Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders swung through the San Fernando Valley on Tuesday, urging a friendly capacity crowd of hundreds at a Northridge temple to believe in a future of more affordable housing.

Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont, packed Temple Ahavat Shalom in Northridge, where around 800 people came to hear him and share their stories.

Speaking from the temple’s pulpit, he lamented the lack of affordable housing in America, pushing for rent control as a tool to make housing more accessible and help to solve what he said was a crisis across the nation.

A town hall with Bernie Sanders was held at Temple Ahavat Shalom in Northridge, CA. on Tuesday, August 6, 2019. More than 800 supporters crowded into the Temple to hear Sanders discuss affordable housing issues. (Photo by Dean Musgrove, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

A town hall with Bernie Sanders was held at Temple Ahavat Shalom in Northridge, CA. on Tuesday, August 6, 2019. More than 800 supporters crowded into the Temple to hear Sanders discuss affordable housing issues. (Photo by Dean Musgrove, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

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A town hall with Bernie Sanders was held at Temple Ahavat Shalom in Northridge, CA. on Tuesday, August 6, 2019. More than 800 supporters crowded into the Temple to hear Sanders discuss affordable housing issues. (Photo by Dean Musgrove, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

A town hall with Bernie Sanders was held at Temple Ahavat Shalom in Northridge, CA. on Tuesday, August 6, 2019. More than 800 supporters crowded into the Temple to hear Sanders discuss affordable housing issues. (Photo by Dean Musgrove, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

A town hall with Bernie Sanders was held at Temple Ahavat Shalom in Northridge, CA. on Tuesday, August 6, 2019. More than 800 supporters crowded into the Temple to hear Sanders discuss affordable housing issues. (Photo by Dean Musgrove, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)



A town hall with Bernie Sanders was held at Temple Ahavat Shalom in Northridge, CA. on Tuesday, August 6, 2019. More than 800 supporters crowded into the Temple to hear Sanders discuss affordable housing issues. (Photo by Dean Musgrove, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

A town hall with Bernie Sanders was held at Temple Ahavat Shalom in Northridge, CA. on Tuesday, August 6, 2019. More than 800 supporters crowded into the Temple to hear Sanders discuss affordable housing issues. (Photo by Dean Musgrove, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

Presidential Candidate @BernieSanders speaks about affordable housing at Temple Ahavat Shalom in Northridge pic.twitter.com/SRxFu3pfwi — Olga Grigoryants (@OlgaGrigory) August 6, 2019

“We are not going to solve that crisis unless we talk about that crisis, and unless we come up with some very specific ideas as to how, in the wealthiest country in the history of the world, we end the absurdity of a half a million Americans being homeless and so many people spending 40, 50, 60 percent of their limited incomes on housing,” he said. “That’s what today is about.”

Some in the audience waved signs and chanted, “Bernie, Bernie,” as the presidential hopeful took the stage.

“We can build the affordable housing, we can preserve the affordable housing and we can make sure that people who are living in decent housing are not pushed out of their communities because of gentrification,” Sanders said.

He added that developers “can’t just come in and build expensive housing” but they also “have to build the affordable housing,” he said, drawing tumultuous applause.

Some of those issues resonated with Valley residents.

Ashley Calkins said she became homeless at the age of 18 when her family learned that she was gay.

“I’m an LGBT youth and although my sexuality is not the main reason I got kicked out, but it’s one of them,” she said, fighting back tears. “I just want to let you know that homeless students like me support you 100%.”

Sanders said many young people, like Calkins — members of the LGBT community — end up on the streets.

“Where do they go?” he said. “Too often they are, in fact, living out on the streets. That’s something we got to end.”

Other people from the audience shared their emotional stories of losing homes after becoming sick or not being able to pay rent.

One man said his family nearly became homeless after his wife lost her full-time job.

Sanders said the issues of homelessness and affordable housing tie into an issue of low wages, especially in states like California, where a full-time minimum-wage worker can’t afford “a decent” one-bedroom apartment.

"That's unacceptable that wealthy developers in Los Angeles County and around the country are gentrifying our neighborhoods," @BernieSanders said. Story soon @ladailynews pic.twitter.com/xySLLtqGnJ — Olga Grigoryants (@OlgaGrigory) August 6, 2019

“It’s unacceptable that wealthy developers in Los Aneles County and around the country are gentrifying our neighborhoods,” he said.

The town hall comes on the heels of a 2019 homeless count showing that in Los Angeles, despite billions of dollars in taxpayer-funded spending, the problem has grown.

The homeless population went up 16% in the city of Los Angeles from a year ago, according to figures released in June.

The same data showed 36,300 homeless people live in Los Angeles. That number jumped 12% to 58,936 in the county.

During Tuesday’s town hall, Sanders told the audience that “it’s great that you have your freedom of speech and freedom of religion. But what does that freedom mean for somebody who is sleeping out on the streets?”

Sanders, formerly an Independent, is on a trip through the Southland. He was scheduled to speak in Long Beach on Tuesday evening, where a 27-year-old man was arrest and booked on suspicion of making an online threat of violence that allegedly targeted Sanders.

He’s one of several candidates vying for the Democratic nomination, and ultimately to unseat President Trump in November of next year.

Some of those candidates have made swings through Southern California, including U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris; South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigieg; former Vice President Joe Biden; U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren; former Texas Congressman Beto O’Rourke; U.S. Sen. Cory Booker; Washington Gov. Jay Inslee; and former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro.