Undoing What Wall Street Did to the Housing Market

Oct 25, 2024

With just weeks remaining before the Nov. 5 election, Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are crisscrossing the country with campaign stops and speeches to make their final appeals to voters. Housing is close to the top of the list of economic issues voters say they are concerned with鈥攁nd Harris has unveiled some specific plans, including offering first-time home buyers toward down payments and building .

A new report by the Institute for Policy Studies and Popular Democracy called 鈥溾€� highlights a rarely named but significant contributor to the current housing crisis: billionaire investors who have spent years buying up surplus residential properties and entering the long-term rental and short-term vacation markets, as well as engaging in real estate speculation. The report also documents how grassroots housing rights and tenant rights groups are fighting back.

Chuck Collins, lead author of the report, is director of the at the Institute for Policy Studies, where he co-edits . He spoke with YES! Senior Editor Sonali Kolhatkar on YES! Presents: Rising Up With Sonali about how to end the housing crisis.

Sonali Kolhatkar joined YES! in summer 2021, building on a long and decorated career in broadcast and print journalism. She is an award-winning multimedia journalist, and host and creator of聽YES! Presents: Rising Up with Sonali, a nationally syndicated television and radio program airing on Free Speech TV and dozens of independent and community radio stations. She is also Senior Correspondent with the Independent 麻豆社事件 Institute鈥檚 Economy for All project where she writes a weekly column. She is the author of聽Rising Up: The Power of Narrative in Pursuing Racial Justice聽(2023) and聽Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence聽(2005). Her forthcoming book is called聽Talking About Abolition聽(Seven Stories Press, 2025). Sonali is co-director of the nonprofit group, Afghan Women鈥檚 Mission which she helped to co-found in 2000. She has a Master鈥檚 in Astronomy from the University of Hawai鈥檌, and two undergraduate degrees in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin. Sonali reflects on 鈥淢y Journey From Astrophysicist to Radio Host鈥� in her 2014聽聽of the same name.