ANGUS: How the 1980s Gave Us Homelessness and Robbed You of

[Oscar]

ANGUS: How the 1980s Gave Us Homelessness and Robbed You of a Home — Episode 6

LISTEN: Episode 6 of the Dangerous Memory Podcast with Charlie Angus - 23 Minutes

August 10, 2025

“Prior to the 1980s the issue of homelessness simply didn’t exist as a social phenomenon.”

LISTEN: Welcome to Dangerous Memory — the podcast where we reconsider everything we thought we knew about the 1980s.

I’m your host Charlie Angus author of the book, Dangerous Memory: Coming of Age in the Decade of Greed, published by the House of Anansi Press and soon on audio books with Tantor Media. Each episode, we’ll crack open a chapter of the 1980s and ask: what really happened and why does it still matter today?

In this next chapter, we’re taking a look at how the 1980s set in motion the housing crisis that pushed millions out of affordable homes. Cities like Toronto were turned into playgrounds for global investors, while ordinary people were robbed of the chance to own their own home.

“In the 1940s and 50s, the post-war housing boom symbolized economic hope — a backyard, a mortgage, a place to call your own. But by the 1980s, the meaning of homeownership shifted. Real estate became an investment to flip, not a place to build a life.”

This is the dangerous memory of how policies and profits reshaped our communities. We’re going back to the 80’s — let’s get into it."

[ https://charlieangus.substack.com/p/how ... dium=email ]