Affordable housing, human rights

Chicago public housing projects like Cabrini Green that were built in the middle of the last century were notorious for poor management and excessive concentration of poverty. Never a great place to live, they deteriorated with neglect over the years. So for about the last decade, the Chicago Housing Authority has been tearing some of the projects down. This would be all well and good, if only the displaced residents had someplace better to go.

Defining affordable housing as that which costs less than one third of household income, the number of Chicagoans who lack affordable housing is in the hundreds of thousands. Tens of thousands of families are on the CHA's waiting list. An increase in public funding could reduce those numbers, but it won't happen in the current political climate. The Republicans in Washington favor market-based approaches. Well, Dr. Friedman, let me tell you about the market economy...

How many of us have been out of work for more than 6 months in the past 3 years? How many of us has a friend or family member who has been in this situation? That's right, Tony, I'm talking about you.

Now for a lot of us in who are comfortably in the middle class, we have assets to fall back on. And credit. Maybe a little something saved up in the bank. And so being out of work for 6 months won't put us out on the street. But what about the McDonald's employee living paycheck to paycheck -- and is then let go? Where is she going to get the money for next month's rent?

According to the United Nations Housing Rights Programme, housing is recognized in the international community as a basic human right. Which means that it is a human rights violation for a government to not take reasonable steps to ensure that all of its citizens have access to housing. So when Cabrini Green residents are evicted, and then there is no housing built for them to move into, the City is in violation of international law.