Decommodify Housing Now

Simply put, the rent is too damn high. That’s true everywhere, for nearly everyone. It was reported last month that half of US tenants can’t afford to pay their rent.

Of the 22.4 million households currently paying more than 30% of their income in rent (what is considered cost-burdened), 12 million of those renters are spending more than half their income on housing (severely cost-burdened).

The report reveals several disturbing records, including the record-high number of renters in housing they cannot afford and a record-high number of people who are homeless, said Chris Herbert, managing director of the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies.

Half of US tenants can’t afford to pay their rent. Here’s what’s ahead | CNN Business

In addition, the report found that evictions are rising as pandemic protections have expired and a record-high number of income-eligible renters can’t get assistance as rental support falls short.

The current state of housing is already untenable. And yet, as long as housing is maintained as a for-profit commodity to be exploited by wealthy developers and landlords, this trend will only get worse.

Decommodify Housing Now aims to solve this crisis through the following means:

• Raise renters’ awareness of local and national news regarding the severe housing affordability crisis
• Compile solutions being pursued around the country (and globe) to combat rent prices, housing inaccessibility, and soaring costs of living manipulated by private land owners
• Build collective tenant power by uniting renters in large, powerful tenant unions that can lead local housing policy by influencing elected officials – and failing that, directly implement radical housing reform through ballot initiatives written by, and voted into effect by, tenants themselves

We do not need to wait. We do not need to hopelessly beg for reform. We can make it happen immediately – so long as we organize together now.