Background: Sen. Bernie Sanders has stated the fundamental position of the housing justice movement when he said, “I believe that every American should have a fundamental right to safe, decent, and affordable housing.” Providing every American with safe, decent, and affordable housing is what the movement means by housing justice. If justice means treating individuals as they deserve, of treating individuals in the manner they have earned, what have Americans done to deserve safe, decent, and affordable housing? Unfortunately, the movement doesn’t provide a clear answer. However, it does provide some clues.
Sanders’ website, for example, states, “In the richest country in the history of the world, every American must have a safe, decent, accessible, and affordable home as a fundamental right.” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told Stephen Colbert, ““I believe that in a modern, moral and wealthy society, no person in America should be too poor to live.” In short, Americans deserve safe, decent, and affordable housing because they live in America. What they have done to earn that housing is irrelevant.
Housing activists are intent on providing housing to all Americans through political action. They are successfully lobbying for a variety of laws that protect tenants and subsidize housing. But these laws are not an act of justice; they are an injustice to housing producers.
- Justice means judging others by their words and actions and then treating them as they have earned—as they deserve. We judge the actions of the criminal as evil, and we punished him accordingly. We celebrate the achievements of innovators and entrepreneurs who produce life-sustaining values, and we reward them by purchasing their products. There is a fundamental difference between criminals and innovators, and justice demands that we treat them differently. Justice demands that we penalize the vicious. More importantly, justice demands that we reward the virtuous.
- Every voluntary economic exchange is an act of justice. When we pay our mechanic, we reward him for repairing our car. When we pay our barber, we reward her for cutting our hair. When we buy an iPhone, we reward Apple for producing an amazing device. There is no free lunch, or free iPhones, automobiles, televisions, or any other value, including housing. Every value that sustains human life, including housing, must be produced. Those who produce those values sustain our lives, and as a matter of justice, we must recognize and reward that effort.
- All of the policies advocated by the housing justice movement are advanced under the guise of “tenants’ rights.” Such a claim implies that tenants have rights that non-tenants do not possess, that tenants have rights that landlords do not have. But there is no such thing as “tenants’ rights.” There are only individual rights, and they apply to all individuals equally, tenant and landlord, rich and poor, male and female, black and white.
- In order to protect so-called tenants’ rights, the housing justice movement wants to restrict the freedom of landlords. Past justice movements sought freedom, not controls on others. The abolitionists did not demand restrictions on whites; they demanded that blacks be freed. Suffragettes did not demand restrictions on men; they demanded that women be given the freedom to vote. Justice is not and cannot be attained by restricting the freedom of others.
- In regard to housing, each individual has a moral right to take the actions he thinks will provide him with the housing that he desires. Each individual has a moral right to build his housing or earn the money to buy or rent it. But housing activists aren’t demanding freedom for tenants. They are demanding shackles and restraints for property owners and landlords. More fundamentally, they are demanding that housing producers provide housing for low- and moderate-income families regardless of the compensation that the producers will receive.
- There is no justice in shackling and controlling those who produce values. Shackles and controls are for those who attempt to seize values, not those who produce them. It is just to shackle the robber; it is unjust to shackle his victim. Today’s housing justice warriors do not seek the freedom to earn the housing that they desire. They want others to provide that value regardless of an individual’s actions—i.e., regardless of what an individual has earned. There is no justice in granting unearned values, nor is there any justice in imposing undeserved penalties.
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