Back Home: Returning Human Rights to Housing

Leilani Farha Author

04/10/2024 Added

23 Plays

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Leilani Farha is the former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Housing and Global Director of The Shift. Farha has helped develop global human rights standards on the right to housing, including through her topical reports on homelessness, the financialization of housing, informal settlements, rights-based housing strategies, and the first UN Guidelines for the implementation of the right to housing. She is the central character in the documentary PUSH regarding the financialization of housing. Farha launched The Shift in 2017 to advance the movement through advocacy, research and campaigning.

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[00:00:00.206](lively music)
[00:00:06.930]Today you are part
[00:00:08.130]of an important conversation about our shared future.
[00:00:12.030]The E.N. Thompson Forum on World Issues
[00:00:14.190]explores a diversity of viewpoints
[00:00:16.380]on international and public policy issues
[00:00:18.960]to promote understanding and encourage debate
[00:00:21.780]across the university and the State of Nebraska.
[00:00:25.200]Since its inception in 1988,
[00:00:28.140]hundreds of distinguished speakers
[00:00:29.940]have challenged and inspired us,
[00:00:32.280]making this forum one of the preeminent speaker series
[00:00:36.660]in higher education.
[00:00:39.420]It all started when E.N. Jack Thompson
[00:00:42.840]imagined a forum on global issues
[00:00:45.330]that would increase Nebraskans' understanding of cultures
[00:00:48.360]and events from around the world.
[00:00:50.790]Jack's perspective was influenced by his travels,
[00:00:54.210]his role in helping to found the United Nations,
[00:00:56.970]and his work at the Carnegie Endowment
[00:00:59.580]for International Peace.
[00:01:02.100]As president of the Cooper Foundation in Lincoln,
[00:01:05.130]Jack pledged substantial funding to the forum,
[00:01:08.310]and the University of Nebraska
[00:01:10.110]and Lied Center for Performing Arts agreed to co-sponsor.
[00:01:14.640]Later, Jack and his wife Katie
[00:01:16.860]created the Thompson Family Fund to support the forum
[00:01:20.490]and other programs.
[00:01:22.590]Today, major support is provided
[00:01:25.860]by the Cooper Foundation,
[00:01:27.900]Lied Center for Performing Arts,
[00:01:30.000]and University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
[00:01:32.850]We hope this talk sparks an exciting conversation among you.
[00:01:36.921](lively music continues)
[00:01:39.480]And now on with the show.
[00:01:41.673](lively music continues)
[00:01:46.650]Welcome to the E.N. Thompson Forum on World Issues.
[00:01:50.130]I'm Shari Veil,
[00:01:51.420]chair of the E.N. Thompson Forum Program Committee
[00:01:54.210]and dean of the College of Journalism
[00:01:55.980]and Mass Communications
[00:01:57.420]here at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
[00:02:00.090]I'm excited to be with you here
[00:02:01.830]for our final forum event of the season
[00:02:04.320]with Leilani Farha.
[00:02:06.630]Welcome to those of you
[00:02:08.160]who are watching the live stream or broadcast
[00:02:10.680]and to all of you here at the Lied Center tonight.
[00:02:14.190]We ask that you please refrain from using flash photography
[00:02:17.760]or video recording during tonight's presentation.
[00:02:21.690]Since 1988,
[00:02:23.370]the Thompson Forum has brought us critical thinkers,
[00:02:26.520]policy makers,
[00:02:27.990]and leaders who are shaping our global society
[00:02:31.170]to discuss issues that affect us all.
[00:02:34.770]We are grateful to the Cooper Foundation
[00:02:37.170]which provides the major funding for the forum,
[00:02:39.930]to the late Jack Thompson who conceived of this series,
[00:02:43.380]and to the Thompson family for their continued support.
[00:02:46.980]We would also like to acknowledge
[00:02:48.480]the Lied Center for Performing Arts
[00:02:50.340]and the University Honors Program
[00:02:52.470]for their ongoing partnership of the Thompson Forum,
[00:02:55.560]as well as our media sponsors KZUM
[00:02:58.560]and 90.3 KRNU.
[00:03:01.950]The Thompson Forum would also like to thank
[00:03:04.320]NeighborWorks Lincoln
[00:03:05.940]and Nebraska Investment Finance Authority
[00:03:09.030]for sponsoring tonight's event.
[00:03:12.000]This season's theme,
[00:03:13.560]Uprooted: Displacement, Migration,
[00:03:15.900]and Searching for Home,
[00:03:17.850]focused on human displacement
[00:03:19.650]and migration due to conflicts, disasters, climate,
[00:03:23.130]and economic crises.
[00:03:25.890]Tonight, we have the privilege of hearing
[00:03:27.900]from Leilani Farha,
[00:03:29.580]the former United Nations special repertoire
[00:03:32.580]on the right to housing
[00:03:34.080]and the global director of The Shift.
[00:03:37.200]Her talk tonight is titled "Back Home:
[00:03:41.280]Returning Human Rights to Housing."
[00:03:44.400]This afternoon,
[00:03:45.720]Leilani visited with students
[00:03:47.070]in an honors seminar entitled How Cities Can Save US:
[00:03:51.900]Resilience, Innovation, and Technology in Global Cities.
[00:03:56.250]We are grateful that our students
[00:03:57.750]had the special opportunity to meet with Leilani
[00:04:00.540]and learn from her.
[00:04:03.060]Following tonight's talk,
[00:04:04.470]we will have a short Q&A where you can participate
[00:04:07.500]by texting ENT498
[00:04:10.920]to the number 22333
[00:04:13.920]or by going to pollev.com/ent498
[00:04:19.350]on your computer or browser.
[00:04:22.590]The E.N. Thompson Forum would like to formally acknowledge
[00:04:25.440]the Indigenous tribal nations
[00:04:27.000]as the original stewards of the land,
[00:04:29.490]and that we reside on the post, present,
[00:04:31.800]and future homelands of the Pawnee, Ponca,
[00:04:35.642]Otoe-Missouria, Omaha, Dakota,
[00:04:38.580]Lakota, Kaw, Cheyenne, and Arapaho Peoples,
[00:04:42.870]as well as those of the relocated Ho-Chunk, Sac and Fox,
[00:04:46.500]and Iowa Peoples.
[00:04:48.600]Through our acknowledgement,
[00:04:50.130]we work to develop positive,
[00:04:51.570]ongoing relationships to our Indigenous tribal nations
[00:04:54.960]and the rich tribal diversity in the State of Nebraska.
[00:04:59.100]Now I have the honor of introducing this evening's speaker.
[00:05:03.480]Leilani Farha is the former UN special repertoire
[00:05:06.570]on the right to housing
[00:05:07.710]and the global director of The Shift.
[00:05:10.350]Farha has helped develop human global right standards
[00:05:13.440]on the right to housing
[00:05:15.270]through topical reports on homelessness,
[00:05:17.670]the financialization of housing, informal settlements,
[00:05:21.360]and the first UN guidelines for the implementation
[00:05:24.090]of the right to housing.
[00:05:26.250]She's the central character
[00:05:27.690]in the documentary film "Push"
[00:05:29.880]regarding financialization of housing,
[00:05:32.220]which we screened last week
[00:05:34.380]at the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center,
[00:05:37.200]and she is the co-host of the podcast "PUSHBACK Talks."
[00:05:41.280]Farha launched The Shift in 2017
[00:05:44.070]to advance the right to housing globally
[00:05:46.740]through advocacy, research, and campaigning.
[00:05:50.760]Please join me in welcoming to the stage Leilani Farha.
[00:05:55.195](audience applauding)
[00:06:05.460]Thank you. Good evening.
