Housing is absolutely essential to human flourishing. Without stable shelter, it all falls apart.

I don't think that you can address poverty unless you address the lack of affordable housing in the cities.

If incarceration had come to define the lives of men from impoverished black neighborhoods, eviction was shaping the lives of women. Poor black men were locked up. Poor black women were locked out.

I don't think we can fix poverty without fixing housing, and I don't think we can address housing without understanding landlords.

We can start with housing, the sturdiest of footholds for economic mobility. A national affordable housing program would be an anti-poverty effort, human capital investment, community improvement plan, and public health initiative all rolled into one.

If poverty persists in America, it is not for lack of resources. We lack something else.

All homeowners in America may deduct mortgage interest on their first and second homes.

We have failed to fully appreciate how deeply housing is implicated in the creation of poverty.

Do we believe housing is a right and that affordable housing is part of what it should mean to be an American? I say yes.