Everybody talks about it, but no one seems able to solve the problem of homelessness. Every night, nearly 48,000 New Yorkers sleep in shelters. Almost 15,000 are children. And the number of people sleeping on the streets is just too big to count.

We’ve seen all kinds of programs, from housing to food stamps, run by the city and private organizations. But still, the numbers rise, and as the pandemic rages, those numbers have risen to proportions not seen since the Great Depression in the 1930s.

Public Advocate Jumaane Williams has been saying for years that the only solution to homelessness is affordable housing. He joins In Focus to talk about his plans for making housing affordable for all New Yorkers, including universal rent control and mandating the building of housing that’s affordable for low- and very-low-income families. 

He says he believes the outgoing administration has been a near-total failure on the issue of affordable housing, and he expresses his hope that the next administration will adopt policies that will bring the homeless numbers down.