[00:06:10.020]Thanks so much to the University of Nebraska
[00:06:12.870]and the E.N. Thompson Forum for bringing me to Lincoln
[00:06:17.250]and offering me such a warm welcome.
[00:06:20.520]I've been shadowed by a fellow named Brian
[00:06:23.730]who's made my visit just so perfect, seamless.
[00:06:27.900]So I'll be honest to say that I knew next to nothing
[00:06:33.060]about Nebraska when I accepted the invitation
[00:06:35.610]to be part of this incredible speaker series.
[00:06:39.090]In fact, that was the allure.
[00:06:43.200]One of the things about traveling as much as I do
[00:06:46.710]is that I get to explore new cultures,
[00:06:49.650]new topographies, new foods,
[00:06:52.140]different cultures, different climates.
[00:06:54.930]I love finding out the little known facts of a place,
[00:06:58.530]you know, the hidden gems, what makes a place a place.
[00:07:02.670]I love that Lincoln is called by some the Star City
[00:07:06.360]and people don't really know why;
[00:07:09.450]that it was originally called Lancaster, who knew?
[00:07:13.170]Now it's Lincoln.
[00:07:15.660]The strange thing I found about traveling to new cities
[00:07:19.740]is that as much as I see the unique and new,
[00:07:24.360]I also see patterns and similarities.
[00:07:28.170]I talk to a lot of people wherever I go
[00:07:31.410]and I hear the same stories, in fact,
[00:07:36.090]eerily the same
[00:07:38.460]considering the vastly different contexts
[00:07:42.420]I find myself in.
[00:07:44.670]I was in Madrid, Spain, recently and met with young tenants,
[00:07:48.810]students, those at the early age, you know,
[00:07:51.060]early stage of their careers,
[00:07:52.770]living in a working class neighborhood.
[00:07:55.350]And they were telling me that their apartment buildings
[00:07:58.320]are being bought up by corporate landlords.
[00:08:02.070]Tenant leases are not being renewed
[00:08:05.100]and these investor landlords
[00:08:06.990]are repositioning the buildings to turn a higher profit.
[00:08:11.400]These young tenants will be displaced
[00:08:13.860]from their communities where they grew up.
[00:08:17.610]I was in San Juan last month
[00:08:19.950]and met several local Puerto Ricans
[00:08:22.530]whose entire communities are being transformed
[00:08:27.030]to Airbnb communities.
[00:08:29.460]One woman told me that in her beachside town,
[00:08:32.130]a very beautiful beachside town,
[00:08:34.080]there are more Airbnb units
[00:08:36.900]than long-term apartments and homes now.
[00:08:40.740]I have visited Dublin, Ireland,
[00:08:42.720]where tenants are also being priced out of the market.
[00:08:47.010]Like elsewhere,
[00:08:48.030]institutional landlords who owned around 76 homes in 2010
[00:08:54.390]now own more than 45,000
[00:08:57.870]across the country
[00:08:59.640]and are contributing to the surge in housing costs
[00:09:02.760]in Ireland and in Dublin.
[00:09:05.880]The average standardized monthly rent in Dublin
[00:09:09.330]doubled in a decade,
[00:09:14.460]and it's affecting young people.
[00:09:16.200]2/3 of young people are living with their parents still.
[00:09:20.010]There is a huge push of Irish people,
[00:09:22.830]young Irish people out of Ireland.
[00:09:26.640]There was a 15% increase in people leaving,
[00:09:30.030]young people leaving Ireland in the last year.
[00:09:33.780]And even in my own backyard, in Ottawa, Canada.
[00:09:37.050]corporate landlords are buying up older, affordable,
[00:09:40.800]multi-family apartment buildings at a rapid clip,
[00:09:44.010]and they're repositioning them to higher-end units.
[00:09:48.300]I visited a community called Heron Gate,
[00:09:50.580]made up of mostly refugees and migrants,
[00:09:53.370]racialized community,
[00:09:55.260]and they have the entire community,
[00:09:57.300]several buildings have been displaced
[00:09:59.910]by a corporate landlord who's changing the neighborhood
[00:10:03.450]to an upper, middle to upper middle class neighborhood.
[00:10:06.660]It was one of the only affordable communities in my city.
[00:10:11.940]What's unfolding the world over is a story
[00:10:15.270]that kind of stands in the shadows
[00:10:18.420]of the much talked about affordability crisis.
[00:10:21.360]It's a story of displacement
[00:10:25.290]and forced migration through real estate,
[00:10:29.730]and Lincoln finds itself in the middle of it.
[00:10:33.930]Affordable homes in this area are rapidly declining.
[00:10:38.700]Evictions are, or have, dramatically increased.
[00:10:42.870]The median purchase price of a home increased by 30%
[00:10:47.190]between 2016 and 2020.
[00:10:50.880]The number of units available
[00:10:52.770]for less than $500 a month in rent
[00:10:55.980]have fallen by 45% in a four year period,
[00:11:00.930]while the number of high-end
[00:11:03.330]or higher-end rentals charging more than 1,500 a month
[00:11:07.560]have increased by 185%.
[00:11:12.870]As a result, people are migrating not just out of Lincoln,
[00:11:17.880]but out of Nebraska.
[00:11:20.640]The question is:
[00:11:21.780]Why has housing unaffordability
[00:11:25.020]and displacement because of it
[00:11:27.840]become a worldwide fact,
[00:11:31.170]one that scars cities
[00:11:33.180]as diverse as Lincoln, Lisbon, and London?
[00:11:38.940]In the case of Nebraska,
[00:11:40.830]the Strategic Housing Council answered this
[00:11:43.740]in its 2022 report.
[00:11:46.860]The diagnosis is the same one I hear
[00:11:50.820]in almost every jurisdiction
[00:11:53.520]that's suffering housing unaffordability,
[00:11:55.500]which is pretty much every jurisdiction:
[00:11:58.380]undersupply, lack of supply,
[00:12:01.470]prohibitive zoning laws.
[00:12:04.440]The cost of construction is just so high,
[00:12:07.410]especially with high interest rates.
[00:12:11.160]And increasingly I'm seeing
[00:12:13.440]the diagnosis includes a recognition
[00:12:16.320]of the role of housing speculation, in particular,
[00:12:20.070]by large-scale investors,
[00:12:22.440]though the impact of this is not always well understood.
[00:12:26.430]There is little doubt that these four factors
[00:12:31.260]are indeed part of what's going on.
[00:12:34.770]But my sense is that these
[00:12:37.650]may actually be symptoms
[00:12:41.340]of a more sinister illness
[00:12:44.880]afflicting our housing systems.
[00:12:48.060]I think there is something more fundamental
[00:12:50.790]and more foundational going on.
[00:12:55.050]While our housing systems appear to be in crisis,
[00:12:58.260]I think, in fact,
[00:13:00.210]they're functioning exactly as they were set up to function.
[00:13:05.700]High rents, homelessness,
[00:13:08.220]unaffordability of home ownership
[00:13:10.230]are the natural outcome of a system
[00:13:15.540]the aim of which is less
[00:13:18.300]about adequately housing people
[00:13:21.810]and more about economic growth,
[00:13:25.560]bank profits,
[00:13:27.360]and the enrichment of various financiers,
[00:13:31.800]what I call the commodification
[00:13:34.530]and financialization of housing.
[00:13:38.550]Now, it may surprise you, or maybe not, depends,
[00:13:43.800]but how fundamental
[00:13:46.890]and critical housing is to our economies.
[00:13:52.290]Now, I have to be plain.
[00:13:53.940]I'm a human rights lawyer. I am not an economist.
[00:13:57.930]So what I'm gonna give you is like the dumbed down version
[00:14:01.260]of the role that housing plays in our economies.
[00:14:04.410]In very, very simple terms,
[00:14:07.350]the way it traditionally has worked is as follows:
[00:14:10.860]The construction of housing, building housing,
[00:14:13.530]is used generally to bolster economies.
