The right to housing in an ownership society

Bibliographic Data

ID13101716
AuthorsCasey J Dawkins (0000-0002-2627-8137, University of Maryland, College Park, corresponding author), Casey Dawkins (School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA)
Year2020
Volume47
Issue2
Pages81-102
Publication date2020-01-29
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueHousing and Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2376-0923 • E-ISSN: 0888-2746
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/08882746.2020.1722055
OpenAlexW3004068468
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited39

The last decade has seen the rise of a new alliance among U.S. housing advocates, human rights advocates, and right to the city advocates that stands unified in opposition to rising rents, gentrification, evictions, and the criminalization of homelessness. In contrast to earlier housing movements that often diverged over the question of means, this new “housing justice” alliance has the potential to unify housing advocates under the big tent of a cosmopolitan human right to housing and a collective right to the city. This paper provides a critique of the normative conception of justice implied by the contemporary American housing justice movement. I argue that while rights offer a compelling moral foundation for housing policy reform, the most defensible conception of the right to housing is one grounded in the individual right of social citizenship. I argue that the right to housing should be understood as a right that is constitutive of, rather than in opposition to, the right to own property. When the collective right to the city conflicts with or fails to support the right to housing, I argue that housing advocates should prioritize the right to housing over the right to the city

Business · Law and economics · Sociology · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Human Rights and Development · Property Rights and Legal Doctrine

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub