<p>This week on The Intercept Briefing: What does it mean to work full-time in America and still not afford a place to live? We're resharing our conversation with journalist <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/brian-goldstone.bsky.social" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Brian Goldstone</a>, whose new book “<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/645871/there-is-no-place-for-us-by-brian-goldstone/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America</a>,” examines this growing crisis. Goldstone's book — a finalist for the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction — reveals how people holding down jobs are increasingly living in their cars, motels, shelters, or on the streets. This episode originally aired August 29, 2025.</p><br><p><strong>Episode Description: </strong></p><p>Homeless sweeps have become the go-to, bipartisan performance of “doing something” about the U.S. housing crisis — a spectacle<a href="https://theintercept.com/2022/04/04/homeless-sweeps-eric-adams-liberal-cities/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> embraced by Democrats</a> and Republicans, city halls, and the White House alike. But sweeps are not a solution. They’re a way to make homelessness less visible while the crisis deepens.</p><p>The roots stretch back decades. President Ronald Reagan’s Tax Reform Act of 1986 pulled the federal government out of building and maintaining public housing, paving the way for a fragmented patchwork scheme of vouchers and tax credits. The result is the system we live with today — one that does little to stem the tide.</p><p>Last year, more than<a href="https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2025/we-can-end-homelessness-in-america" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> 700,000</a> people were officially counted as homeless, the highest number ever recorded. Nearly 150,000 of them were children. And that number leaves out the “hidden homeless”: families doubling up in cramped apartments or bouncing between motels.</p><p>“What causes homelessness, in the 1980s as now, is a lack of access to housing that poor and working-class people can afford,” says Brian Goldstone, journalist and author of the new book “<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/645871/there-is-no-place-for-us-by-brian-goldstone/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America.</a>”</p><p>This week on The Intercept Briefing, Goldstone tells host Laura Flynn that the housing emergency is no accident; it’s the product of deliberate political choices: “It's an engineered abandonment of not thousands, not hundreds of thousands, but millions of families.”</p><p>Listen to the full conversation of The Intercept Briefing on<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-intercept-briefing/id1195206601" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> Apple Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/2js8lwDRiK1TB4rUgiYb24?si=e3ce772344ee4170" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Spotify</a>, or wherever you listen.</p><p>You can support our work at <a href="http://theintercept.com/join" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">theintercept.com/join</a>. Your donation, no matter the amount, makes a real difference. </p><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>