[00:14:17.220]The purchase of raw materials, labor,
[00:14:20.220]it all helps circulate money.
[00:14:22.680]Housing represents about 15%
[00:14:25.530]of the gross domestic product in the United States.
[00:14:29.730]The purchase and sale of housing is also used
[00:14:32.670]to drive and bolster the economy through debt.
[00:14:38.520]You buy your house with a mortgage, a loan, right,
[00:14:41.310]which then gives you access to household money
[00:14:45.960]so you can spend your income on daily things
[00:14:48.930]and you can leverage off your home for bigger things,
[00:14:52.650]like buying cars and sending your kids to university.
[00:14:56.730]The rates, the interest rates give banks back the money
[00:15:01.470]they need to keep lending.
[00:15:04.110]So debt is a huge,
[00:15:06.840]debt through housing is a huge part of the US economy.
[00:15:10.800]Household debt accounts for 64% of the US' GDP,
[00:15:15.630]and mortgages make up 70% of household debt.
[00:15:20.280]So in other words, our indebtedness,
[00:15:22.920]our poverty fuels our economies,
[00:15:27.570]and housing's at the center of that.
[00:15:29.850]Now, more recently,
[00:15:31.710]housing has become
[00:15:34.350]a way to grow wealth,
[00:15:37.980]not wealth for a nation, not wealth for governments,
[00:15:42.420]but for corporations, for financial firms,
[00:15:45.060]and for already wealthy people.
[00:15:47.910]Housing has become detached
[00:15:50.250]from the end user and their income.
[00:15:53.610]It's become a place to park, grow,
[00:15:57.960]leverage, and sometimes hide money.
[00:16:03.390]So as it stands,
[00:16:04.950]residential real estate
[00:16:06.360]has actually become the biggest business in the world.
[00:16:10.770]It's now valued at approximately
[00:16:13.297]$258 trillion.
[00:16:19.200]That's about three times the entire world's GDP.
[00:16:25.050]It accounts, residential real estate
[00:16:27.480]accounts for 70% of global net worth.
[00:16:34.020]As a sector,
[00:16:36.900]residential real estate is bigger than pharmaceuticals,
[00:16:41.520]bigger than tobacco,
[00:16:43.950]bigger than the amount of gold ever mined.
[00:16:48.750]So when you hear that number, $258 trillion,
[00:16:52.500]you should be, like,
[00:16:53.333]shaking your head because none of us know
[00:16:57.450]what that amount of money means.
[00:16:59.190]Saskia Sassen, a famous sociologist, says,
[00:17:01.897]"That amount of money exits the domain of money."
[00:17:06.900]It's not surprising, then,
[00:17:08.400]that the National Association of Realtors
[00:17:10.770]is the largest lobby group in the US,
[00:17:13.710]larger than pharma, tobacco, and guns.
[00:17:17.640]They spent over $84 million
[00:17:20.430]in lobbying in 2022, for example.
[00:17:23.610]So how did we get here?
[00:17:25.860]How did we go from housing as home
[00:17:31.200]to housing as a commodity,
[00:17:34.200]housing as a lobby interest?
[00:17:38.250]Well, the foundations really started
[00:17:42.060]with the advent of neoliberalism.
[00:17:46.200]Reaganomics is probably what you,
[00:17:48.420]a term you well in this country.
[00:17:51.390]People like Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan,
[00:17:54.090]Pinochet in Chile, the Chicago Boys, look them up,
[00:17:57.510]you can Google all of this,
[00:17:59.220]and you'll see that they had
[00:18:00.330]a very particular vision for the economy.
[00:18:03.960]The vision was one of government restraint.
[00:18:06.930]Governments took a big step back from the economy.
[00:18:11.490]They wanted the free market to reign,
[00:18:15.690]shall we say.
[00:18:16.890]And with respect to housing,
[00:18:19.200]that meant deregulation,
[00:18:21.600]it meant not building social housing,
[00:18:25.200]not funding social or public housing.
[00:18:29.160]It meant privatizing social housing.
[00:18:32.220]It meant assuming that the free market
[00:18:36.150]would provide to the most vulnerable,
[00:18:39.630]the idea of trickle-down economics.
[00:18:41.640]You've probably heard that term.
[00:18:45.060]And that was the stage
[00:18:49.410]that was set for what we now see
[00:18:52.140]and what I call the financialization of housing,
[00:18:54.540]which is the uber commodification of housing.
[00:18:58.050]Regular mortgages,
[00:18:59.070]that's a commodification of housing
[00:19:01.650]that can fare quite well,
[00:19:03.690]that can do a country quite well.
[00:19:06.240]But what we're seeing now,
[00:19:07.950]it's like commodification on steroids.
[00:19:10.740]So how did we get there?
[00:19:12.300]That started with the Great Recession,
[00:19:14.580]the mortgage foreclosure crisis
[00:19:16.770]that really affected America so deeply, in 2008.
[00:19:21.660]That's when we see the big actors make an appearance,
[00:19:25.710]when private equity firms became,
[00:19:28.740]a particular private equity firm named Blackstone
[00:19:32.070]became the biggest landlord in this country,
[00:19:35.280]buying up between 50 and 60,000 single family homes
[00:19:40.650]in a single transaction actually.
[00:19:44.430]I mean, which of us, who of us could do that?
[00:19:47.160]It takes private equity to do that.
[00:19:48.960]They have the big dollars.
[00:19:50.580]And they have continued to dominate the landscape
[00:19:53.910]both through their acquisitions,
[00:19:56.190]but also through creating a culture
[00:20:00.780]where using real estate
[00:20:04.110]and homes to leverage capital
[00:20:08.040]and grow capital has become part of our culture.
[00:20:12.060]They influence government,
[00:20:13.920]they sit at government tables,
[00:20:16.440]they help set government policies.
[00:20:21.930]The business model that they use is predatory.
[00:20:26.040]And it's that business model
[00:20:28.320]that is contributing in a significant way
[00:20:32.130]to the unaffordability of housing,
[00:20:34.710]to skyrocketing evictions,
[00:20:37.740]and to increasing homelessness in some places.
[00:20:41.730]In a nutshell, they buy cheap, or as cheap as they can,
[00:20:46.650]that's affordable housing,
[00:20:48.990]so housing that they deem is undervalued,
[00:20:53.130]and they sell high.
[00:20:55.200]In order to sell high, they have to make improvements,
[00:20:58.890]so they renovate.
[00:21:00.690]They raise rents, they reposition buildings,
[00:21:03.180]they charge fees for everything.
[00:21:05.550]They evict tenants for small infractions.
[00:21:08.880]They exploit weak tenant laws to their advantage.
[00:21:13.260]They avail themselves of all the cheap money out there,
[00:21:16.170]whether it's cheap loans
[00:21:17.730]or whether it's public subsidies, tax breaks, you know,
[00:21:21.600]as I said, low interest rate loans.
[00:21:24.450]And they use that model to make themselves
[00:21:28.410]and their investors a whole lot of money,
[00:21:31.950]that 258 trillion that I mentioned before.
[00:21:37.650]These profit-driven financial landlords
[00:21:40.590]are constantly surveying landscapes,
[00:21:43.380]trying to figure out where the next great deal is.
[00:21:46.740]Student housing
[00:21:48.150]is the new hottest asset class.
[00:21:53.490]They are profiting off of students' parents, basically.
[00:21:57.870]I think there's a building here: Atmosphere.
[00:21:59.760]I need to do a little digging
[00:22:01.050]and see what's going on with that.
[00:22:04.620]So this overemphasis on housing as an asset,
[00:22:08.310]as something to be traded
[00:22:09.810]and sold on the stock exchange,
[00:22:13.530]means that housing has become divorced from income,
[00:22:18.300]but even more so,
[00:22:20.460]housing has become divorced from its essence.
