The Democratic position seems to be everything is going to be free. Free education. Free health care. Free housing. Free love. Free kittens, I don't know.

When we fall short of meeting community needs - for stable housing, safe streets, open space, reliable transportation, food access, a healthy environment - everyone faces greater vulnerability.

The biggest and most deadly 'tax' rate on the poor comes from a loss of various welfare state benefits - food stamps, housing subsidies and the like - if their income goes up.

The Federal Reserve is not charged with designing or evaluating proposals for housing finance reform. But we are responsible for regulating and supervising banking institutions to ensure their safety and soundness, and more broadly for the stability of the financial system.

No single housing finance institution should be too big to fail.

The standard of 'affordable' housing is that which costs roughly 30 percent or less of a family's income. Because of rising housing costs and stagnant wages, slightly more than half of all poor renting families in the country spend more than 50 percent of their income on housing costs, and at least one in four spends more than 70 percent.

For the family living paycheck-to-paycheck, or those at risk in their current living situation, access to affordable housing is pivotal to their safety and long-term stability.

An investment in housing is an investment in family stability, children's success, and the economic health of our entire state.

The failure to manage economic migration properly has put further pressure on transport and housing.

For years, media moguls and campaigns bankrolled by the rich have fed the lie that migrants are the cause of injustices propagated by the powerful: the failure to build housing, the strain on public services by cuts, the lack of secure jobs, the decline in real wages.

People who face discrimination due to the color of their skin, are often obstructed by institutional barriers across our society - from education and housing, to employment and healthcare, to voting rights and the criminal justice system.

We demand that segregation be ended in every school district in the year 1963! We demand that we have effective civil rights legislation - no compromise, no filibuster - and that include public accommodations, decent housing, integrated education, FEPC and the right to vote.

I believe that every American should have stable, dignified housing; health care; education - that the most very basic needs to sustain modern life should be guaranteed in a moral society.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution to the challenges facing our cities or to the housing crisis, but the two issues need to be considered together. From an urban design and planning point of view, the well-connected open city is a powerful paradigm and an engine for integration and inclusivity.

When I was a child, I was living in the housing projects of Philadelphia. I didn't even have a Christmas tree.

When we advocate for violence against women to be eliminated on campuses, we say, 'Well, actually, it's not just on campuses we have to worry about.' We might have to worry about high schools. We might have to worry about police precincts and cars. We might have to worry about public housing.

I grew up on Section 8 housing, food stamps, welfare, and dealing with social services. I never had a Christmas. I never had a birthday.

We should concentrate our work not only to a separated housing problem but housing involved in our daily work and all the other functions of the city.

Housing Works is the coolest thrift store in the world, because not only are they the best thrift store - they're not the most thrifty thrift store - but they have amazing stuff and all of their proceeds go directly to kids, mostly homeless kids, living with AIDS and HIV in New York, in the metropolitan area.

Although housing sales and starts have cooled to more typical levels the housing market remains strong and sound. Without the expansion of homeownership and the strength of our housing market our nation would not have the economic growth we are experiencing today.

President Obama has basically avoided or not done any attempt to intervene in any positive way in the housing market. I think in the financial crisis that's been a shame.

You can spend the money on new housing for poor people and the homeless or you can spend it on a football stadium or a golf course.

If you really believe that you're making a difference and that you can leave a legacy of better schools and jobs and safer streets why would you not spend the money? The objective is to improve the schools bring down crime build affordable housing clean the streets - not to have a fair fight.

There are more than 300 000 families in the Gulf region that lost their homes and are waiting for peace of mind. The hurricane exposed the sad reality of poverty in America. We saw in all its horrific detail the vulnerabilities of living in inadequate housing and the heartbreak of losing one's home.