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Access to safe, affordable, stable housing has long been recognized as a key determinant of physical and mental health. Unfortunately, this resource is out of reach for many US residents. In addition to the failure of new housing stock being made available to meet increasing demands, costs of housing—for both renters and homeowners—continues to rise across the country. The most distal outcome of this continuation is an increase in homelessness, which is particularly concerning given the myriad negative health effects of being unhoused. These worrying trends are not a new phenomenon and do not affect all communities equally. By examining historical precedents for our current crisis, including racially discriminatory housing policy and stagnating support of our public housing infrastructure, we can identify how we arrived at our current state of affordable housing and how communities of color and communities with low incomes have come to be disproportionately harmed.

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