[00:22:25.560]Housing is no longer valued as home,
[00:22:29.910]a place of refuge from the world,
[00:22:33.450]a place where families form and grow,
[00:22:36.030]where culture thrives,
[00:22:38.070]a place of security,
[00:22:39.570]a place that promotes human wellbeing.
[00:22:44.010]So with that as a backdrop,
[00:22:46.260]let's revisit the question
[00:22:48.270]of what's really driving the housing affordability crisis,
[00:22:53.190]or unaffordability crisis,
[00:22:54.720]in Lincoln and in cities around the world.
[00:22:56.970]And no, I'm not blaming this on investors.
[00:23:00.390]I'd like to propose
[00:23:02.580]that we would not be in this crisis
[00:23:05.760]if housing had been treated by our governments
[00:23:09.900]as the fundamental human right that it is;
[00:23:13.110]that if housing were treated like a human right,
[00:23:15.930]the housing system would look very different.
[00:23:19.590]In other words,
[00:23:20.460]the crisis before us
[00:23:22.560]is a result of the failure of governments
[00:23:26.160]to ensure that every law and policy
[00:23:29.700]that interacts with housing produces,
[00:23:33.930]produces the human right to housing.
[00:23:38.220]So with the few minutes left of my talk,
[00:23:40.710]I want us to be able to leave here
[00:23:44.010]being able to imagine
[00:23:46.830]what a housing system would look like if the end goal
[00:23:51.600]was to produce human rights outcomes
[00:23:55.530]with respect to housing.
[00:23:57.720]So perhaps a good starting point
[00:23:59.250]would be to get a little familiar
[00:24:01.590]with what the right to housing actually means.
[00:24:04.320]What is required of governments?
[00:24:06.810]So I'll begin by saying the right to housing
[00:24:09.660]is found in international law,
[00:24:13.124]that's where it gets its first articulation,
[00:24:16.230]and international law that governments have committed to.
[00:24:21.360]There is an international consensus
[00:24:23.820]that there is a set of human rights,
[00:24:25.710]and housing is one of them.
[00:24:27.720]And the very first articulation
[00:24:30.720]of the right to housing is found
[00:24:32.610]in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
[00:24:35.550]It's the foundational document
[00:24:39.120]of the UN's human rights system, we could say.
[00:24:43.260]It was adopted in 1948
[00:24:46.590]after World War II,
[00:24:48.300]and the horrific things that happened in World War II,
[00:24:52.530]with a view to outlining what rights
[00:24:54.990]would need to be implemented
[00:24:57.060]in order to have more peaceful societies,
[00:25:00.750]where societies developed
[00:25:02.850]in a way that would benefit everyone.
[00:25:06.690]The right to housing is also
[00:25:08.250]in almost every international human rights treaty.
[00:25:11.760]Now, the US has not ratified
[00:25:14.490]many of the international treaties
[00:25:16.410]that codify the right to housing,
[00:25:18.330]but they have signed, but not ratified, the main one.
[00:25:22.410]And having signed it...
[00:25:25.080]And that was, I think it was Jimmy Carter,
[00:25:27.840]President Carter, in 1977, who signed it.
[00:25:31.980]Having signed it,
[00:25:34.290]it means that the government,
[00:25:36.540]the national level government,
[00:25:38.160]and all the states and all city governments
[00:25:41.970]have an obligation to refrain from acts
[00:25:44.910]that would defeat the purpose of the treaty,
[00:25:47.460]and the treaty includes the right to housing.
[00:25:51.030]So what does the right to housing actually entail?
[00:25:53.490]What's required?
[00:25:55.500]First of all,
[00:25:56.333]I want you to know it is not to be conflated
[00:25:59.460]with social housing.
[00:26:01.920]The right to housing can exist in a capitalist framework,
[00:26:05.580]you'll be glad to know.
[00:26:06.510]So we don't need to debunk capitalism.
[00:26:08.640]That's good,
[00:26:09.473]'cause that would be really tough
[00:26:10.470]and probably foolhardy.
[00:26:13.320]It also does not mean governments
[00:26:15.180]need to provide a home for everyone,
[00:26:17.280]governments need to actually give homes to everyone.
[00:26:19.890]That is not what the right to housing means.
[00:26:21.960]It means governments and industry
[00:26:23.940]have to create the conditions
[00:26:27.090]whereby everyone can live in peace, security,
[00:26:30.810]and with dignity.
[00:26:32.310]And I love that definition of the right to housing,
[00:26:34.860]to live in peace, security, and with dignity,
[00:26:37.800]because it's so easy to apply, right?
[00:26:40.530]Dignity.
[00:26:41.550]So you see someone living in homelessness
[00:26:43.740]and they don't have a place to go to the toilet
[00:26:45.690]and they don't have a shower,
[00:26:47.250]are they living in dignity?
[00:26:49.530]Security.
[00:26:50.850]You're threatened with a rent increase,
[00:26:52.620]which means you won't be able to pay your rent
[00:26:54.300]and you're going to be evicted or you'll have to leave,
[00:26:56.790]do you have security?
[00:26:59.580]Probably not.
[00:27:02.190]Peace.
[00:27:03.210]You're living in a violent circumstance.
[00:27:05.070]Are you living in peace? Right?
[00:27:06.480]Simple to apply.
[00:27:09.420]There are several very specific characteristics
[00:27:13.980]that are required in order for a person
[00:27:16.080]to enjoy the human right to housing.
[00:27:18.750]So housing has to be adequate.
[00:27:20.790]And in order for housing to be adequate,
[00:27:23.850]it has to be affordable;
[00:27:25.440]which means at the end of the month,
[00:27:27.390]do you have enough money after paying for your housing?
[00:27:30.780]Do you have enough money for food, medicine,
[00:27:33.510]and other basic necessities:
[00:27:35.190]clothes, school fees, et cetera?
[00:27:38.550]Housing has to be secure.
[00:27:40.320]You have to have security of tenure.
[00:27:43.050]And that, of course, interacts, you can imagine,
[00:27:45.180]with affordability.
[00:27:46.050]So if your rent is increasing overnight by 10%
[00:27:50.340]and your income isn't,
[00:27:51.840]do you have security of tenure?
[00:27:55.590]Housing has to be habitable.
[00:27:58.140]Are you warm in the winter?
[00:28:01.170]Do you have a way to stay cool in those hot summers?
[00:28:04.920]Housing has to be accessible.
[00:28:06.540]There have to be a variety of housing options
[00:28:08.730]available to the entire population,
[00:28:12.360]no matter your income,
[00:28:13.980]no matter what disadvantage
[00:28:16.050]or vulnerable group you might be part of.
[00:28:18.990]And housing has to be sustainable.
[00:28:21.630]And this is a new element
[00:28:23.460]added to the idea of adequate housing
[00:28:26.400]under human rights law.
[00:28:28.020]And, you know, people probably don't know,
[00:28:29.880]but housing construction and the operation of housing
[00:28:32.400]is a huge carbon emitter.
[00:28:34.770]Like 40% of carbon emissions
[00:28:36.960]come from the built environment,
[00:28:39.060]so it's a serious matter.
[00:28:41.430]And so ensuring sustainable housing,
[00:28:45.510]that people have access to sustainable housing
[00:28:48.000]doesn't just mean green housing, like building green,
[00:28:51.270]it also means we, as society, need to think through:
[00:28:56.670]How can we ensure people have access to adequate housing
[00:29:01.620]without killing the planet?
[00:29:03.600]That means looking at things
[00:29:04.950]like repurposing existing buildings, not demolishing,
[00:29:08.820]not building unnecessarily.
