The United States is experiencing the worst housing crisis since the Great Depression. The widespread unaffordability of shelter is rooted in stagnating wages, the history of racist lending practices, and a political and economic system rigged against working people.

In many of our cities, gentrification exacerbates the housing crisis for communities of color, often displacing longtime residents, while in other cities and towns we see continuing disinvestment and decline. In both cases, families and individuals face housing markets that don’t provide safe, decent, affordable housing.

In the worst-case scenario, people are without a home. The scourge of homelessness — which has exploded since the late 1980s — is the direct result of low wages, rising housing prices, inadequate health services, and criminalization of the poor (particularly people of color). To our national shame, over 30 percent of our homeless population are families with children.