They Can Make Our Lives Miserable, But They Are Never Going To Break Us 3

Another notorious holdout for the feudal system is our rental arrangements with landlords.  Ooh...Don't get me started! 

We are relatively new to the concept of housing as a human right.  It still isn't accepted here in dear progressive Canada, Gentle Reader.  Believe it or not.

Sign my petition if you haven't already.

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/Canadian_Prime_Minister_Justin_Trudeau_make_housing_a_Canadian_human_right/

In the feudal system, housing was more or less a guarantee, in that you were working the lands of your lord and master.  It never was really your land or your home, it was there at the king's convenience as you would have been as his bonded servant.  With the rise of the Bourgeoisie, Industrialization and the Common Man, it became accepted that every man could be his own king (bear with me, sisters!), could own his own home or castle and could form and boss his own family, all in fair exchange for working for a living.

Only the wealthy could own their own house, usually the aristocracy or landed gentry.  Eventually home ownership became an expected entitlement, in North America.  In Europe, most families rent.  With the opening of the New World the rigid class systems of Europe could be left behind.  We formed a meritocracy where you worked for your opportunities and rose up in life through your own efforts, sweat and cleverness.

Now, in my own city of Vancouver, anyway, just over half the people rent.  We all tend to be on low or lower incomes.  In order to maintain a roof over our heads we enter into agreements with landlords.  In the case of homeowners, the bank becomes the landlord, for some twenty years or longer, anyway.  Nowhere is it even hinted that our housing is ours by human right.  We have to pay our rent or mortgage on time, every month, the full payment.  Failing this, we lose our homes and if we don't pay anywhere, even because we are unable to, there is no mercy.  We are homeless, sleeping on the street.  Our entire lives spiral downward as our mental and physical health come to ruin and we completely lose all connection with our communities.  We become effectively the walking dead.

There is much that is wrong with this picture, not least of all, the fact that lack of sufficient income makes many of us housing vulnerable, disempowered, helpless and dependent on charity, since the government largess always becomes severely scant whenever it comes to aiding the economically vulnerable.  

Yes, people need to be justly rewarded for providing housing, as they also must pay off their own housing providers, but maybe our dependence on money and our tendency to value everything according to economics is doing something to dehumanize us.  Landlords, be they property management companies, property developers or individual homeowners, all have incredible power to make miserable the lives of their tenants.  This, like the hierarchical system in the workplace is every bit as unjust as it is unequal. 

From the cradle we drink inequality mixed with our mothers' milk.  Failing to address this, failing to turn money values on their heads and failing to develop a way of life and sense of community based on love, equality and social justice has made us less than human.  We see the homeless languishing in our streets and we are all reminded that we could be next.

Housing is a human right.  Without it, we cannot bring our lives together into a working whole.  Without adequate housing we can never feel part of our communities.  Without housing we are rendered vulnerable and powerless.

During this time, living as we are in the dark and stinking shadow of global capitalism, we are going to be needing one another more than ever.  We are going to be increasingly reliant on one another as housing and food availability are continually threatened and jeopardized by our governments` ethically bankrupt policies and procedures.  We are going to have to increasingly hold their feet to the fire, and if that doesn`t work then we are going to end up setting them on fire.  Our governments, by abrogating their most essential obligations to the people they elected, by ignoring our housing needs, by maintaining us in legislated poverty, are only sowing the seeds of revolution and their own imminent destruction.   This does not have to happen, and there are indications that our leaders are beginning to wise up to their irresponsible governance.  They are at least paying lip-service to the problem they have created.

We are going to need more, much more than meaningful words and sympathetic cooing if we are going to see any significant and lasting change.  Otherwise...I dread to think of it.

They can make our lives as miserable as they want, but they are never going to break us and if they don`t begin to implement real and meaningful reforms then we are going to end up breaking them.