The housing crisis is an economic, political,
and democratic crisis that has spread from superstar cities like San Francisco
and Boston to now impacting every state in the country.
Shelter is a fundamental need,
but also where you live determines so much about whether
or not you'll go to a good school or go to college,
about your health,
since there's so much local variation with things like air quality, even your wages.
And on a larger scale,
a broken housing market can undermine national GDP and labor productivity
and has spawned a cost crisis in service industries like daycare.
But on the most fundamental level, housing policy shapes the way your life works.
If you can live near your family or friends,
that changes whether you feel comfortable having a child or whether you'll get support when you do.
If you're a senior and are no longer able to afford to stay in your community,
you could have to prematurely move into an assisted living home,
cutting yourself off from younger generations.
Broken housing markets undermine communities.
So why are housing markets broken?
My name's Jerusalem Demzes.