THIS EPISODE: The Housing Crisis in Trump’s America
We can learn a lot about evictions and the housing crisis from cities in other countries, all over the world. Often, we draw comparisons to our neighbour just south of the border: the United States. Just like us, renters in the States are dealing with soaring rent prices, a lack of security of tenure, and the threat of eviction. But they’re also dealing with a second Trump presidency that threatens to remove protections for renters, scrap housing programs, and defund research into solving the housing crisis
Tim Thomas is Research Director of the Urban Displacement Project at University of California, Berkeley. He tells us about the hurdles renters in America face, the racial bias inherent in many of the laws governing evictions and displacement, and how housing advocates and academics are scrambling to come to terms with Trump 2.0:
What is happening now is definitely is impacting the sanity of most people who are aware of these circumstances. But it’s definitely going to hit the pocketbooks, the housing, the economy. And it’s just a matter of time before we see how that will play out. Realistically, we were already on a track, without this presidency, to have more people entering into homelessness than we ever have before. And I can only imagine that every negative situation that we’ve been studying will likely be exacerbated.
What is the future of the housing crisis in America, and what can Canada learn from the political situation there?
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