How to End the Housing Crisis and Take Back the Land

Posted by Max Rameau, Take Back the Land at 10:16 AM on July 11, 2008.

In the wake of record foreclosures and a gentrification crisis, communities are wringing hands and gnashing teeth in the fruitless pursuit of government assistance for housing. And the great irony of this housing crisis is that there is no shortage of either housing or government money.

In Miami, considered the epicenter of the housing bubble and a top region in the nation for foreclosures, several municipal governments voted to use $3 billion of public money to fund a series of unpopular, questionable, and secretly negotiated projects utilizing public land without the input of the actual public. Politically connected developers are expected to win virtually all of the contracts. Not surprisingly, during the brief discussion before votes to approve these projects, no elected official proposed building housing for those in need.

In the same way the Black community learned after the 1960s that the fundamental issue at the root of our misery was not the system of segregation, we are learning now that the fundamental issue at the root of the housing crisis is not gentrification. A much broader segment of the population will soon learn that the fundamental issue is not foreclosures either. The fundamental issue at stake in each of the above mentioned phenomenon is land and who will control it.

Corporate interests exercise inordinate amounts of control over land and the economy. When forced to choose between corporate interests and real, live human beings in need, an overwhelming number of elected officials invariably advance the interests of wealthy corporations and campaign contributors.

Consequently, we must control the land in our communities in order to solve the problems in our communities. This plan must develop with an open-eyed understanding that government is largely an impediment, not a partner, to the process. We must Take Back the Land.

Since October 2007, Take Back the Land began identifying government owned and foreclosed homes sitting vacant and useless in Miami. After minor rehab and repairs, the locks are changed and an otherwise homeless family is moved into the home. Today, several government owned and foreclosed homes in the Miami area are occupied by families in need instead of remaining vacant awaiting the next "boom."

American society is on the verge of an epic clash between two conflicting rights: the right to maximize profits versus the right to decent, affordable housing. The heightened contradictions of today's economic crisis has brought this conflict to the forefront. Take Back the Land asserts that the right of a family to live in an affordable home supercedes the right of wealthy developers, speculators and bankers to maintain vacant housing for the purpose of profiteering.

As the housing market continues its descent and the global economic crisis deepens, an epiphany is coming: homeless people will realize that they are living in the shadows of people-less homes, all inside of the wealthiest country in the history of the planet. At that moment, people will either resign themselves to a fate of powerless poverty or begin, in earnest, the fight for community control over their land.

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This article is part of "Housing Crisis Investigation Week," a project of The Media Consortium [www.themediaconsortium.org] which will culminate with Live From Main Street Miami- a televised town hall exploring how the city of Miami is facing the economic crisis and working toward a sustainable future. For more information about Live From Main Street and Housing Crisis Investigation week, go to www.livefrommainstreet.org. AlterNet is a member of The Media Consortium.

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