Home in Jeopardy: Julián Castro on the American Housing Crisis

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Former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Obama, American lawyer and politician Julián Castro weighs in on the American housing crisis. More than seven million Americans are behind on rent, according to the latest Census survey, and, despite tens of billions of dollars in rental assistance approved by Congress, much of it has been slow to be distributed to states and localities. According to a 2019 StreetEasy study, Manhattanites living in a one-bedroom would need to make a gross income of $115,800–twice the NYC median of $57,782, to live comfortably in the borough. Castro will discuss how addressing the issue of housing insecurity demands a robust, multi-year, government-wide strategy to not only increase the supply of affordable housing, but also to ensure that low-income families can afford a place to call HOME.

This event is part of our year-long exploration on the theme of “Home, What does it look like now?” How can we reconsider home in the 21st century as we cross states and borders seeking comfort, safety and identity? Against the backdrop of a global pandemic and state sanctioned violence against black bodies, the Center for Black Visual Culture (CBVC) will explore the significant ways black visual narratives respond to the cultural, dynamic political, social, economic as well intimate changes that force us to (re)interrogate previous conceptions of home.

Cosponsored by the Latinx Project; the Office of Global Inclusion, Diversity, and Strategic Innovation; the Institute of Public Knowledge; the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality; the 370J Project, NYU; and the Department of Photography & Imaging, NYU Tisch School of the Arts.