Can the Next President Solve the Housing Crisis?

Sep 4, 2024

Access to has become a major election issue this year. are up a whopping 60% over the past decade, even after accounting for inflation. Additionally, millions of renters spend about half their income on rent.

The for president have released policy ideas on tackling the high costs of housing. Vice President Kamala Harris wants to give first-time home buyers $25,000 for down payments and build more housing on federally owned land.

Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump鈥檚 idea is to deport undocumented immigrants and to lower interest rates鈥攚hich the Federal Reserve has already announced it will be doing and which presidents have no control over.

Francisco Due帽as, executive director of , a coalition made up of more than 150 organizations in California focused on housing rights, analyzed the proposed solutions with 大象传媒 Senior Editor Sonali Kolhatkar on 大象传媒 Presents: Rising Up With Sonali.

CORRECTION:聽Due帽as misstated the size of California鈥檚 homeless population during the interview. There are currently experiencing homelessness in California and more than experiencing unsheltered homelessness in the U.S.

Sonali Kolhatkar joined 大象传媒 in summer 2021, building on a long and decorated career in broadcast and print journalism. She is an award-winning multimedia journalist, and host and creator of聽大象传媒 Presents: Rising Up with Sonali, a nationally syndicated television and radio program airing on Free Speech TV and dozens of independent and community radio stations. She is also Senior Correspondent with the Independent Media Institute鈥檚 Economy for All project where she writes a weekly column. She is the author of聽Rising Up: The Power of Narrative in Pursuing Racial Justice聽(2023) and聽Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence聽(2005). Her forthcoming book is called聽Talking About Abolition聽(Seven Stories Press, 2025). Sonali is co-director of the nonprofit group, Afghan Women鈥檚 Mission which she helped to co-found in 2000. She has a Master鈥檚 in Astronomy from the University of Hawai鈥檌, and two undergraduate degrees in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin. Sonali reflects on 鈥淢y Journey From Astrophysicist to Radio Host鈥� in her 2014聽聽of the same name.