US election special #3: the housing crisis (part 2)

The United States is facing a severe housing crisis.  As millions are laid off around the country, there is not a single US state where the number of affordable homes to let matches the number of low-income people looking to rent. Where people can find shelter, three quarters of all extremely low-income families pay more than half their income in rent. With eviction moratoriums now lifting across the country and Congress stalling over a new relief package, recent reports suggest that up to 43 million Americans could face eviction in the coming months. In part one of our documentary podcast on the US housing crisis, we explored how racial discrimination is a foundational theme in the history of US federal housing policy, and examined the negligence of President Trump’s tenure in the context of decades of disinvestment and privatization by successive administrations. In part two, we consider the failure of existing policy frameworks to deal with the housing crisis, and examine how popular movements are proposing radical new policies – reshaping the political discourse on housing in the midst of the 2020 US election cycle.