We cannot solve homelessness with homeless programs

  On a single night in January 2021, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) recorded more than 580,000 people experiencing homelessness. During that same year, close to 1.45 million people were homeless at some time. These numbers have increased every year since 2015, a consequence of a severe shortage of affordable housing. Ann Oliva, Vice President for Housing Policy at The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) walks us through a plan for ending this crisis. It starts with facing up to America's history of racist policy making, which has created generational inequities in communities of color. And she believes in our capacity to turn this crisis around with new policies, targeted resources and well-crafted implementation of large-scale solutions. Ann regularly testifies before Congress, making data-based policy recommendations for achieving transformational change. She points to the tsunami of evictions prevented by a robust investment in rental assistance in the American Rescue Plan. This is proof of concept of what policy making can do when the political will is there.