Like many other students, I have spent the past few months looking for a new place to live next year. It has been hard to find an affordable place to live that isn’t too far off campus. Housing prices are going up across the country and it has become increasingly difficult for young and middle-class people to find affordable housing.
This isn’t an issue of a lack of housing itself; over 580,000 Americans are homeless, however, according to the United Way of the National Capital Area, 16 million houses are currently vacant. This means that there are 28 vacant homes for every homeless person.
This is one of many consequences of the late-stage capitalism we are living through. It’s an issue I do not believe can be solved in our current housing system, either. America needs to fully rethink the way we do housing and introduce a universal housing system. While many think that a universal housing system would be too radical and impossible to effectively implement nationwide, I would disagree.
To start, I don’t think it’s such a radical idea to ensure that everyone has a house. Housing is a necessity, and it should be available to everyone, especially those working full-time.
Secondly, there is this idea that these universal programs, especially universal housing, just won’t work; it seems so out there that it could never be feasible. However, this concept is actually very attainable and has worked in places such as Vienna, Austria.
Vienna has always been economically progressive with programs like universal healthcare and childcare. In addition to those programs, they also have a great universal housing program; as of 2021, 62% of residents in Vienna lived in public housing. On average these people pay $400 to $600 a month in rent.
This also isn’t the public housing that is widely popular in America. These are colorful, nice buildings that people enjoy living in. Buildings that aren’t just the last resort for its residents. Additionally, everyone besides the top fifth of residents are able to live in these buildings.
A system like this could work well in America, especially in the major and more populated cities. Creating affordable housing for everyone would help the economy tremendously as it would allow people to have more money that they could put back into their community.
In 2020, 23% of Americans paid over 50% of their income to housing, according to Pew Research Center. With universal housing, this wouldn’t be the case; it would allow people to save and invest money, therefore bolstering the middle class of America.
A project like this would be expensive and take a lot of time, but it’s a worthy investment for the future of America. Housing shouldn’t be a commodity. It is something that is needed to live, and people shouldn’t have to pay exorbitant amounts of money just to put a roof over their head.
This housing issue we are seeing in America is not one that will get better with time. Action needs to be taken or more and more Americans will continue to struggle to afford housing.
Mark Warren can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @MarkWarren1832
Mira
Exactly! Places like Oregon try to “solve” the housing crisis by just building more houses or more apartment complexes, but as you stated, the issue is NOT the available houses to move into. It’s that prices are insane. A studio apartment in Bend, OR averages $900. And there is no shortage of them! But most people who can afford $900 in rent need more than a studio. Obviously, places like LA and Sacramento try to implement rent caps, but even those are higher than what is reasonable to pay. Universal housing that doesn’t make housing a business opportunity for landlords would absolutely resolve that.