For some Americans home ownership is a way to build wealth for future generations. But West Virginia presents the complexities and nuances of that reality. The Mountain State has the nation’s highest homeownership rate but the second lowest personal income rate. And much of the state’s housing is old and needs repair. In one West Virginia county, 67 percent of the homes are more than 80 years old and half rate below normal on standard quality measures. By several measures there are 500,000 people living in such conditions. In this encore Us & Them — which was recently honored by the Virginias Associated Press Broadcasters for Best Podcast — we travel just across the state line to Western Virginia to experience a side of the housing crisis we don't often see — structures in disrepair that people call home.

There are more challenges now for people who live at the intersection of addiction, homelessness and the criminal justice system. New laws in about a dozen states echo aspects of the 2024 Safer Kentucky Act, which enhances penalties for violent crimes, drug crimes, shoplifting and carjacking, and bans public camping. On this encore episode of Us & Them, host Trey Kay returns to Kentucky to check on the consequences of the new tough-on-crime law. In cities, the demand for long term and transitional housing remains acute, while in small town Appalachia the access to any social safety net can be far, far away.

Children are often described as the future. But in many rural communities across America, the path to bringing a child into the world is getting longer — sometimes literally. Across the country, families are traveling farther and farther from home to deliver babies. Since the end of 2020, 124 rural hospitals have closed or announced plans to close their labor-and-delivery units — about two closures a month. As small hospitals struggle with rising costs and staffing shortages, obstetrics departments are often among the first services to disappear. In this encore episode of Us & Them, host Trey Kay hears from families living with those changes — and explores what the loss of maternity care could mean for the future of rural towns and communities.