Power Station

What stories have we heard, and beliefs have we internalized, to explain the crisis level numbers of Americans who are on the brink of losing their housing or are already experiencing homelessness? Do we blame the individuals? Is the problem intractable? Years of study illuminates the facts: we have a profound dual problem of affordability and supply. Our federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour is responsible for a wage to rent disparity that causes extremely low income Americans to pay more than half of their income on rent. And a shortage of 7.1 million affordable housing units makes it inevitable that 77,000 Americans have no home at all. That data and more is captured in seminal reports produced by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, which has been at the forefront of tenant-led policy advocacy for decades. On this episode of Power Station, Renee Willis, the Coalition’s exceptional new President and CEO shares the life experience that guides her leadership in this most challenging of times. As she s