“I Ain’t Got No Home in this World Anymore” The Movement for a Human Right to Housing in Washington DC, Chicago and Beyond Dr Joe Hoover Department of International Politics City University London

I Ain’t Got No Home in this World Anymore I ain't got no home, I'm just a-roamin' 'round, Just a wandrin' worker, I go from town to town. And the police make it hard wherever I may go My brothers and my sisters are stranded on this road, A hot and dusty road that a million feet have trod; Rich man took my home and drove me from my door Was a-farmin' on the shares, and always I was poor; My crops I lay into the banker's store. My wife took down and died upon the cabin floor, I mined in your mines and I gathered in your corn I been working, mister, since the day I was born Now I worry all the time like I never did before Now as I look around, it's mighty plain to see This world is such a great and a funny place to be; The gamblin' man is rich an' the workin' man is poor, And I ain't got no home in this world anymore.

US and Global Housing Crisis 2007 Mortgage crisis: leads to foreclosures, economic recession, increasing inequality, rising rental costs, declining wages Deeper and wider backdrop in US and other Western nations: destruction of public housing, urban displacement, criminal and predatory lending, widening inequality, diversion of public resources from affordable and public housing options to subsidies Global crisis: global land grab, increasing urbanisation, neo-liberal economic policies and development practices, global capital glut

Housing Crisis in DC Homelessness – More than 1.2% of district residents experience homelessness Public Housing – 70,000+ names on the waiting list before closure, 8,000 units Rental Market – Avg. rent $1700/month 5 Full time weeks at $8.50/hr Displacement – 40,000 black residents displaced Foreclosure – Black residents 20% more likely to face foreclosure

Housing Crisis in Chicago Homelessness – More than 5% of district city experience homelessness Public Housing – 96,000+ names on the waiting list before closure, 21,000 units Rental Market – Avg. rent increasingly in excess of $1000/month Displacement – 100,000 black residents displaced Foreclosure – In excess of 18,000 vacant building in 2014 – 6 years after mortgage crisis

Housing and Human Rights US response minimal – no right to housing – limited protections against discrimination – some local protections: rent control, right to buy International response limited – Right to housing in ICESC and UDHR – Related to other rights and development – Focus on monitoring and public shaming Significant Challenges – Ideological view of economic/social rights – Difficulty of enforcement without radical change

Global Movement for Housing as a Human Right Global/Local peoples’ movement – From “below” – movements of and with those affected Addressing housing crisis through political action – Building democratic power in oppressed communities Shared concern with systemic social change – Challenging existing models of ownership and politics

Human Right to Housing – Fighting Words Willie “JR” Fleming – Carries the UDHR, quotes article 25 – Human right to housing has to be enforced by people for themselves – Human right to housing is fundamentally about gaining control of land/housing – Housing is a basic need, which entails a right to control our housing Decommodification Communal ownership

Tactics Homelessness – Housing occupations – moving homeless people into people-less homes Public (Social) Housing – Resisting evictions where possible – importance of tenants associations, community benefit agreements, and long-term organising Private rentals – Tenants organising, cooperative ownership, rent strikes and tenants unions Private owners facing eviction – Eviction defense and political and legal support

The Human Right to Housing in the US One DC Empower DC Take Back the Land Chicago Anti-Eviction Campaign Los Angeles Anti-Eviction Campaign Western Regional Advocacy Program LA Community Action Network Vida Urbana Occupy Our Homse