SPECIAL | The housing crisis is worsening. What's the solution?
The Excerpt
USA TODAY
4.1 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 14 December 2023
⏱️ 12 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
More than half a million people are homeless today. As winter approaches, shelters in New York City and Los Angeles are now past capacity. In New York, people in those shelters are starting to be evicted. And as rents across the country continue to soar, the number of people living without adequate shelter will continue to grow. What can we do to solve our housing crisis? Mary Cunningham, the Vice President of Metropolitan Housing and Communities Policy at the Urban Institute, joins us to share the best strategies to get more people into homes.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Wunderry Plus subscribers can listen to USA Today's The Excerpt, ad free right now. |
| 0:05.0 | Join Wunderry Plus in the Wundery app. |
| 0:08.0 | Hello and |
| 0:15.0 | this is a special episode of the excerpt. |
| 0:17.0 | This is a special episode of the excerpt. |
| 0:30.0 | Every year, more and more people are ending up on the streets. Right now as winter approaches, shelters in New York City and Los Angeles are past capacity. |
| 0:35.7 | And in New York, people in those shelters are starting to be evicted. |
| 0:39.8 | More than 580,000 are homeless today. |
| 0:43.0 | And as rents across the country continue to soar, |
| 0:46.0 | the number of people living without adequate shelter |
| 0:49.0 | will continue to grow. |
| 0:50.0 | What can we do to solve our housing crisis? Our guest today has some ideas. |
| 0:55.2 | Mary Cunningham is the Vice President of Metropolitan Housing and Community Policy |
| 1:00.7 | at the Urban Institute. Mary, thanks for being on the excerpt. |
| 1:04.3 | Thanks for having me. |
| 1:06.0 | People listening to this might think that the homeless crisis and housing crisis are two distinct issues. Are they and if not why? |
| 1:15.7 | They are not two distinct issues. |
| 1:17.9 | Homelessness is a housing problem. The rise in homelessness has been driven largely by the rise in our affordable housing crisis. |
| 1:28.0 | People have trouble paying rent, they face eviction, and then they end up homeless and usually people think |
| 1:36.1 | about homelessness as a substance use challenge or mental health crisis and |
| 1:40.7 | indeed some people who experience homelessness do have those |
| 1:43.6 | challenges but for the most part if we had enough affordable housing we |
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