Solving America’s Housing Crisis: A Q&A with Marcia Fudge, Former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development

On Thursday April 10, 2025, the GPL co-hosted a conversation between Howard Koh, chair of the Harvard Chan School’s Initiative on Health and Homelessness, and former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Marcia Fudge.

At least 40 million American households — including half of all renters — spend more on housing than they can afford. Many lower-income renters are just scraping by, often sacrificing necessities like food and healthcare to pay the rent. And the number of people experiencing homelessness is surging: 770,000 people, according to a 2024 count, many of whom have jobs but still can’t afford housing.

Fudge spoke with Howard Koh about the forces driving the housing crisis and ways to make housing more affordable.

Watch the Recording

This event was co-sponsored by the Harvard Kennedy School’s Government Performance Lab housed at the Taubman Center for State and Local Government, the Joint Center for Housing Studies at the Graduate School of Design, and the Initiative on Health and Homelessness at the T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and the Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative.