Portside

The city of Oakland’s longest rent strike has ended in victory for tenants. They didn’t just win necessary repairs or rent control; they decommodified their housing, getting profit-motivated landlords out of the picture altogether.

Yes, this Communist politician in Graz, Austria, wants to redistribute wealth, but a focus on housing, her own modest lifestyle and a hard childhood have helped her popularity.

The federal government has for years enabled the private market to make money off our housing needs. Now, as home prices and rents skyrocket, there is a simple solution: offer people a public option for housing.

Wang fears that millions of “invisible evictions” will occur over the coming months as landlords ratchet up the pressure on tenants, pushing tenants to “self-evict.”

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development can provide $10 million to tenant organizers each year, but the funding has largely gone unspent since the early 2000s. Will that change with a new administration and newly approved HUD secretary?

Such a plan, said Rep. Jamaal Bowman, "would allow people to live with dignity and respect, to know that our federal government cares about their well-being and their health."

“[These companies are] here in our communities, extracting from the land, extracting from our women and just leaving us to deal with the aftermath, and they’re screaming about us.”

Perhaps this pandemic’s devastation will promote a debate on the failures of our ragged social safety net.

Ultimately it is crisis-ravaged real estate where Blackstone seeks to continue to find a goldmine while anchored by generous political contributions and fueled by desperation capital pouring out of central banks and governmental treasuries.