[00:29:11.550]And that's where financialization comes in,
[00:29:13.740]because a lot of buildings are being built,
[00:29:15.420]condos, for example,
[00:29:16.860]to satisfy investor thirst, right,
[00:29:19.920]to quench investor thirst.
[00:29:22.260]And those are actually unnecessary
[00:29:25.800]in light of the fragility of the planet.
[00:29:30.090]Okay.
[00:29:30.923]So that gives you just a little flavor
[00:29:32.790]of the human right to housing.
[00:29:33.810]I could go on,
[00:29:34.643]but I don't want this to be a law lecture.
[00:29:36.180]So I do wanna talk about, like, so, like,
[00:29:39.240]what's the value of using a human rights framework?
[00:29:42.630]Like, okay, you've told us a little bit
[00:29:45.150]about the right to housing,
[00:29:46.200]but why should I care?
[00:29:47.640]Is this game changing?
[00:29:49.590]And I think it is.
[00:29:50.910]And I think human rights offers two things in particular.
[00:29:56.610]Human rights offer universally applicable standards
[00:30:01.320]to create a fair housing system
[00:30:03.960]and they offer a process to do so.
[00:30:07.440]So human rights standards are universal.
[00:30:09.930]I've given you a little taste of what they are.
[00:30:11.850]They can be applied in any context:
[00:30:14.580]in small cities, in large cities, in rural context,
[00:30:17.460]in urban contexts,
[00:30:20.730]in the north, in the south.
[00:30:23.190]And they are actual standards.
[00:30:26.370]They can be viewed as,
[00:30:28.170]I always say this to governments,
[00:30:29.460]they kind of look at me with an arched eyebrow, really,
[00:30:31.590]but they can be viewed as carrots,
[00:30:34.920]not just sticks, yeah?
[00:30:37.500]So they can be viewed as helping governments figure out
[00:30:42.330]how to make their cities or their towns better
[00:30:46.800]through housing.
[00:30:50.130]Most governments end up telling me
[00:30:52.080]that human rights feel like a thorn in their side,
[00:30:54.300]but I try to convince them:
[00:30:55.417]"Seriously, they're carrots."
[00:30:59.370]Human rights are very clear about certain things.
[00:31:02.130]To me, they give a clarity to our housing systems.
[00:31:07.080]Human rights are clear who is accountable to whom.
[00:31:10.860]Governments are accountable to people,
[00:31:13.710]particularly people whose rights are likely to be violated.
[00:31:18.360]Simple.
[00:31:20.250]Human rights require, therefore, that governments lead.
[00:31:24.000]And this, it might be the single most important thing
[00:31:27.240]to talk about tonight.
[00:31:28.890]As we have seen,
[00:31:30.750]really since the late 1970s,
[00:31:34.620]governments have taken a backseat to industry,
[00:31:37.650]a backseat to finance.
[00:31:40.140]We have to reverse this trend.
[00:31:42.510]We need governments to put the needs
[00:31:46.050]and rights of their constituents first,
[00:31:48.960]and change their relationship
[00:31:51.150]with finance and real estate.
[00:31:53.070]And this is maybe the tallest task at hand.
[00:31:59.220]What I want is for governments
[00:32:01.320]to demand that for every public dollar they give away,
[00:32:06.690]they receive a public return.
[00:32:10.470]Property tax waivers, income tax waivers,
[00:32:14.400]cheap loans, government subsidies,
[00:32:17.520]all of these should be producing adequate,
[00:32:21.870]genuinely affordable housing
[00:32:25.170]for those most in need.
[00:32:27.300]And that is not what's happening today.
[00:32:31.320]Governments must also find their courage.
[00:32:34.560]They must be bold enough to regulate
[00:32:37.740]to ensure private actors,
[00:32:39.900]whether it's an institutional investor
[00:32:42.120]or an individual landlord,
[00:32:43.950]to ensure that those private actors
[00:32:46.050]uphold the human rights of tenants
[00:32:48.390]and other residents.
[00:32:52.710]Human rights all also offer some very specific,
[00:32:57.120]concrete standards for policy makers.
[00:33:00.630]I already went through the adequacy standards
[00:33:03.930]that attach to the built environment, to the actual home:
[00:33:07.410]the requirement that housing be affordable, secure,
[00:33:09.870]habitable, sustainable, et cetera.
[00:33:16.080]But it requires more than that.
[00:33:18.630]Human rights actually tell governments
[00:33:20.550]what to do with their money.
[00:33:22.800]There's a concept called maximum available resources.
[00:33:27.240]Under human rights law,
[00:33:28.830]governments are supposed to spend
[00:33:31.140]the maximum of their available resources
[00:33:34.890]to ensure the implementation of all human rights,
[00:33:37.770]including the human right to housing.
[00:33:40.440]Governments are also supposed to ensure transparency;
[00:33:44.460]in other words, they should hold themselves accountable,
[00:33:47.970]they should allow themselves to be monitored,
[00:33:51.330]and they should set very specific goals
[00:33:53.610]and timelines for implementing the right to housing.
[00:33:58.650]So I also said that that's sort of the value
[00:34:03.720]or the way in which human rights
[00:34:08.130]can help governments achieve certain outcomes,
[00:34:13.710]but I think human rights also offer an important,
[00:34:19.080]offer something important for process.
[00:34:23.340]Human rights provide a process for change.
[00:34:27.330]They require governments, in particular,
[00:34:31.110]but industry as well,
[00:34:32.790]to interact differently with people.
[00:34:37.170]They have to adopt a different vision of people,
[00:34:40.350]and really, actually,
[00:34:41.220]I would say a different vision of democracy.
[00:34:43.950]In a human rights framework, residents, tenants,
[00:34:47.820]people living in homelessness
[00:34:49.860]are not recipients of charity
[00:34:52.710]or the receivers of the goodwill of governments,
[00:34:58.230]or on the flip,
[00:34:59.370]they're not irritants or a problem to be solved
[00:35:03.540]when they complain about their housing conditions.
[00:35:07.170]Under human rights law, residents, tenants,
[00:35:10.650]people living in homelessness are rights holders.
[00:35:15.030]They are and must be viewed as human beings
[00:35:18.480]entitled to live in decent, affordable, secure,
[00:35:22.350]habitable homes.
[00:35:26.760]As rights holders,
[00:35:27.960]they are active subjects empowered to engage
[00:35:32.190]and be involved in any decision that affects their lives.
[00:35:36.330]And they have to be given the power
[00:35:39.749]to change decisions that are being made
[00:35:42.900]if those decisions will not benefit them.
[00:35:48.630]We have to trust that people know
[00:35:51.450]what is in their best interests
[00:35:53.460]and in the best interests of their communities.
[00:35:57.030]This is a very difficult thing
[00:35:58.560]for governments and industry
[00:35:59.730]because it's a kind of handing over, a ceding of power.
[00:36:03.900]Very difficult.
[00:36:04.890]I've never met a government who felt really comfortable,
[00:36:07.650]or industry who felt really comfortable
[00:36:10.200]really engaging with tenants
[00:36:13.290]or people living in homelessness
[00:36:15.120]in a way that would count as meaningful engagement
[00:36:18.780]under human rights law.
[00:36:21.510]But we have to start bringing people to the table
[00:36:25.710]to fashion housing policies that work for them.
[00:36:29.340]Those policies will be the most successful
[00:36:32.160]because those people will have a stake
[00:36:34.710]in ensuring a procedure that they were part of works,
[00:36:39.270]that the policies that come out of a process
[00:36:41.490]that they were part of actually works.
[00:36:47.850]So, a lot of what I've talked about
[00:36:50.940]requires a pretty huge paradigmatic shift.
[00:36:54.120]Now you know why I named the organization The Shift,
[00:36:57.000]because that's what we need.
[00:36:59.040]Getting governments to lead business,
[00:37:02.880]to lead them down a different path,
[00:37:07.680]to suggest that maybe profits
[00:37:11.190]are not the appropriate outcome
[00:37:14.400]from engagement with residential real estate,
[00:37:16.500]getting governments to meaningfully engage
[00:37:19.410]and include disadvantaged communities in decision making,
[00:37:23.700]these are tall tasks.
[00:37:26.340]This requires paradigmatic change for sure.
[00:37:29.160]And I think the starting point of that
[00:37:32.340]can be to develop a housing strategy or plan
[00:37:36.330]that uses a human rights framework.
[00:37:40.350]And you are poised to do this right here in Lincoln.
[00:37:44.970]In fact, I think maybe you have already started.
[00:37:49.710]From what I've learned in my short time here
[00:37:51.840]and in the reading that I've done,
[00:37:53.310]you have students who know their housing conditions
[00:37:57.120]are tough and getting tougher
[00:37:59.670]and who want to do something.
[00:38:01.890]I heard that today.
[00:38:03.900]The university has an amazing housing justice group
[00:38:07.080]doing amazing rights-based work already.
[00:38:11.040]The Nebraska 2022 Strategic Housing Framework
[00:38:15.300]and Lincoln's Affordable Housing Coordination Action Plan,
[00:38:20.550]I think it's called,
[00:38:21.690]are both amazing already
[00:38:25.050]and I think could easily be re-imagined
[00:38:27.870]as roadmaps toward human rights-based housing systems
[00:38:32.490]in the state and in this city.
[00:38:36.690]Let's remember that big things
[00:38:40.380]start in small places.
[00:38:44.010]The examples are all around us.
[00:38:47.940]Think of young Greta Thunberg,
[00:38:50.700]the Swedish child climate activist
[00:38:54.570]sitting outside the Swedish Parliament day after day
[00:38:59.760]and now an icon of the climate movement.
[00:39:04.740]Think of Rosa Parks,
[00:39:06.660]civil rights pioneer refusing to move
[00:39:10.050]out of a row of empty seats in the Colored section
[00:39:13.650]of a bus to accommodate a single white passenger.
[00:39:17.910]Think of Nelson Mandela who challenged apartheid,
[00:39:21.450]went to jail for it and brought it down.
[00:39:25.590]Think of Chris Smalls,
[00:39:27.630]the union activist here in the States,
[00:39:30.450]collecting signatures outside of Amazon,
[00:39:34.140]forming the first union of Amazon employees.
[00:39:39.450]What's the common denominator here?
[00:39:43.890]A vision for a different world based upon agreed,
[00:39:49.080]based on agreed upon human rights values:
[00:39:53.340]the right to non-discrimination,
[00:39:54.960]the right to a healthy environment,
[00:39:56.970]the right to decent working conditions.
[00:40:01.350]Why not the right to housing?
[00:40:05.430]But ultimately,
[00:40:06.600]none of these human rights heroes worked alone.
[00:40:10.020]They built coalitions and movements,
[00:40:12.570]they found their people,
[00:40:14.700]and together they made change.
[00:40:18.330]You've started something here in Lincoln, Nebraska.
[00:40:23.970]You have a progressive strategic housing framework in place.
[00:40:29.220]You're working to improve laws to protect tenants.
[00:40:33.690]Maybe this is just the beginning.
[00:40:36.720]You never know where small acts and efforts will lead.
[00:40:43.050]But I do know this:
[00:40:44.790]human rights are something we have to fight for.
[00:40:48.930]Ask anyone in Gaza right now,
[00:40:51.750]ask any Native American.
[00:40:55.500]When human rights aren't realized,
[00:40:57.690]we don't give up.
[00:41:00.630]We try harder, we mobilize, we insist,
[00:41:06.480]and we remember all human beings
[00:41:10.590]are born free and equal
[00:41:14.040]in dignity and rights.
[00:41:16.920]Thank you.
[00:41:17.805](audience applauding)
[00:41:31.980]Leilani, once again,
[00:41:33.120]thank you for sharing your insight and expertise with us.
[00:41:37.470]To our audience, as we go into the Q&A,
[00:41:40.020]you can ask questions on your phone
[00:41:41.670]by texting ENT498
[00:41:44.520]to the number 22333
[00:41:47.160]or by going to pollev.com/ent498
[00:41:52.350]on a computer or browser.
[00:41:55.590]So we have a few questions
[00:41:56.850]that have been coming in already.
[00:41:59.580]First one. You or there?
[00:42:01.013]There or you?
[00:42:01.846]From there. Okay. Okay.
[00:42:03.030]They're showing up
[00:42:03.863]on my phone. Oh, okay.
[00:42:04.696]On your phone, okay. As you text them,
[00:42:05.529]they pop up to me.
[00:42:07.140]So the first question is:
[00:42:08.947]"In a capitalist market,
[00:42:10.530]capitalist free-market system,
[00:42:12.480]we could expect that the building of housing
[00:42:14.850]would lower the price to be competitive,
[00:42:17.760]but they are not.
[00:42:19.260]How are governments helping, or not,
[00:42:22.680]housing to become an industry
[00:42:25.110]rather than a right?"
[00:42:26.310]Mm.
[00:42:29.190]Well, that's the crux of the matter, isn't it?
[00:42:32.400]So governments are absolutely complicit
[00:42:36.360]in turning housing into this uber industry actually.
[00:42:41.220]They do it through...
[00:42:42.053]And it's a variety of levels of government,
[00:42:44.490]it's not just national level governments,
[00:42:46.530]but they do it through a variety of means.
[00:42:53.100]As I said, they've created conditions
[00:42:55.740]that are really advantageous
[00:42:58.440]for these big private equity firms,
[00:43:03.900]financial management firms, et cetera:
[00:43:07.200]things like
[00:43:11.070]not having to pay income tax;
[00:43:12.750]not having to pay capital gains tax;
[00:43:16.860]things like ensuring, for many, many, many years,
[00:43:20.490]access to really cheap money.
[00:43:22.920]Cheap money is like when you go to the bank
[00:43:24.930]and you get a loan and the interest rate is 0%,
[00:43:28.230]or 0.1%, or whatever.
[00:43:30.540]I mean, they have had those advantages
[00:43:34.140]for a very long time.
[00:43:35.550]So you can even say your federal,
[00:43:37.920]the Fed, it's called here, the...
[00:43:41.165]What do you call it? Federal Reserve.
[00:43:42.000]Federal Reserve Bank is complicit in this as well.
[00:43:45.990]And that that's not unique to the United States.
[00:43:47.880]This is global.
[00:43:50.040]By setting interest rates so low,
[00:43:51.990]it was like they're printing money for these guys
[00:43:54.900]who are then using this money
[00:43:58.947]to eat up residential real estate.
[00:44:01.380]And the thing that's so sinister about it
[00:44:04.170]is it's at times of crisis
[00:44:08.700]for the rest of us
[00:44:10.440]when these actors are enabled, through these policies,
[00:44:14.910]to gobble up housing.
[00:44:16.650]I mean, when you all were sweating in 2008 and 2009
[00:44:21.930]in the mortgage foreclosure crisis
[00:44:23.880]and people were being rendered homeless
[00:44:25.620]and losing their homes, and I mean, tragic situations,
[00:44:29.460]you know, suicidality rates went up, et cetera, et cetera,
[00:44:32.760]very tragic for the common American person, right,
[00:44:36.000]and for many, many African Americans in particular,
[00:44:39.510]when that was happening,
[00:44:42.090]these predatory actors were sweeping in.
[00:44:45.180]Why?
[00:44:46.020]Because they had liquid...
[00:44:48.090]They call it powder.
