Fred Clasen-Kelly, Senior Correspondent, reports enterprise and investigative articles focused on the South from his base in Charlotte, North Carolina. Previously, he wrote about housing, racial inequality, and social justice in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Virginia for the USA Today Network and was on The Charlotte Observer’s investigation team. Clasen-Kelly started his career at his hometown newspaper, The Saginaw News, in Michigan, and later moved to The Indianapolis Star, covering law enforcement, courts, and local government. His work has been recognized with a Sigma Delta Chi award for public service journalism, the Annie E. Casey Medal, a Green Eyeshade Award, and other honors. He is a graduate of Central Michigan University.
For years, federal lawmakers have failed to deliver the money needed to fix derelict public housing, leaving tenants — mostly people of color and families with low incomes — living with mold and gun violence that has had lasting health consequences.
A nationwide affordable housing crisis has wreaked havoc on the lives of low-income families, like Louana Joseph’s in Atlanta, who are close to the brink. Their struggle to stay a step ahead of homelessness is often invisible.
