📉 The U.S. housing crisis is hitting the lowest-income renters the hardest.

According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition’s @nlihc 2026 Gap Report, there are 11 million extremely low-income renter households in the United States but only 3.8 million homes that are both affordable and available to them.

That leaves a shortage of 7.2 million homes nationwide.

🏡 The result is devastating. 87% of extremely low-income renters are cost-burdened and 74% spend more than half their income on rent and utilities, leaving little or nothing for food, healthcare, childcare, or transportation.

This crisis affects every state and every major metro area. Addressing it will require stronger investments in rental assistance, preservation of affordable housing, and policies that ensure housing is accessible to the families who need it most.

🔗 Read the full report using the link in our bio: The Gap: A Shortage of Affordable Homes (2026) — National Low Income Housing Coalition …

🏭 Residents of the Colleton County Black community are facing challenges related to a contentious $5 billion gas power plant and pipeline needed for a data center.

An article from Capital B News @capitalbnews shows that this project could become one of the largest in the South, following failed attempts to build a similar campus in a predominantly white county in Georgia.

Federal agencies have been directed to fast-track AI data centers on contaminated sites, including a nearby one.

🌳 This proposal threatens timberland and wetlands and is part of a broader expansion of energy-intensive facilities in South Carolina. Santee Cooper and Dominion Energy are advocating for the gas plant along the Edisto River, but its costs have already doubled, sparking environmental concerns over air quality, water resources, and wildlife habitats.

For years, Black residents have fought for the cleanup of Superfund sites as part of the environmental justice movement. The plan to build data centers on these hazardous sites has raised alarm among advocates, who see it as compromising community health for commercial gains.

🛢️ The proposed gas plant for the Colleton County data center may result in over $30 million in local healthcare costs due to increased respiratory illnesses, as noted by the Southern Environmental Law Center. Gas power plants emit harmful pollutants that disproportionately affect Black Americans, while diesel backup generators can worsen air pollution in nearby non-white communities.

Black Americans have the highest death rates from pollution in the U.S. Data centers pose health risks due to their diesel backup generators, which emit harmful particles similar to those from gas power plants.

⛔ Researchers found that about 4 million people live within one mile of these centers, exposing them to higher levels of diesel exhaust and other pollutants, primarily affecting predominantly non-white communities.

🔗 Read the full article in the link in bio

#CAREequity #CARENews …

📍 The story of segregation in America didn’t happen on accident, it was designed by American policy.

Historian Richard Rothstein, author of ‘The Color of Law’ argues that federal housing programs created after the Great Depression deliberately separated white and Black communities. Through policies like redlining, federal agencies denied mortgage insurance in neighborhoods with Black residents while subsidizing white suburban developments that excluded them.

🚧 Public housing followed a similar pattern. Early projects were built for working-class families but were segregated by race. When federal programs later helped white families move to suburban neighborhoods, public housing became concentrated with low-income residents and communities of color.

These policies didn’t just shape neighborhoods, they forever shaped opportunity.

🏡 Homeownership allowed many white families to build wealth, send their children to college, and pass resources to future generations. Families who were excluded from those opportunities were left far behind.

Understanding this history helps explain why housing inequality persists today.

📖 Source: @npr / Fresh Air interview with Richard Rothstein @nprfreshair

🔗 Read the full story at the link in our bio.

#CAREequity …

💔 Dr. Michele L. Whitney`s @drmichelelisa groundbreaking phenomenological study, Understanding Grief Experiences of Pet Loss Among African Americans (Walden University @waldenuniversity, 2025), addresses a critical gap in human-animal bond research.

The Study: 23 African American adults in the Midwest who experienced pet loss during adulthood participated in semi-structured interviews.

📑 The Framework: Grounded in the Dual Process Model of coping with bereavement (DPM), which examines how individuals oscillate between loss-oriented coping (grief work) and restoration-oriented coping (adapting to life after loss).

🔎 Key Findings: Eight primary themes emerged, capturing the lived experiences of participants: (a) familial bonds and pet relationships, (b) anticipatory grief, (c) disenfranchised grief, (d) grief confrontation, (e) grief avoidance, (f) post-loss social support, (g) grief inequities, and (h) spiritual and emotional growth.

This research informs culturally relevant practices in human services, mental health, and bereavement care.

💡 Read Dr. Whitney`s full research using the link in our bio

#CAREequity …