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Introduction
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terms
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notes
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This book is both polemic and guide. It begins from the assumption that everyone deserves a safe and stable home, or the right to use public space as they wish, simply by virtue of being alive. This is what we mean when we say housing is a human right, no different than the right to breathe the air on this earth: you are born with this right; you should not have to earn it; you should not have to work for it. For us, “Housing is a human right” is not a slogan meant to urge us to tinker at the margins of a broken system. It is not an ideal for which we should calmly strive. Every second we live when housing is not respected as a human right is a violation. We remain stuck in this degraded world by means of exploitation and domination, by an economic system that enriches landlords by extracting wealth from tenants, by a political system that enshrines the right to private gains over public good, the right to property over the right to life.
This book is both polemic and guide. It begins from the assumption that everyone deserves a safe and stable home, or the right to use public space as they wish, simply by virtue of being alive. This is what we mean when we say housing is a human right, no different than the right to breathe the air on this earth: you are born with this right; you should not have to earn it; you should not have to work for it. For us, “Housing is a human right” is not a slogan meant to urge us to tinker at the margins of a broken system. It is not an ideal for which we should calmly strive. Every second we live when housing is not respected as a human right is a violation. We remain stuck in this degraded world by means of exploitation and domination, by an economic system that enriches landlords by extracting wealth from tenants, by a political system that enshrines the right to private gains over public good, the right to property over the right to life.