Progressive advocates for “housing justice” believe everyone should have a place to live. So do we.
Unfortunately, advocates also view successful suburban neighborhoods as ‘structurally racist’ and seek to replace these areas with low-income apartment buildings. Apparently, making a neighborhood less nice makes it less racist and more equitable.
The Obama Administration pushed the same idea in 2009 when officials described the neat rows of single-family homes in Westchester, New York as ‘instruments of white supremacy.’
To make Westchester ‘less racist,’ the Administration ordered the city to build 10,000 low-income, high-density apartments. Westchester was rich enough to defeat the effort in court, but other cities weren’t as successful.
In 2015, Obama’s Department of Housing and Urban Development began withholding grant money from jurisdictions that refused to eliminate single-family zoning and increase density in business districts. The assumption behind this action was that any neighborhood nicer than any other neighborhood is inherently racist.
Housing justice starts to make sense when you realize the Democrats have an ulterior motive: power.
“Suburbs are typically purple politically. Republicans win as often as Democrats,” writes Fox News contributor Tucker Carlson. “If your goal was to make America a one-party state, you want to change this. You want to make suburbs into cities and if you did that, you’d win every time. Democrats win cities.”
Progressive voters love the idea of housing justice because they think people deserve everything for free (just like Medicare for All and free college tuition). Proponents of housing justice believe the government has a responsibility to provide affordable housing to those who cannot afford it. And this is where things start to smell like socialism.
Consider the following quote from HousingJusticePlatform.org:
“We believe that housing is a human right, not a commodity to be bought and sold for profit. We believe that everyone should be guaranteed an affordable, safe, and healthy place to call home…And we know that to build a just housing system, we must start now.”
But the government does not have a responsibility to provide homes for US citizens. If it did, we would become a socialist state with massive levels of unemployment and no control over where we live. Unfortunately, President Joe Biden is a housing justice advocate and plans to force cities to build high-rise apartments by withholding funds.
Biden’s infrastructure plan calls to cut funding to jurisdictions that “ban apartment buildings from certain residential areas or set a minimum lot size for a single-family home” and withhold vital transportation funds from cities that refuse to allow high-rise apartments and other high-density zoning in suburbs.
“A house with a white picket fence and a big backyard for a Fourth of July barbecue may be a staple of the American dream, but experts and local politicians say multifamily zoning is key to combating climate change, racial injustice, and the nation’s growing affordable housing crisis,” reports USA Today.
Sacramento is on board as well, with Mayor Darrell Steinberg (D) proposing “mandatory housing” for homeless people with a proposal to construct 5,000 living spaces by the end of the month. The ridiculous measure would force homeless people to accept housing when offered.
As suggested by Carlson, there are several alternative actions lawmakers could take to make housing more affordable:
- Loosen the housing market
- Prevent foreign governments from purchasing residential homes
- Stop companies from turning single-family homes into rental properties
However, unfortunately, none of these suggestions produce votes for the Democratic Party.
Author’s Note: I understand there is a housing crisis that was exacerbated by the pandemic, but that’s no reason to hand the federal government more control over where we live. Also, successful homeowners and landlords should not be shamed for their success.
Sources:
Tucker Carlson: Abolishing the suburbs is major part of Biden Administration’s infrastructure plan