Meet the N&O’s Report for America reporter Ben Sessoms, covering housing and COVID-19

Hello, readers. I recently joined the coronavirus Recovery Lab to cover housing and gentrification for The News & Observer and The Herald-Sun in a partnership with Report for America.

Before joining this team, I covered long-term hurricane recovery in eastern North Carolina for Carnegie-Knight News21 at Arizona State University. More recently, I covered education in Iredell County for the Statesville Record & Landmark.

Born and raised in Kinston and a graduate of Appalachian State University, I’ve been a North Carolinian my whole life, and I’ve grown to love and appreciate my state and hometown.

But my hometown along with most other parts of eastern North Carolina has struggled throughout my life, as economic disinvestment and flooding from hurricanes Floyd, Matthew and Florence have devastated the region.

Economic recoveries since the 2008 recession have left the most vulnerable populations behind as well.

In tandem, local newspapers have lost resources and downsized staff, losing systems of accountability that local journalism brings. I don’t believe this loss of accountability paired with growing economic inequality is a coincidence.

North Carolina, along with the rest of the nation, now faces a new crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic. As we begin to endure and eventually recover from the coronavirus, it will be important to investigate how North Carolina recovers and which communities are being left behind.

That’s where our coronavirus Recovery Lab comes in — to hold to account those in charge of public funding and to give a platform to those most affected by the impacts of this pandemic.

I’ve been covering evictions, and I’ll continue to follow this issue in the coming weeks as housing advocates and legal experts predict a spike due to individual income loss from the coronavirus. If you or someone you know are dealing with an eviction or other pandemic-related crises, we’d like to hear from you. Email me at bsessoms@newsobserver.com, or text or message me securely on Signal at (919) 307-7726.

I’ve seen what happens when a strong local newspaper is absent from a community, and in this moment during this crisis, local journalism is more important than ever.

I hope you’ll consider supporting my work through a subscription to The News & Observer or The Herald-Sun, newsobserver.com/subscribe. You can also contribute directly to the non-profit Report for America, an organization that places professional journalists in local newsrooms around the country.

I’m looking forward to continuing my coverage of this community with the care and appreciation it deserves.

This story was originally published July 22, 2020 at 6:00 AM.