Mayor Benjamin on Homelessness and the Affordable Housing Crisis in Columbia, South Carolina

[@InvisiblePeople]

Your voice can help end homelessness. If we do not fix the affordable housing crisis, homelessness will continue to get worse. Click here invisiblepeople.tv/getinvolved to tweet, email, call, or Facebook your federal and state legislators to tell them ending homelessness and creating more affordable housing is a priority to you.

[@Goddess-g1p]

Invisible People thank you for everything you do for the homeless and voiceless. Here is a Blue Heart 💙

[@deliriumbee4678]

This channel should be highlighted every day in youtube this man is on a mission to help people

[@jamesspencer1463]

I agree, Mark has started a great movement and im honored to be a part of it

[@reznortetrault4348]

This Mayor is awesome

[@spiketv549]

What an awesome mayor! Am so glad to see good things happening in SC. Love that he addressed compassion. THAT is leadership. We have a challenging history in the south but there is beauty in it. I'd like to think we can help create ripples of change that make a broad difference. Mark, I love these interviews that you do with both civic leaders and activists. These are a really important piece of helping not only educate people about homelessness but also informing us and helping us have what we need to think about how to make things better (though I guess that could/should be considered an important dimension of education ;)

[@chinookvalley]

Thank you for the links to mayors and CEOs. It's a start, to make an end.

[@amber5777]

At lest your trying to make a difference to this world as a voice to the invisible people .God bless you and those in the power to make a big diferencie in these world 🙏🏼🌹🧚‍♀️👼😇

[@danyoungs4061]

I like what the mayor said about needing help from people . We need those people who have been successful to invest in affordable housing. I believe mark has shown how private and faith based programs can work. We need more of this. Also the city’s covering 20% of the loan is a great idea to protect The banks. Mark keep digging out the ideas around the country that work and making them known. Great job.

[@MrONELAST8]

Best mayoral interview I've seen but he said 1 very important thing he is on the ground trying to solve this issue not political talk.

[@listenup1711]

There are so many empty houses all over the place in this country. Can you guys look into this and try to put people in those. There are whole towns with hardly any one left. But these towns have lots of empty houses. These towns could be rebuilt that way. Factory's could move in to give them employment.

[@elviscobb5922]

William Sr. Donaldson I am not trying to be negative but who and what factories do you think will come into these areas? I thank you for your concern for the homeless .If they move into the vacant homes,who is going to pay the property taxes on that home ? You are probably a very kind person and we do need to do something. Columbia has some good ideas and are off to a great start.

[@RND2072]

Great video! Good cause!

[@BeepBeep_773]

Brilliant!!!!

[@clydeneat]

I watch prolly 5 videos or more before I sleep to count my blessing on what I got 💜

[@chinookvalley]

Homelessness: a crisis in the United States. It matters not if you are in a large city or tiny blip on the map, it affects everyone. The mayor of our itty-bity town, and the churches say supporting the homeless looks bad and will only draw more homeless people and families to our area. WTF is wrong with people?? It is our duty as a human being to be humane, to help those we are able to help. Not enable, but honest to god - help.

[@BeepBeep_773]

It so isn't a duty. It may be an instinct but if you maintain that it is a duty then you apparently would force ppl to give their money for your cause. That is criminally insane. That's like a democrat/communist thinks. If you're talking volunteerism then I support you.

[@terrilynch7845]

Why not build tiny homes/pods for the homeless in SC?

[@spectermakoto9029]

You care so much You got out of breath

[@illcelebrateyoursuccess8907]

great video.

[@moonglow1311]

I made a serious comment when I said that Columbia, SC houses a humongous State prison there. I am positive that there is jobs- a-plenty,, and a revolving staff. Who knows they may even provide shelter to the employees who are homeless. My God check it out - what do you got to lose ❓‼️😎🇺🇸 I'm sure everyone that lives there has some connection with the Dept. Of Cottections as far as employment is concerned.....No❓

[@bohemianchic638]

In live in California and I am seeing discrimination happening to homeless people, they say they beleive in diversity but in america there is no such thing as diversity most employers, housing and social service organizations look out for their own. illegal immigration is a HUGE part of the problem of why most americans are homeless and unemployed.

[@RobertF-]

Who is this guy? Wow he's good.

[@jaybird3608]

MARK FOR MAYOR 2020👍💯

[@marionwilson8141]

More mobile home parks would help

[@jaybird3608]

Whos the 1 idiot that hit the thumbs down. WHAT A SHAME😭

[@petertraudes106]

MAYOR Benjamin you sound like a dutch social democrat. Greetings from Amsterdam.

[@christineblaszczyk1602]

Yeah, this was 3 years ago and still nothing done in this State.

[@darylmckay]

I'm loving your work Mark, but please look after yourself. I noticed at times you were breathing quite heavily which alarmed me.

[@InvisiblePeople]

I noticed it too. The last year has been rough.

[@InvisiblePeople]

Thanks for your concern. I’m worried too.

[@darylmckay]

@@InvisiblePeople is there any way we can help? I know you are losing your health care.

[@alexisleona]

@@InvisiblePeople Please make a stop at a clinic and get checked out. This type of labored breathing is of grave concern, more than just the result of carrying some extra pounds. 😔

[@darylmckay]

@@expatatlarge5286 it seems like you got enough exercise jumping to conclusions and leaping to judgement. You assume you know Mark's health due to his weight, although you have no clue if it's eating, genetics, damage from past addiction, damage to his health from being homeless in the past, financial and personal stress, an underlying condition or some combination of some or all of these. I would hope that Invisible People is about compassion, not judgement.