[00:44:49.530]They had money,
[00:44:53.370]tons of money,
[00:44:54.750]and they gobbled up these homes.
[00:44:56.220]Why didn't the government
[00:44:58.470]ensure that people who were losing their homes
[00:45:00.960]could save their homes somehow?
[00:45:02.760]Why wasn't the average American bailed out?
[00:45:05.490]Instead, the banks were bailed out
[00:45:07.560]and the banks sold off this bad debt
[00:45:12.150]cheap, cheap, cheap, cheap to the private equity firms.
[00:45:15.540]And we've seen it after COVID too,
[00:45:17.760]during COVID and after COVID.
[00:45:20.460]So governments are absolutely in step with this,
[00:45:23.970]and we have to start calling it out.
[00:45:25.890]We just, we have to start saying it's not acceptable.
[00:45:28.920]How are young people gonna live in any of our cities?
[00:45:32.610]I don't know how they're gonna live.
[00:45:34.470]I mean, Ireland was the example.
[00:45:36.900]2/3 of young people are living with their parents still.
[00:45:40.110]And I'm a parent with university-age kids.
[00:45:42.480]And I'm really desperate for them to leave home,
[00:45:44.940]I have to say that. (audience laughing)
[00:45:46.800]And I'll end it there.
[00:45:48.358](audience laughing)
[00:45:50.490]What do you see as the end point
[00:45:52.920]of maintaining the status quo of our housing system?
[00:45:59.280]Well, we're creating deeply divided worlds.
[00:46:04.590]I mean, Saskia Sassen, in the film "Push,"
[00:46:06.990]and if you haven't seen it,
[00:46:07.980]you can get it online somewhere, I'm sure,
[00:46:10.380]she says that she thinks...
[00:46:12.690]And, you know, she's brilliant.
[00:46:13.800]She says she thinks that we're reaching a,
[00:46:17.220]at the time of the film,
[00:46:18.300]that we were reaching a point of sort of stasis,
[00:46:20.220]that it was gonna kind of,
[00:46:22.975]that these actors can only squeeze
[00:46:27.480]so much profit out of property and it would dry up.
[00:46:33.030]That didn't happen.
[00:46:34.110]And she couldn't have foreseen COVID
[00:46:36.990]and what we call quantitative easing.
[00:46:39.870]I mean, money was being printed,
[00:46:41.610]interest rates were kept very, very low,
[00:46:43.890]and what happened was even more acquisitions.
[00:46:46.830]And they continued.
[00:46:48.510]The day before I got here, Blackstone,
[00:46:50.250]largest private equity firm in real estate in the world,
[00:46:54.210]bought 27,000 homes in the US
[00:46:58.230]just two days ago,
[00:47:00.240]one transaction.
[00:47:01.980]So what's the end?
[00:47:03.780]I mean, we're having very polarized,
[00:47:06.090]very polarized cities,
[00:47:08.130]where there's affluence and extreme poverty.
[00:47:12.630]We're having people being driven out to different places
[00:47:16.560]and scrambling around.
[00:47:17.700]We're having young people living at home.
[00:47:19.740]That stalls the sort of normal general progression
[00:47:23.520]of a person's life, right?
[00:47:25.380]Cuba's an example of a place where people really can't,
[00:47:29.550]young people cannot leave home.
[00:47:31.410]And the birth rate has just dropped, right,
[00:47:34.080]because you're...
[00:47:36.090]There's certain things you don't wanna do at home. (laughs)
[00:47:39.360]Making babies,
[00:47:40.290]you're not doing that with your parents around, right?
[00:47:42.360]So, I mean, the end isn't...
[00:47:45.210]None of this is good.
[00:47:46.590]There's not...
[00:47:47.760]And who suffers the most
[00:47:49.710]are the already most vulnerable populations.
[00:47:52.830]And we know who those populations are in this country.
[00:47:56.910]African Americans, racialized communities,
[00:47:58.980]persons with disabilities,
[00:48:00.630]you know, people who are extremely low-income,
[00:48:05.820]those are the groups who are just gonna, Native Americans,
[00:48:07.920]those are the groups that are just gonna continue to suffer.
[00:48:12.480]So last week we screened "Push" here on campus.
[00:48:16.650]Question here is:
[00:48:17.483]"What progress has Barcelona made
[00:48:19.410]in ensuring affordable housing since 'Push' was made?
[00:48:22.830]And are other cities using their model?"
[00:48:24.750]Mm.
[00:48:26.310]Well, Barcelona continues to be just a leading light.
[00:48:31.830]And it's not just Barcelona anymore.
[00:48:33.750]Spain itself is becoming quite a leading light.
[00:48:37.590]They were hit very hard by the global recession,
[00:48:42.600]like very similarly to what happened here in the US.
[00:48:45.750]They have a very high home ownership rate there.
[00:48:48.840]It's a Catholic country,
[00:48:50.040]and so home ownership is really promoted
[00:48:52.440]in a lot of the Catholic countries in Europe.
[00:48:55.440]So they were hit very hard.
[00:48:57.240]Private equity really zoomed in, like really.
[00:49:00.540]They bought up social housing,
[00:49:01.950]they bought up so many homes in Spain.
[00:49:04.920]Blackstone actually, at one point,
[00:49:06.360]became the largest landlord in Spain,
[00:49:10.020]including in Barcelona.
[00:49:11.970]And they had a mayor, Mayor Colau, Ada Colau,
[00:49:14.850]just a star who came out of a right to housing movement
[00:49:18.390]and was elected mayor.
[00:49:19.380]And she did, until recently, a whole bunch of things:
[00:49:24.750]pushing back against Airbnb,
[00:49:26.700]forcing them to cough up records of,
[00:49:31.020]that they normally keep quite hidden.
[00:49:33.000]And Barcelona, of course,
[00:49:34.050]is one of the most visited tourist cities in the world.
[00:49:37.260]So she was able to kind of curb Airbnb.
[00:49:39.720]She used a stick with them,
[00:49:41.400]with the owners of Airbnb units, saying,
[00:49:45.810]especially at the beginning of COVID,
[00:49:48.780]because, you know,
[00:49:50.790]housing was desperately needed because,
[00:49:52.740]especially for people living in homelessness
[00:49:54.450]and for key workers.
[00:49:55.500]And so she basically used a stick and said,
[00:49:58.747]"If your unit has been empty
[00:50:00.480]for more than a certain period of time,
[00:50:02.610]you either have to allow us to lease it from you
[00:50:06.150]or we will expropriate it from you."
[00:50:08.700]She also expropriated
[00:50:11.910]various buildings through banks.
[00:50:14.430]She just did a huge number of things.
[00:50:17.400]Her policy,
[00:50:19.140]the way she worked at city level
[00:50:22.200]was really a genuine human rights approach.
[00:50:26.010]Any policy that they were thinking of
[00:50:29.010]or program that they were running
[00:50:31.020]had to pass the human rights test.
[00:50:33.150]So everything was really viewed
[00:50:37.650]from the human right to housing lens.
[00:50:41.100]The Spanish government itself
[00:50:43.320]is now getting heavily into trying to bring
[00:50:46.590]the human right to housing to the country as a whole.
[00:50:49.350]I won't go into all the details,
[00:50:50.940]but there are just recently some really interesting moves
[00:50:53.460]that the president has made.
[00:50:54.600]So Ada's no longer the mayor, unfortunately.
[00:50:58.260]I don't know what the new mayor is like.
[00:50:59.670]I haven't had a chance to meet him.
[00:51:01.230]I think it's a man.
[00:51:03.780]But I am assuming he's from the same party
[00:51:05.670]or similar party,
[00:51:06.750]so I'm assuming that they will continue their trajectory.
