higher. Ogallala is learning this the hard way as it struggled to find capital to redevelop a shuttered school into condos to help ease the shortage.

JACOB HOVENDICK: In rural Nebraskan, you don't typically have tons of seed money just laying around waiting for a project to come across it's door.

SIEGLER: At Adams Bank and Trust downtown, I met Jacob Hovendick. He's a financial adviser¹⁶ and accountant. His extended family is from here. And he jumped at the chance five years ago to move over from Lincoln and raise his young family. Now, the shortage of adequate or even available homes has clearly led to some soul-searching.

HOVENDICK: I feel like we're at a very pivotal point in rural America's development because you now are finding opportunities through technological¹⁷ advancements¹⁸ to be mobile as a workforce¹⁹ - to maybe work from home but work for a company three states away.

SIEGLER: Hovendick says rural America is so close to rebounding²⁰, but now there's no place to live. So he and other business leaders are behind a plan to ask voters here this fall to approve a small sales-tax hike. The money would be used to build more workforce housing and offer incentives²¹ for developers to come here.

HOVENDICK: The federal government's not coming to help us. The state government, to a certain extent, can't come help us. No one's coming to our rescue. We kind of have to start helping²² ourselves.

SIEGLER: Nationally, rural housing experts say the same thing. You've got to have a well-organized local group of leaders committed to raising money and getting things done, in this era where federal funding for rural development is trending down.

WILSON: Just watch for rattlesnakes.

SIEGLER: That's only a half joke for Mary Wilson, who just hopped²³ out of her SUV on a dirt road north of Ogallala. Campers and boaters are whizzing by, headed to nearby Lake McCaughnay, lately a big economic driver.

WILSON: So they started moving dirt last week to prep this site for this new development.

SIEGLER: Wilson wanted to show me this site because a Nebraska developer, on his own, saw the need and decided²⁴ to come in and build four new duplexes.

WILSON: The cul-de-sac here, this is an entire subdivision. The developer bought this entire subdivision.

SIEGLER: She hopes these starter homes will help the local hospital in particular attract new doctors and nurses. Wilson, who grew up in an even smaller town near here, says for too long rural America has suffered from a confidence problem. If you hear over and over that you're withering²⁵ away, well, you start to believe it.

WILSON: Some people out there have the perception of Ogallala drying up and dying. And we're not that at all.

SIEGLER: To hear people in Ogallala tell it, the housing shortage is more a wake-up call than crisis for rural America. Kirk Siegler, NPR News, Ogallala, Neb.

1 farmhouses   

n.农舍，农场的主要住房( farmhouse的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Then perhaps she is staying at one of cottages or farmhouses? 那么也许她现在住在某个农舍或哪个农场的房子里吧？ 来自辞典例句
• The countryside was sprinkled with farmhouses. 乡间到处可见农家的房舍。 来自辞典例句

2 aquifer   

n.含水土层

参考例句：

• An aquifer is a water-bearing rock stratum such as sandstone and chalk.地下蓄水层是一些有水的岩石层，如沙岩和白垩岩。
• The wine region's first water came from an ancient aquifer.用来灌溉这个地区葡萄园的第一批水来自古老的地下蓄水层。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

5 outdated   

adj.旧式的，落伍的，过时的；v.使过时

参考例句：

• That list of addresses is outdated,many have changed.那个通讯录已经没用了，许多地址已经改了。
• Many of us conform to the outdated customs laid down by our forebears.我们许多人都遵循祖先立下的过时习俗。

6 lumber   

n.木材，木料；v.以破旧东西堆满；伐木；笨重移动

参考例句：

• The truck was sent to carry lumber.卡车被派出去运木材。
• They slapped together a cabin out of old lumber.他们利用旧木料草草地盖起了一间小屋。

7 tariffs   

关税制度； 关税( tariff的名词复数 )； 关税表； （旅馆或饭店等的）收费表； 量刑标准

参考例句：

• British industry was sheltered from foreign competition by protective tariffs. 保护性关税使英国工业免受国际竞争影响。
• The new tariffs have put a stranglehold on trade. 新的关税制对开展贸易极为不利。