[@scottywarren3498]

Of course the government won't tax itself in regards to property taxes

[@erdingtown]

the problem with america is that people treat housing as a gambling casino instead of places for people to live. house flipping, speculation, unlimited buying by foreign nationals, relentless price manipulations. many countries have strict criteria in order for foreign nationals to buy homes whereas america has no criteria. anyone from anywhere can come in and buy up large swashes of housing and charge high rentals. Smart Mayor.

[@brucelee8926]

Presidential candidate andrew yang universal basic Income will solve many homeless problems. We need a trickle up economy

[@BeepBeep_773]

Where will Yang get the money to give to everyone? I think he will have to steal it. Correct me if I'm wrong. So I'm not wrong. After he steals it the government will lose approximately half of it through fraud, carelessness, and pay off to supporters, then the money will be doled out. Breathtakingly applied insanity. The money stolen from the taxpayers will have far-reaching effects that are all bad. But the worst thing is that you are supporting legalized theft. Way to go genius.

[@brucelee8926]

@@BeepBeep_773 from tech companies like Amazon and Netflix that have been paying zero taxes. They will fund the freedom dividend

[@firestarmars8948]

InAndrewYangWeTrust 2020 Free money will make lazy people. Bad idea from Andrew Yang. 👎

[@s.j.sparber6946]

Why does a homeless man say he feels he has a target on his back when he wears his backpack in Columbia, South Carolina when it comes to the police down there! I've heard your wonderful rhetoric of "compassion and revival" from our Mayor DeBlasio up here while his police harass homeless off the subway. There just is no room at the "Inn" for Mary, Joseph and God Jesus because hearts are cold and worldly and full of rhetoric mayor man!

[@eklypised]

They moved all the homeless people outta Columbia and just dropped them off outside of town

[@dpeace3794]

You’re talking about how we need to get homeless people off the street not about their mental problems right now we need to get them off the street get them in some houses think about how you would do if you didn’t live in a mansion you had to sleep on the street what would you do? Or if you had no money coming in what would you do what would you like to live in?

[@vickybiagini8623]

People become homeless because humans have to go decades making green piece of paper. The body was designed to live only fourty years, then cell senescence happens. After age fourty, the body starts aging at a rapid rate, yet humans have to continue until their seventies and eighties. It gets hard making money with an ever declining body. If we could stay in young bodies, homelessness might not be so abundant. Some people just give up because of chronic pain. It gets hard with age, at least for me it's getting.

[@BeepBeep_773]

Survival is easily the number one goal of all living things. Stop at 40? That is beyond stupid. So people should kill themselves at age 40 to help solve the homeless problem? Thanks Beyond Stupid Vicky for your thoughtful contribution.

[@fredacer6182]

dont let him bs you they have made it illeagle to be homeless in columbia sc and really do not care about people as you can see he is side stepping your questins

[@MHiggins]

There are many decent people out there who want to solve the problem of homelessness. But the issue is that as long as there is this level of income inequality, the inability of the government to reform and the absolute paralysis in government at the local, state and federal level the situation will only get worse and worse. We have homeless camps in California and Seattle that are worse the refugee camps in Turkey and Jordan. Those UN refugee camps have better facilities and water and sanitation than Skid Row. We can afford to drop $300 million bombs to kill 5 terrorists in Afghanistan but can’t find the money to install more port a potties. We can’t build more public housing in many cities instead we paid $35 billion for the F35 which doesn’t work and the existing F18 is a superior jet to the F35. This level of waste and fraud and abuse at all levels of government has turned this country into a third world nation.

[@mrRTvids]

"We are the greatest country in the world", it's only something you hear an American say when talking about homelessness. When you have 500 000 to 1mil homeless people, I would hesitate to call it the greatest country in the world. You never hear such boasting here in Europe. Stop talking and start fixing your problems.

[@杜威漢]

Europe does it better, but homelessness is growing there too (except Finland). Affordable housing is a global problem.

[@smallisbeautiful2808]

Well, at least now those millions of wealthy foreign real estate investors from China are no longer permitted by their government to invest so much money outside their country. Combined hundreds of millions of homes they bought here in the U.S. and in other "Western" countries during the past decade are STILL sitting vacant (93,000 in the city of Los Angeles alone), but at least most of the "bleeding" has stopped, thanks to that new law that took effect in China on January 1, 2017. Our own domestic real estate speculators took full advantage of the housing bubble all that foreign buying created. Those "local" greedy bastards kept even more homes vacant by constantly flipping each property from one speculator to the next, keeping them perpetually on the resale market. The people who wanted to buy them to actually LIVE in them were always outbid by cash buyers. This had been going on since 2009. So, WHY IS VANCOUVER CANADA THE ONLY CITY THAT HAS IMPLEMENTED A LARGE ENOUGH "VACANCY TAX" AND "FLIPPING TAX" TO ACTUALLY CURB THE PROBLEM??? And why is New Zealand the only country that placed a total BAN ON HOME PURCHASES BY FOREIGN REAL ESTATE SPECULATORS??? That is the "elephant in the room" that so-called "affordable housing advocates" refuse to address. THAT MAKES ME VERY SUSPICIOUS ABOUT THOSE "ADVOCATES'" TRUE MOTIVATIONS.

[@BeepBeep_773]

Oh great, you got an interview with a professional lier that doesn't give a rat ass about the homeless people or any people for that matter. The only thing a politician is interested in is staying in power. You just wasted your time and my time and anyone watching time. I didn't stay the entire 14 minutes of wasted time because I know that he wasn't going to say anything important he was only there to play you.