Safe, stable, affordable housing was first recognized as a universal human right in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Although the US signed this declaration, there are still no federal laws that guarantee access to housing (unlike countries such as France, Spain, Sweden, and Belgium, whose constitutions expressly create a right to housing).
As of 2022 in the U.S, there were an estimated 650,000 unhoused people and a projected housing shortfall of up to 7 million housing units. Only one in four eligible households receive federal housing assistance.
Under capitalism, housing is a commodity — one that corporations have increasingly begun to dominate as a means of exploiting the working class. A 2022 study by Drexel University of three major cities (Philadelphia, PA; Jacksonville, FL; and Richmond, VA) found that in the last 30 years, the proportion of rental properties owned by individuals (not LLCs) dropped from 77% to 41%. Investor purchases of single-family homes also increased, with more than 1 in 5 homes sold going from homeowners to investors in neighborhoods that were redlined under the Federal Housing Act of 1934.
Why is this a problem?
Corporations that own rental properties are not required to disclose beneficial owners. Because they are shielded from liability, corporate owners are incentivized to put profit over people and may not maintain their properties. In addition, corporations have the liquid capital to purchase properties and can easily absorb the cost of holding vacant and dilapidated properties for long periods of time. This is how redlining and gentrification work.
In redlined areas, prospective buyers and current owners struggle to access mortgage financing, face low sale prices and high vacancy, and have higher shares of residents who are Black or Hispanic. Eventually, investors renovate and resell or rent these properties at prices that are unaffordable for the area’s original residents, leading to the increase in property value in the surrounding area and the displacement of individuals who are unable to afford the rising prices (gentrification).
Meanwhile, for the average family, homeownership is increasingly out of reach. The average cost of a home has risen from $18,000 in 1963 to $420,800 in 2024, whereas the median income for families in 1963 was $6,200 and as of 2024 the median income for families is $74,580. This number is lower for Hispanic ($62,800) and Black ($52,860) families. In percentage terms, in 1963 a family’s yearly salary was 34% of the cost of the home. Today, a family’s yearly salary is only 18% of the cost of the home. In the 1960s, rent was an average of $71 per month (meaning 14% of your monthly paycheck went to rent). Today, rent is an average of $1827 per month (meaning 29% of your monthly paycheck goes to rent).
So what can be done?
Imagine what the world would look like if the government devoted its $825 billion defense budget to creating low-cost housing units and offered subsidies and/or rent control for low-income groups. If the U.S. constitution contained an amendment demanding access to safe, sanitary housing for all. If homelessness was not treated as an individual problem, but a systemic one. Because in a country where 66% of people live paycheck to paycheck, homelessness is an ever-present danger for many.
Although Congress denied the $300 billion “Housing as A Human Right Act” in 2020 and 2021, local legislation is still powerful. One notable example is California Senate Bill 567, i.e., the Homelessness Prevention Act, which went into effect on April 1, 2024. The bill caps rent hikes at 10% and prevents landlords from evicting tenants without legal cause. Another example is California Assembly Bill 12, i.e., the new residential security deposit law, which went into effect on July 1, 2024 and limits the amount landlords can charge for security deposits.
Other steps that could be taken by the federal government include increasing protections for and expanding section 8 housing, introducing legislation requiring the disclosure of beneficial owners for LLCs and tracking high priced real estate transactions, and creating protections for tenants focused on just cause evictions and right to counsel for eviction. The government should also increase the tax rate on vacant properties, so that it is no longer profitable for corporations to hoard territory in a deliberate effort to dilapidate and then gentrify urban areas.
Sources:
Canopy Forum. “‘The Elusive Quest for a Legal Right to Housing in the U.S.’ by Terri Y. Montague.” Canopy Forum, 21 May 2024, canopyforum.org/2024/05/09/the-elusive-quest-for-a-legal-right-to-housing-in-the-u-s/.
Dogmetchi, Laya. “California’s Housing Overhaul Brings Significant Changes for Landlords and Tenants in 2024.” Legal News & Business Law News, National Law Review, 13 Mar. 2024, natlawreview.com/article/californias-housing-overhaul-brings-significant-changes-landlords-and-tenants-2024.
Fallon, Katherine, and Amalie Zinn. “Naming Housing as a Human Right Is a First Step to Solving the Housing Crisis.” Housing Matters, 4 Feb. 2022, housingmatters.urban.org/articles/naming-housing-human-right-first-step-solving-housing-crisis.
“Income and Wealth in the United States: An Overview of the Latest Data.” Peter G. Peterson Foundation, www.pgpf.org/blog/2024/05/income-and-wealth-in-the-united-states-an-overview-of-recent-data. Accessed 28 July 2024.
“Investor Home Purchases and the Rising Threat to Owners and Renters: Tales from 3 Cities.” Nowak Metro Finance Lab, drexel.edu/nowak-lab/publications/reports/investor-home-purchases/. Accessed 28 July 2024.
“Median Sales Price of Houses Sold for the United States.” FRED, 24 July 2024, fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MSPUS.
“Redlining.” Federal Reserve History, www.federalreservehistory.org/essays/redlining. Accessed 28 July 2024.