PBS高端访谈:美国住房短缺问题有了新办法

JUDY WOODRUFF: Cities across the country are struggling with a shortage of housing. But there are millions of spare bedrooms. As Stephanie Leydon from PBS station WGBH explains, Boston has become a launching pad for a new technology that connects people looking for affordable¹ rent with homeowners who have space to spare.

STEPHANIE LEYDON: Before she started her graduate program in public health, Abby Herbst got a crash course in math. There are too few apartments for too many people in Boston.

ABBY HERBST, Graduate Student: I called actually a real estate agent. And they wouldn't take me as a client, basically, I didn't have the budget for a regular place. And I was looking farther and farther outside the city.

STEPHANIE LEYDON: But she found a place just a 20-minute walk from campus in this townhouse complete with a furnished bedroom, fully² equipped kitchen, and the homeowner, Brenda Atchison.

BRENDA ATCHISON, Homeowner: We fell in together very well and very smoothly³.

STEPHANIE LEYDON: They met online through a home-sharing Web site called Nesterly, designed to connect two generations with compatible needs: older people who want to stay in their homes, but need help.

BRENDA ATCHISON: Twelve-foot ceilings, it's a little hard to heat in the wintertime. So a little extra doesn't hurt.

STEPHANIE LEYDON: And younger people who need a place to live. Herbst pays $650 a month, less than half the cost of studio. And she does chores.

ABBY HERBST: Like, I take out the trash, the snow shoveling.

STEPHANIE LEYDON: The home-sharing idea came to Noelle Marcus while she was living in Boston.

NOELLE MARCUS, Founder⁴, Nesterly: It was really, really expensive to find housing while I was in graduate school there.

STEPHANIE LEYDON: She's now based here in New York.

NOELLE MARCUS: I think the average one-bedroom in New York is over $3,000.

STEPHANIE LEYDON: Maybe worse than Boston.

NOELLE MARCUS: Worse than Boston.

STEPHANIE LEYDON: She says cities across the country face an affordability⁵ crisis fueled by the same trends: a limited housing supply and an aging population of homeowners.

NOELLE MARCUS: We have had over 6,000 people reach out to us from 280 different cities around the world and tell us that they want us to expand to their city.

STEPHANIE LEYDON: Which is her goal. For now, Nesterly is available in the Boston area only. People have always rented extra rooms in their homes, right? So why do they need Nesterly?

NOELLE MARCUS: Yes. So according to AARP, 40 percent of over 45-year-olds say they're interested in renting out a room in their home, but today only 2 percent are doing it. And we think that's because the right product and the right service didn't exist.

STEPHANIE LEYDON: Nesterly offers background checks, a payment system and ongoing⁶ support. A one-time housing aide to New York's mayor, Marcus sees the platform as way to ease the housing shortage and a problem that plagues old and young alike, loneliness.

ABBY HERBST: People don't talk about it a lot. And I didn't actually anticipate it before I came to college, but, like, I had never eaten meals alone in high school before. If I feel like a little bit lonely or like I want to talk to somebody, I just come downstairs and sit in the kitchen.

STEPHANIE LEYDON: Where she and Atchison both find a perspective they couldn't get from a peer.

BRENDA ATCHISON: And you just never know. You just never know what you're going to talk about.

STEPHANIE LEYDON: That older and younger people enrich one another's lives isn't a surprise to Noelle Marcus. She moved from Boston to New York mainly to be close to her grandmother.

NOELLE MARCUS: She's 89, and she's one of my best friends.

STEPHANIE LEYDON: An inspiration for a housing innovation that helps two generations under one roof. For the PBS NewsHour, I'm Stephanie Leydon in Boston.

朱迪·伍德拉夫：全国各地的许多城市都饱受住房短缺之苦。但其实还有很多房子都处于空置状态。根据美国公众电台PBS记者斯蒂芬妮·莱登发回的报道，波士顿新兴了一种新技术，这种技术可以联结有预期房价的买家和有闲置房屋的房东。

斯蒂芬妮·莱登：在着手公共健康方面的研究所课程之前，艾比·赫布斯特上了数学方面的速成课。波士顿的人口太多，但住房数量却跟不上。

艾比·赫布斯特，研究生：其实，我给一个房产中介打过电话。但他们不愿意接我这个客户，主要是因为我没有预算，连普通的价格都付不起。所以我的预期地点就一点一点往外挪，直到挪到了城外。

