Featuring the winners of our student cam documentary competition. Middle and High School Students created videos answering the question, what issue do you most want the 2020 president ial candidates to address . Our second prize High School West award goes to zander clinton, an 11th grader from Bishop Gorman high school in las vegas, nevada, where cspans available through cox. Their winning entry is titled fate of the homeless. Homelessness is a growing problem in the united states. Around 500,000 people in america are homeless. Which is around the same population of wyoming as a whole. The proposed budget for h. U. D. Or housing and urban development, which is the department that deals with Affordable Housing and homelessness, is 44. 1 billion. Of that budget, homeless assistance grants only receives 2. 6 billion, or 0. 5 of the h. U. D. Budget. Some people believe that America Needs billions and billions of dollars to end homelessness but the opposing view is that they only need 3 billion. The republicans havent held any primary debates so all we know is the current budget proposed by the president. According to the new york times, and democratic debates, homelessness and Affordable Housing have gotten less speaking time than candidates age. The reason this issue matters so much is because the next president , whether it is a republican or a democrat, will determine the budget for housing and urban development. To see how president ial candidates thoughts on Affordable Housing plays out on a local level, i interviewed Councilmember Cedric grier. I am the las vegas city councilman for an area called ward five. I think that president ial candidates look at issues that are going to resonate, theyre going to get people out to vote for them. And i dont think homelessness is a national issue. So many other things to talk about. Whether its immigration reform, whether its education, whether thats for security, wall security. Were in the midst of potential war in iran right now. Those are hot topic and hot issues. Homelessness is one of those things where its there, you know its there, were going to address it, but not really. So, no, i dont think the president ial candidates are putting emphasis on it and i dont think our candidates will come up with solutions and resources that will go toward mitigating homelessness. I would say as an entire society we are not doing enough to address homelessness and that would probably include any national candidate. Several of them have opined on some of the work that the city of las vegas has done. Without acknowledging that their own communities have done the same or less. I know of the four candidates, sanders, warren, buttigieg and biden, have come forward with some plans for Affordable Housing. Bottom line, i think its all intertwined. When youre looking at president ial candidates, you need to look at how theyre looking at every everything that impacts economic security. Because ultimately housing and security insecurity, because youre not able to afford your health care, you might have Student Loan Debt thats debilitating. Or youre just simply not earning enough money. President ial policies will influence the federal government in major ways and can make a greater impact on how the federal government interacts on certain issues. Castro and harris have since falling off the radar, leaving less and less candidates who have a real plan toward increation the rule of the federal government toward Affordable Housing. We know one of the greatest ways to build the economic power of a family is to help them with home ownership. Homelessness continues to rise, i think the federal government can play a much greater role. It needs to be more of a national issue. If you go down to cities where the rubber meets the road, theres rampant homelessness. 65,000 homeless in l. A. County. Theres over 70,000 homeless in new york city. Theres 15,000 homeless in san francisco. So if you ask us and ask politicians are they doing enough, the answer is going to be no. To operate a facility of our size for shelter programs and services, we receive about 4 million from the government, but to break that down into per bed, we have 524 beds. And we operate that each night. And were funded for 160 of those beds. During the incomplement weather months where we see extreme weather, winter months or summer, then were also funded for an additional 180. So for most of the year we are running on funding for just 160 beds. I think the federal government needs to not only be investing more, but making sure that those investments are having the impacts that they want. It really comes down to, when it comes down to Affordable Housing, whats the inventory . And were seeing a lot of building happening in our communities. But its a big houses that cost a lot of money. And how are we encouraging investment into multifamily housing, rental units, just housing that people can afford . A lot of individuals that are right at the cusp, where they need a little bit of extra support to really make ends meet, and when were taking someone out of homelessness and trying to help them build their lives back, they need a place to go. While some are hoping the president ial candidates will increase the discussion of homelessness and Affordable Housing, the good news is that local officials have begun to address homelessness on their own terms. Such as mayor goodman of las vegas. We are facing a growing homeless challenge and that is despite the strongest economy and the lowest unemployment records in decades. And in 2021, a [indiscernible] will become a model of how to continue the work of connecting those in need and those willing to accept help with the services that can help them break the cycle of homelessness. In conclusion, to end homelessness we need to Work Together as a community. And who is better to lead that community than the future president . You can watch each winning student cam documentary online at studentcam. Org. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National able satellite corp. 2020] earlier today, former president barack obama endorsed his former Vice President , joe biden, for the 2020 president ial race. They released the announcement by video which ran about 15 minutes