8 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

9 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。

10 plumber   

n.(装修水管的)管子工

参考例句：

• Have you asked the plumber to come and look at the leaking pipe?你叫管道工来检查漏水的管子了吗？
• The plumber screwed up the tap by means of a spanner.管子工用板手把龙头旋紧。

11 contractors   

n.（建筑、监造中的）承包人( contractor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• We got estimates from three different contractors before accepting the lowest. 我们得到3个承包商的报价后，接受了最低的报价。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Contractors winning construction jobs had to kick back 2 per cent of the contract price to the mafia. 赢得建筑工作的承包商得抽出合同价格的百分之二的回扣给黑手党。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 feat   

n.功绩；武艺，技艺；adj.灵巧的，漂亮的，合适的

参考例句：

• Man's first landing on the moon was a feat of great daring.人类首次登月是一个勇敢的壮举。
• He received a medal for his heroic feat.他因其英雄业绩而获得一枚勋章。

13 depressed   

adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的

参考例句：

• When he was depressed,he felt utterly divorced from reality.他心情沮丧时就感到完全脱离了现实。
• His mother was depressed by the sad news.这个坏消息使他的母亲意志消沉。

14 bust   

vt.打破；vi.爆裂；n.半身像；胸部

参考例句：

• I dropped my camera on the pavement and bust it. 我把照相机掉在人行道上摔坏了。
• She has worked up a lump of clay into a bust.她把一块黏土精心制作成一个半身像。

15 risky   

adj.有风险的，冒险的

参考例句：

• It may be risky but we will chance it anyhow.这可能有危险，但我们无论如何要冒一冒险。
• He is well aware how risky this investment is.他心里对这项投资的风险十分清楚。

16 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

17 technological   

adj.技术的；工艺的

参考例句：

• A successful company must keep up with the pace of technological change.一家成功的公司必须得跟上技术变革的步伐。
• Today,the pace of life is increasing with technological advancements.当今， 随着科技进步，生活节奏不断增快。

18 advancements   

n.（级别的）晋升( advancement的名词复数 )；前进；进展；促进

参考例句：

• Today, the pace of life is increasing with technological advancements. 当今， 随着科技进步，生活节奏不断增快。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Great advancements in drought prediction have been made in recent years. 近年来，人们对干旱灾害的预报研究取得了长足的进步。 来自互联网

19 workforce   

n.劳动大军，劳动力

参考例句：

• A large part of the workforce is employed in agriculture.劳动人口中一大部分受雇于农业。
• A quarter of the local workforce is unemployed.本地劳动力中有四分之一失业。

20 rebounding   

蹦跳运动

参考例句：

• The strength of negative temperature concrete is tested with supersonic-rebounding method. 本文将超声回弹综合法用于负温混凝土强度检测。
• The fundamental of basketball includes shooting, passing and catching, rebounding, etc. 篮球运动中最基本的东西包括投篮，传接球，篮板球等。

21 incentives   

激励某人做某事的事物( incentive的名词复数 )； 刺激； 诱因； 动机

参考例句：

• tax incentives to encourage savings 鼓励储蓄的税收措施
• Furthermore, subsidies provide incentives only for investments in equipment. 更有甚者，提供津贴仅是为鼓励增添设备的投资。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

22 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

23 hopped   

跳上[下]( hop的过去式和过去分词 )； 单足蹦跳； 齐足（或双足）跳行； 摘葎草花

参考例句：

• He hopped onto a car and wanted to drive to town. 他跳上汽车想开向市区。
• He hopped into a car and drove to town. 他跳进汽车，向市区开去。

24 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

25 withering   

使人畏缩的，使人害羞的，使人难堪的

参考例句：

• She gave him a withering look. 她极其蔑视地看了他一眼。
• The grass is gradually dried-up and withering and pallen leaves. 草渐渐干枯、枯萎并落叶。