Increasingly, housing activists are calling for housing equity. This might seem like a call for justice, but the activists use words like “equity” and “justice” to hide their true agenda. They are not promoting equality before the law. They are promoting the idea that all individuals should enjoy similar results, regardless of their own individual actions.
In regard to housing, this means that all individuals should be provided safe, decent, and affordable housing. They “deserve” such housing, not because they have earned it, but because they exist.
The policies put forth by activists focus on providing equity to certain groups of people—such as non-whites, convicted criminals, and housing voucher users. Policies aimed at providing more home mortgages to “people of color,” prohibiting landlords considering criminal convictions, and forcing property owners to accept housing vouchers are just three examples of the policies that housing activists promote under the guise of justice.
These preferential policies, we are told, are necessary to remedy past and present injustices. For example, for decades both the Federal Housing Administration and the Veterans Administration refused to provide loans to blacks. Since the majority of voucher users are blacks, the presumption is that landlords who refuse to accept vouchers are racists. Exclusionary zoning laws prohibited non-whites from living in predominantly white neighborhoods and created segregated neighborhoods. The solution, we are told, is to implement policies and programs that explicitly benefit “people of color.”
Undeniably, the policies of the FHA and VA and racist zoning laws were an injustice towards non-whites. But we can’t correct acts of injustice by committing new acts of injustice. It was wrong to exclude individuals simply because of their skin color. It is equally wrong to provide benefits simply on the basis of skin color.
The solution to unjust laws is to repeal those laws. The solution is to treat all individuals equally under the law.