斯蒂芬妮·莱登：但她还是找到了一个住处，离市政厅的校园只有20分钟的路程。这个房子卧室配有家具，厨房用具完备。房东名叫布伦达·艾奇逊。

布伦达·艾奇逊，房东：我们俩相处的很好，没什么不愉快的。

斯蒂芬妮·莱登：我们是通过一个分享房屋的网站认识的，这个网站叫Nesterly。网站的初衷是将需求适配的人联结到一起——只能在家活动的年长老人，但又需要他人的帮助。

布伦达·艾奇逊：在12英尺的天花板下，严冬里很难感受到温暖。所以多点温暖就更好了。

斯蒂芬妮·莱登：而年轻人也需要一个住处。艾比·赫布斯特每个月支付650美金，连工作室价格的一半都不到。此外，她要承担家务。

艾比·赫布斯特：我会做一些家务，比如倒垃圾、铲雪。

斯蒂芬妮·莱登：诺艾尔·马库斯第一次心生分享住处的想法是在她在波士顿生活期间。

诺艾尔·马库斯，Nesterly创办人：我在波士顿读研的时候，租房的价格很高。

斯蒂芬妮·莱登：她现在住在纽约。

诺艾尔·马库斯：我了解到纽约平均一个房间的价格都在3000美元之上。

斯蒂芬妮·莱登：或许比波士顿还贵。诺艾尔·马库斯：确实比波士顿还贵。

斯蒂芬妮·莱登：她表示，全国各地的许多城市都面临付不起房租的危机，这是由同一种趋势所导致的——住房需求有限，但房主群体愈发老龄化。

诺艾尔·马库斯：世界各地有来自280多个不同城市的6000多人联系我们，他们告诉我们，他们希望我们的服务能扩展到他们所在的城市。

斯蒂芬妮·莱登：这也是诺艾尔的目标。目前，Nesterly仅在波士顿可用。家里只要有空置的房间，大家就都会租出去的，不是吗？所以为什么需要Nesterly呢？

诺艾尔·马库斯：没错，根据美国退休者协会（AARP）提供的数据，45岁以上的人群中，有四成人认为自己对出租房屋感兴趣，但现在却仅有2%的人在对外出租房屋。

我们认为这种现象的原因是以前没有合适的产品和服务。

斯蒂芬妮·莱登：Nesterly会做背景审核，同时也提供支付系统和支持。曾经给纽约市长做过房产助手的马库斯认为，这个平台是一种渠道，可以缓解住房短缺的压力，也可以解决老龄人口和年轻人群的问题——孤独感。

艾比·赫布斯特：人们很少谈及孤独的问题。我在上大学之前也从未想过这个问题，但这就好像我高中时代吃饭一直都有伙伴一起一样。我每次稍微有孤独感袭来时，或者我想跟人说话的时候，我就会下楼到厨房里坐会儿。

斯蒂芬妮·莱登：就这样，艾奇逊和她都获得了无法从同龄人身上获得的视角。

布伦达·艾奇逊：经历过了，才懂得这种感受——你们的聊天内容可以是天南海北。

斯蒂芬妮·莱登：老龄人口和年轻人群能丰富彼此的生活，对于这一点，诺艾尔·马库斯并不感到吃惊。她从波士顿搬到了纽约，主要目的就是能跟奶奶离得近一些。

诺艾尔·马库斯：奶奶她89岁了，她是我最好的朋友之一。

斯蒂芬妮·莱登：在住房上的这样一丝灵感让两代人共处一个屋檐下。感谢收听斯蒂芬妮·莱登从波士顿发回的《新闻一小时》。

1 affordable   

adj.支付得起的，不太昂贵的

参考例句：

• The rent for the four-roomed house is affordable.四居室房屋的房租付得起。
• There are few affordable apartments in big cities.在大城市中没有几所公寓是便宜的。

2 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

3 smoothly   

adv.平滑地，顺利地，流利地，流畅地

参考例句：

• The workmen are very cooperative,so the work goes on smoothly.工人们十分合作，所以工作进展顺利。
• Just change one or two words and the sentence will read smoothly.这句话只要动一两个字就顺了。

4 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

5 affordability   

可购性

参考例句：

• Performance-Based Logistics Affordability: Can We Afford Categorical Conversion to Performance-Based Acquisition? 基于性能的后期的可承受性：能否担负得起向基于性能的采办的无条件的转变？
• There would be no crisis of affordability, as't for food or clothing. 就想食物与服装一样，因为供给没有危机。

6 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。