Why Isn’t Housing Considered a Right? Looking at Recent Evictions in Brazil
30 Aug 2009On Monday, following a court order, 240 police went to evict 800 families from the Olga Benário squatter settlement in an area called Capão Redondo, sprawling southern São Paulo. The property had been occupied for two years by hundreds of families, many from the social movement Frente de Luta por Moradia (the Front of Struggle for Housing). The property’s owner, a transport company, was able to get an eviction order from a judge, even though it owes back taxes, and even as the State Public Defender’s office was attempting to protect the residents. The eviction ended with burned houses and cars, and hundreds of families on the street in the mud.
Having just come out of a personal housing crisis myself here in NYC where the cost of living continues to rise and gentrification is swooping into neighborhoods of color making it hard for old timers to stay, and for new immigrants to find homes, I have to wonder why isn’t housing a right, especially for families with children?
- Tags: Brazil, homlessness, housing, land evictions in Brazil
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3 Responses to Why Isn’t Housing Considered a Right? Looking at Recent Evictions in Brazil
Sarah
September 3rd, 2009 at 1:49 am
Because rights generally dictate what the government CAN’T take away from you, and in most cases, they’re intangible things. In this case, the government was merely enforcing the law of the land, even though the company in question was corrupt. If housing was a right, how much housing should each person or family have? Should a family with more children have more housing? What about a family which chooses not to have children? Admittedly, children are generally an asset to society as long as they’re productive, so perhaps incentives to have children (via greater housing allowances) would be a good idea. Now, what about as population sizes increase, will their amount of required housing go down? In the end, it’s called economics, NYC is an expensive city. You don’t have a right to live there. People with money will force you out, and maybe you will have to live in a different area or make a commute or find a different job. Suck it up instead of whining about it, how about making different choices rather than wishing the government would do everything for you?
Maegan la Mala
September 3rd, 2009 at 7:19 am
Damn Sarah you seem to like to tell people to suck it up. Would you consider that a “right” use of words? An example of how articulate you are? Just a question that you may have to suck up since this is my website.
I don’t understand the idea of children being productive. Children are not commodities, rather they should be viewed as such. No one should be viewed as such actually. What makes someone productive? I have given over 15 years of my life trying to make NYC a better place, does that not count as a contribution or is it because it doesn’t fit into a capitalist mode of production, it is something to be discredited?
No where did I mention the government doing anything for me or for anyone, rather I was asking a question about society in general. How do we make sure that people, families, have safe places to live in?
Your personal choice argument denies the racist, sexist, ablist way that economics works in this city, country and world at large.
la Macha
September 3rd, 2009 at 9:23 am
**sucks it up**
**wonders what the “it” is that I just sucked up**