[00:51:11.497]"In free market capitalism,
[00:51:13.170]there is expected, in fact encouraged,
[00:51:15.330]to be a healthy amount of unemployment.
[00:51:17.940]Can free market housing ever eliminate homelessness
[00:51:21.120]and unemployment?"
[00:51:22.500]And what steps could Lincoln take
[00:51:24.720]to help make this happen?"
[00:51:27.450]Yeah, so, like, the free market,
[00:51:29.580]I think it's been proven the free market does not,
[00:51:32.790]not only does the free market
[00:51:35.040]not help people living in homelessness
[00:51:38.220]in its current state,
[00:51:41.160]it creates homelessness.
[00:51:43.740]I guess what I didn't say in my speech,
[00:51:45.240]and I probably should have,
[00:51:47.730]is that the economy in the United States,
[00:51:50.790]the economy in Canada, in Ireland, et cetera,
[00:51:55.440]it's producing homelessness.
[00:51:58.860]The way our economies are structured
[00:52:01.440]is it produces homelessness,
[00:52:04.080]it produces unaffordability.
[00:52:06.840]That's how things are structured.
[00:52:09.120]So unless we change something,
[00:52:13.710]the free market's not gonna solve homelessness.
[00:52:15.840]And they've never tried.
[00:52:17.280]They've never been interested.
[00:52:19.230]When left to their own devices, look what's happened.
[00:52:23.670]What's happened?
[00:52:24.810]Housing has become unaffordable.
[00:52:26.370]That's what's happened in the free market.
[00:52:28.290]Trickle down has not happened.
[00:52:31.380]And what really worries me, actually,
[00:52:33.660]is this build, build,
[00:52:34.830]build solution that I keep hearing
[00:52:36.990]in every jurisdiction I go to,
[00:52:39.870]and it's here too, I know that:
[00:52:42.007]"What we really need is 35,000 social housing units."
[00:52:46.470]And, you know,
[00:52:48.810]I just don't know if that's the right path to go down,
[00:52:52.710]where you're separating out the private from the public.
[00:52:56.310]So you're saying,
[00:52:57.637]"Okay, we'll build social housing units over here
[00:53:01.740]and the private market can,
[00:53:02.910]free market can just keep doing what it's doing."
[00:53:05.700]I don't think that that's sustainable.
[00:53:07.740]And I think what we need is for industry
[00:53:11.280]to understand they are co-responsible, with government,
[00:53:14.340]for solving the housing crisis,
[00:53:16.290]not for producing a housing crisis.
[00:53:18.480]Co-responsibility looks very different
[00:53:21.150]than what we have right now.
[00:53:23.580]Inclusionary zoning is a kind of co-responsibility.
[00:53:26.880]So that's one path that can be taken.
[00:53:30.000]The problem I haven't seen inclusionary zoning
[00:53:34.650]work very well anywhere.
[00:53:36.720]These actors are very slick
[00:53:40.380]and governments are beholden to them.
[00:53:42.240]That's why I said governments need to lead.
[00:53:45.450]What I see with inclusionary...
[00:53:46.860]If you don't know what inclusionary zoning is,
[00:53:48.660]it's like when you say,
[00:53:49.597]"Okay, any new building that goes up
[00:53:52.110]has to have X percentage of affordable housing."
[00:53:55.140]Well, what happens in those scenarios?
[00:53:57.060]Well, affordable gets defined
[00:53:58.590]in an unaffordable way, right?
[00:54:00.120]It's not affordable to those who are
[00:54:04.560]the poorest, right?
[00:54:06.210]And often the developer
[00:54:10.170]will extract all sorts of things from there:
[00:54:13.980]no property taxes for 10 years.
[00:54:17.190]Well, cities rely on property taxes,
[00:54:19.140]so that's not great for a city, right?
[00:54:21.570]Or they say, "Well, we'll build an extra five stories,"
[00:54:23.970]so now you have this ugly,
[00:54:25.140]tall tower that you never wanted
[00:54:27.450]because the developer doesn't want
[00:54:29.730]to have any encroachment on their profitability.
[00:54:33.390]We need new models.
[00:54:34.650]We need to say to developers,
[00:54:36.967]"The gravy train is over, folks.
[00:54:39.660]You've benefited for many years now.
[00:54:42.420]We've stopped now.
[00:54:43.440]Enough. Okay?
[00:54:44.910]Your profits can be over an extended period of time.
[00:54:48.270]You can't make huge profits in five years,"
[00:54:50.880]which is what private equity wants:
[00:54:52.680]double-digit return on investment in five years.
[00:54:56.010]You tell me where you can invest
[00:54:57.720]and get a double digit return in five years.
[00:54:59.580]Nowhere.
[00:55:00.480]And it's not sustainable and it's killing our cities
[00:55:03.060]and it's making life very horrible for young people.
[00:55:05.940]So, sorry.
[00:55:07.500]Yeah, I'm passionate about this one.
[00:55:10.860]So one more question.
[00:55:11.940]Yeah. What can we do?
[00:55:13.680]You have students who you met with today,
[00:55:15.810]you have this audience here.
[00:55:17.010]What can we do right now to make a difference?
[00:55:23.250]Well, I think you need to organize and mobilize.
[00:55:25.740]And students are...
[00:55:28.050]Someone said to me,
[00:55:28.920]a student said to me today that she felt
[00:55:32.910]like there isn't things that students can do,
[00:55:35.070]they feel powerless.
[00:55:36.180]And I totally get it.
[00:55:37.830]We have not created a world
[00:55:39.810]where young people feel empowered.
[00:55:41.850]I think they feel imposed upon
[00:55:45.180]by a planet that's very fragile,
[00:55:50.580]by an unaffordable world, by...
[00:55:53.760]I mean, we're in the midst
[00:55:54.990]of what's been called by many a genocide.
[00:55:58.380]I mean, whoa.
[00:56:00.960]Like, you're a young person and you're living through this?
[00:56:04.380]It's awful.
[00:56:05.670]And so I can understand why young people
[00:56:08.760]maybe don't feel agency.
[00:56:11.400]But I really want young people, in particular,
[00:56:13.920]to find your agency.
[00:56:16.740]And you'll find it by mobilizing with each other.
[00:56:21.720]For example, there's a housing justice group
[00:56:24.990]at the university.
[00:56:26.640]And I don't know if there's a young persons element to it,
[00:56:29.820]if there's a student movement part to this.
[00:56:32.970]But I'm telling you,
[00:56:34.710]student housing itself as an issue
[00:56:38.400]is a mega issue.
[00:56:40.080]And you will find allies in city after city
[00:56:43.650]across the world.
[00:56:45.300]You could create a global movement.
[00:56:47.910]There are, I've interviewed students
[00:56:51.060]sleeping on the streets of Turkey
[00:56:53.280]in protest of exorbitant costs for student housing.
[00:56:57.570]I met students in Bologna, Italy,
[00:57:00.540]protesting the cost of housing.
[00:57:03.030]You'll have allies and friends.
[00:57:06.630]I gave those examples of people like Greta and Chris Smalls.
[00:57:10.710]Look them up.
[00:57:12.420]They just took a chance.
[00:57:14.610]They said, "Here are my values.
[00:57:17.430]I don't agree with what I see before me.
[00:57:20.070]I'm gonna do something."
[00:57:21.450]They had no clue where it was gonna go,
[00:57:25.830]and they've made major significant global change:
[00:57:31.230]a union at Amazon,
[00:57:34.800]a climate movement of young people around the world.
[00:57:38.910]So I think students in Lincoln can do it too.
[00:57:43.530]Please join me in thanking Leilani Farha
[00:57:46.290]for what was an incredibly interesting
[00:57:49.170]and insightful presentation. Thank you all.
[00:57:50.670]Thank you. Thank you. (audience applauding)
[00:57:52.858](lively music)

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