Featuring
Philip Alston
NYU Law; Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, United Nations
Stephanie Sy
PBS NewsHour; Former Carnegie Council Host, Ethics Matter
Philip Alston is the special rapporteur for extreme poverty and human rights for the United Nations. Recently, he spent two weeks traveling across the U.S. to investigate poverty. In this clip, he talks about his visit to a San Francisco church that provides a haven for the homeless—one of only two churches in the area to do so—and goes on to discuss the role of government.
Philip Alston is the special rapporteur for extreme poverty and human rights for the United Nations. Recently, he spent two weeks traveling across the U.S. to investigate poverty and discovered appalling conditions, from homelessness in California’s richest cities to open sewage in rural Alabama backyards. In this clip, he talks about his visit to a San Francisco church that provides a haven for the homeless—one of only two churches in the area to do so—and goes on to discuss the role of government. Today's policies are the reverse of the New Deal, he says, which assumed that government had a responsibility to look after those at the bottom as well as those at the top.