DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE
MARTIN SPELLMAN
"I partly agree with Senator Murphy here, we need to focus on building up affordable housing for America's future generations. So I wholeheartedly support proposals that will seek to invest in blighted communities to build safer and better housing with subsidies and statues that will make sure that the communities that are uplifted are not driven away because of runaway costs. Likewise, I intend to implement real laws on the books that make these new homes for our future families and future children are actually built for their type of future, meaning enforcing environmental guidelines and ensuring even during construction, waste and carbon pollution is effectively eliminated. And ensuring that any new housing project is investing in and contracting with local construction companies, not handing out checks to big name, Wall Street owned companies."
"But look, and there's one thing here that Levi forgot to address. That people who can't afford housing isn't the rich. It's the working class, it's our African-American and Hispanic-American communities. It's our tribal communities and rural towns. So first and foremost, we need to immediately fight gentrification and suburban sprawl. Communities like Harlem in America's cities, communities that are being invaded by corporate investors and Wall Street developers, they need to be armed with the tools to actually fight back including laws that seek to defend and protect their neighborhoods. Just like rural communities are forced to compete with encroaching suburbs that raise costs of living. Simply put, let's focus on helping the hard working farmer, the working-class family, the young black and Hispanic mother stay in their home, build wealth, and not have to worry about keeping a damn roof over their head!"
Once the moderator asked his second question, Spellman responded.
"Here's why California is expensive. It's a growing state, not just because people are moving to the state from right here in America but from other countries. Not to mention new housing development is lagging behind in the state all the while many of the rich foreign investors and Wall Street bankers are buying up affordable housing and invading communities that used to be affordable. So for me, the solution is clear. We need to focus on a long term solution like defending communities from these elitist one percenters and build more affordable housing."
"But right now, something we can do today, and something so many Americans are calling for despite politicians not listening, is the official announcement of a housing emergency in our nation's cities and rural communities and implementing immediate rent control and mortgage relief. So not only no family, no veteran, and no child in America becomes homeless but to effectively guarantee housing for every family, every veteran, and every child currently homeless in this country. Let's remember that American poverty is a political issue, and it's one I intend to solve. It's time to make the threat and reality of homelessness an issue of the past."
