Every time I walk past an encampment of unhoused people, I see something that tells me the person living in a particular tent or broken down vehicle is trying to make that space on a sidewalk or in a city park into a home.
It might be a little fence around the tent entrance. Or a couple of plants in pots. One year I saw a Christmas tree, decorated. It broke my heart.
This week I’m reading the news about the Los Angeles fires, in which many people have lost their homes. Last fall it was the people in western North Carolina, who shouldn’t have been at risk from a hurricane, and yet lost so much.
Loss from disaster also breaks my heart.
Then there are all the people living in refugee camps, people who had to flee their homes or whose homes have been destroyed by war.
All of these losses provide a reminder that everyone – everyone – needs a home. Yet we live in a world that has turned that basic need into an investment.
If you own your home – or rather, at least in today’s United States, you and a bank own your home – it’s an investment, the largest one you’ve got in most cases.
If you get in a jam and can’t pay your mortgage, you’re at the mercy of your lender.
If you rent, it’s the landlord who gets the return on investment. If you can’t pay your rent, you’re out on the street.
Your situation is always a bit precarious.
There’s a saying that goes back to the activism of the 1960s and 70s:
Housing for People, Not for Profit.
That’s not what we have, but that is what we should have. And could have.
In the spirit of coming up with audacious visions, here’s mine on housing: Continue reading “Visions: Housing”…