b'America is experiencing a housing crisis \\u2014 or, more accurately, multiple housing crises. A massive housing shortage in major cities has resulted in skyrocketing rents. Low- and middle-income individuals find themselves priced out of the places with the most opportunity. Homelessness is rampant in cities across the country. Developers often face the steepest obstacles to building in the places where new housing is needed most. And young people are increasingly viewing homeownership, once a vital part of the American dream, as hopelessly out of reach.\\n\\nThese outcomes weren\\u2019t inevitable. Plenty of other countries supply their populations with high-quality housing at lower prices. And the solutions here are incredibly simple: Build more housing in places where it\\u2019s needed, build cheaper forms of housing, build housing alongside public transit, provide more housing vouchers. So why don\\u2019t we act on them?\\n\\nJenny Schuetz is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and the author of the new book \\u201cFixer Upper: How to Repair America\\u2019s Broken Housing Systems,\\u201d which is perhaps the best, clearest overview of America\\u2019s housing problems to date. We discuss why the states with the highest homelessness rates are all governed by Democrats, the roots of America\\u2019s homelessness crisis, why economists believe the U.S. gross domestic product could be over a third \\u2014 a third! \\u2014 higher today if American cities had built more housing, why it\\u2019s so hard to build housing where it\\u2019s needed most, the actual (and often misunderstood) causes of gentrification, why public housing has such a bad reputation in the U.S.; how progressives\\u2019 commitment to local democracy and community voice surprisingly lies at the heart of America\\u2019s housing crises, why homeownership is still the primary vehicle of wealth accumulation in America (and the toxic impact that has on our politics), what the U.S. can learn from the housing policies of countries like Germany and France, what it would take to build a better politics of housing and much more.\\n\\nMentioned:\\n\\n\\u201cThe Left-NIMBY canon\\u201d by Noah Smith\\n\\nThe Homevoter Hypothesis by William A. Fischel\\n\\nThe Paradox of Democracy by Zac Gershberg and Sean Illing\\n\\nRecommendations:\\n\\nCrabgrass Frontier by Kenneth T. Jackson\\n\\nNeighborhood Defenders by Katherine Levine Einstein, David M. Glick and Maxwell Palmer\\n\\nMaid (Netflix series)\\n\\nThoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.\\n\\nYou can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of \\u201cThe Ezra Klein Show\\u201d at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.\\n\\n\\u201cThe Ezra Klein Show\\u201d is produced by Annie Galvin and Rog\\xe9 Karma; fact-checking by Michelle Harris, Mary Marge Locker, Kate Sinclair and Rollin Hu; mixing by Sonia Herrero and Isaac Jones; original music by Isaac Jones; audience strategy by Shannon Busta. Special thanks to Kristin Lin and Kristina Samulewski.'