Ending Homelessness: What is to Be Done

Nadia Neimanas (Arizona State University) joins the podcast to continue our aof connections between homelessness and climate change. Focusing on research based mostly in the Phoenix, Arizona area, we discuss how climate change is impacting conditions in the area, how that is accelerated with the population growth and related urban heat, and how that has been impacting the well being of community members with particular focus on unhoused and older residents. Hundreds of people have been dying in recent years due to the extreme heat in the region. How is the community responding? Nadia Neimanas shares her research on how climate change exacerbates homelessness and the health risks associated with rising temperatures. The conversation explores the multifaceted impacts of extreme heat on vulnerable populations, particularly focusing on the homeless and farm workers. It discusses the challenges of cooling centers, the physiological and social vulnerabilities of older adults, and the need for systemic changes to address housing insecurity and climate adaptation with a discussion of both what is being done in response and what might be done as well.

Professor Max Buchholz joins Vin Lyon-Callo on the Ending Homelessness: What Is to Be Done? podcast. Their conversation explores the housing affordability crisis in the U.S., examining the disconnect between housing costs and income levels, and the effectiveness of proposed solutions. Dr. Max Buchholz discusses the complexities of housing supply, demand, and the role of government intervention in addressing these issues. The popular notion that there is a supply of housing shortage and that interventions to cut regulations to add housing supply will resolve the affordability problems are critiques using empirical data. Further discussion explores the problematic notion of "affordable housing". Affordable for whom? Will there be any housing affordable for people earning below area median income or for the tens of millions of households in the US who are at very low incomes? The conversation delves into the complexities of housing affordability, income inequality, the impact of private equity firms on various places and types of housing, and the impact of various income sources on housing markets. It emphasizes the need for a multifaceted approach to address these issues, moving beyond simplistic solutions like deregulation and actually addressing the impacts of inequalities.

The earth's climate is being changed from human actions under fossil fuel driven climate change. Too much water with flooding in some places and not enough with extreme droughts and drying aquifers and rivers in other locations. More extreme weather that is much less predictable. Extreme heat and extreme cold. All of us are being impacted, but these changes are making homelessness worse and having even more severe impacts for those who are unhoused and housing insecure. Rob Robinson joins the podcast again. The conversation explores the intricate connections between climate change, housing instability, and homelessness, emphasizing the urgent need for humanitarian responses. It discusses the impact of extreme weather events, the role of capitalism, and the importance of education and local and global solutions in addressing these interconnected issues. We need to move beyond the hope that there are solutions within capitalism and have the courage to desire and enact both interventions that will keep people safe in the short terms and work to produce alternative economic and political and social systems in the time we have left. These are issues that we will be exploring in more local detail in upcoming episodes of the podcast as well.

Economic insecurity, housing insecurity, and emotional insecurity are rampant in North America today.  Are these interconnected or separate issues?  If we are to fully understand homelessness and housing challenges, don’t we need to consider the material and non-material conditions that help to produce and maintain homelessness in interconnected ways?  Do sentiments about who deserve housing or even to live well need to be considered?  What can be done?  Can homelessness be prevented? Can people thrive after homelessness? Is housing itself a solution?  I am thrilled to have Carrie Anne Marshall join me on the Ending Homelessness: What is to Be Done? podcast today to discuss work done with a range of colleagues that can help lend important insights to these questions.Professor Marshall is Director of the Social Justice in Mental Health Research Lab in the School of Occupational Therapy at Western University in Ontario and the Research Chair in Homelessness Prevention and Mental Health Equity there as well.   She is the co-author on multiple insightful research papers that we draw from in our discussion as well as the 2026 co-authored book “Bridging the Transition to Housing: A Homelessness Prevention Framework. The conversation explores the interconnected issues of economic, housing, and emotional insecurity, particularly in the context of homelessness. It emphasizes the importance of social connections and community support in addressing these challenges. The conversation delves into the multifaceted challenges of homelessness, emphasizing the importance of community connection, a life with meaning, countering loneliness and boredom, the stigma faced by unhoused individuals, and the need for systemic change in addressing these issues. It highlights the experiences of both those affected by homelessness and the service providers working to support them, the possibilities of prevention of homelessness, and the hope for crafting communities and housing where people can thrive rather than just survive.

Vin Lyon-Callo explores the interconnected social and economic conditions that contribute to homelessness, emphasizing the need to address broader systemic issues such as housing affordability, economic disparities, and racial inequalities. It also highlights the importance of community connections and the impact of neoliberal capitalist-driven inequalities on homelessness and despair as well as the possibilities of working to alter those conditions to prevent and end homelessness.