Gimme Shelter: The California Housing Crisis Podcast

August 2017 — March 2023

With California’s housing costs continuing to rise, I co-founded a podcast in summer 2017 to dig deeply into the sources of the problem. Over the next five and a half years, we published more than 100 episodes breaking down a particular aspect of the California’s housing troubles and included an interview with a housing expert or newsmaker.

Gimme Shelter: The California Housing Crisis Pod · What do mountain lions have to do with California housing?

AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s efforts failed Skid Row residents

KCRW, November 21, 2023

My interview on KCRW, a Los Angeles public radio affiliate, dug into our investigation of the world’s largest AIDS charity’s troubled tenure operating single-room occupancy hotels in Skid Row.

As freeways expand, Black and Latino communities bear the brunt

NPR All Things Considered, December 12, 2021

I discussed our investigation on how modern-day freeway projects are continuing to displace residents in Black and Latino neighborhoods on NPR’s weekend news show. The piece also addresses concerns that $1-trillion infrastructure law signed by President Biden in 2021 could further exacerbate these harms.

Why Rent is Skyrocketing Nationwide

NBC News Now, February 22, 2022

Rents across the country and especially in California have skyrocketed in recent years. I joined NBC News NOW Tonight’s Joshua Johnson to discuss why a lack of housing supply and a dearth of funding for low-income development is at the root of the problem. (The conversation begins at the 43:30 mark of the episode.)

“Crime-Free Housing” and Modern Day Redlining with Liam Dillon

Factually! Podcast, December 28, 2020

I spoke at length with comedian Adam Conover about the housing affordability crisis in California and across the country for his Factually! podcast. We also discuss in depth our investigation of crime-free housing policies in California and how they’ve discriminated against Black and Latino renters in the state.

Listen on Factually!

Randall Lewis Seminar Series: California’s Housing Crisis

UC Riverside, October 5, 2017

California’s high cost of housing is a political problem caused in part because the state Legislature cannot agree to fundamental changes to rules for how homebuilding is approved and financed. In an interview for the Randall Lewis Seminar Series at UC Riverside, I explained why so many interest groups are at odds and why the Legislature doesn’t solve the problem.