HOMELESSNESS CAN BE DEFEATED, FIGHT BIG REAL ESTATE

Nithya Raman

PEOPLE sleeping rough on the streets is just the tip of New Zealand's homelessness crisis. Rough sleeping is  the more visible manifestation of a housing crisis that extends to people living out of cars, 'couch surfing' and entire families confined to just one room. The stuttering supply of social housing combined with rocketing rents and low incomes means that New Zealand now has a homelessness crisis that has continued to deepen.

The United States has its own homelessness crisis. And, as in New Zealand, it is largely the result of a lack of affordable housing. As the gap between income and housing costs continues to grow, more and more people are facing homelessness. On any given night in the United States is it estimated that more than half a million people are sleeping rough.

In this new episode of The Empire Files, Abby Martin talks 

with Nithya Raman, progressive candidate for the Los Angeles City Council in District 4, about her campaign to end homelessness in the nation's epicentre and how local politicians refuse to take easy actions to eradicate the problem – because it would threaten the interests of big real estate developers.

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