Our Housing Crisis on Video, Part 2
Still image from “But I Have Hope As I’m Organizing”: A Movement for Tenant Power
This piece originally appeared on Fran Quigley’s blog Housing Is A Human Right on May 2, 2025.
Two years ago, I shared the post Our Housing Crisis on Video. Any teacher can relate to the genesis of that post. My students have to listen to me talk way too much in our classroom sessions, not to mention in our court and client work. They often have to read my articles or book excerpts, too. So I work to include some other voices and sources in our discussions, especially short videos.
To supplement the five housing videos I shared in May, 2023, here are five more.
“How Do We Pay for It?” Anyone who argues for dramatically more and better public housing and universal access to housing vouchers needs to address this question. Fortunately, there is a silver bullet to be found in redirecting the enormous housing subsidies we already provide to corporate landlords and the wealthiest homeowners. I lay that response out in some detail in this article . For a quicker review, former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich provides a six-minute “What if We Actually Taxed the Rich?” discussion here. (Reich is also a good follow on social media: he puts time and effort into creating brief, accessible policy arguments.)
The Humanity of the Unhoused. “Lead Me Home” is a 40-minute documentary from 2021 available here with a Netflix subscription. Unhoused people tell their own stories and the camera accompanies some of them on their workdays and their time sleeping in shelters, encampments, and cars. The film does not pretend to offer prescriptions, but the humanity of our homeless sisters and brothers is laid out here, often in painfully honest depictions.
Homelessness is a Housing Problem. I had the privilege of raving about University of Washington professor Gregg Colburn’s and data journalist Clayton Alderman’s terrific book, Housing is a Homelessness Problem. The bottom line, as the title suggests: availability and affordability of housing is the reason for homelessness--not mental illness, drug use, etc. You can order the book here. But Colburn is also a compelling teacher and speaker, so you can hear him describe the research and conclusions in this 17-minute video.
Our Ongoing Legacy of Sanctioned Housing Racism. Richard Rothstein’s Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America is the go-to description about sanctioned and enforced housing racism and the devastating effects that continue to this day. I have written about that topic myself in a three-part series of articles. Rothstein himself narrates a 17-minute video, Segregated by Design, that tells the story about how our federal, state and local governments used law and policy to unconstitutionally segregate every major metropolitan area in America.
Tenant Union Power! I have written many times about the inspiring tenant union movement in the U.S. , including here, here, and here. In case you missed it, I have in the past shouted out a powerful 11-minute video following the fights—and wins—of the Louisville Tenants Union and Not Me We in Chicago, both part of the Tenant Union Federation. The video, “But I Have Hope As I’m Organizing”: A Movement for Tenant Power, features tenant leaders and organizers working for justice in settings ranging from Chicago buildings to Kentucky mobile home parks.
Please share your ideas for other good video sources in the comments here or email me at quigley2@iu.edu. I will thank you, as will future students!
