The Red Nation: Indigenous Action to Save Our Earth by The Red Nation

Author:The Red Nation
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Common Notions
Published: 2021-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

Area 2: Free and Sustainable Housing

Close your eyes, take a breath, and allow yourself to imagine a world where all people enjoy safe, comfortable housing. Imagine a world where no one is poor or hungry, where all families are allowed to stay together and nurture their homes. Imagine a world where having a home does not depend on money or status, but simply on the fact that you are a human being. Imagine a world where everyone has a true home; not just a shelter, but a real home filled with love, laughter, food, rest, and joy. Now, open your eyes and look around at what currently counts as a “home”: unsheltered relatives sleeping on sidewalks and under tarps, thousands of families living in cars, urban housing filled with cockroaches and cancer-inducing lead, overcrowded reservation houses with no running water or heat, and rundown apartment complexes that overcharge for rent and exploit tenants.

There is no safety or dignity under capitalism. Not only do most working-class people have no true home, but many do not even have adequate shelter. Millions are one paycheck—and in some cases, less than a week—away from being unsheltered. According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), 42,000 to 85,000 Natives would be unsheltered if relatives were unable or unwilling to squeeze multiple families into already overcrowded homes.2 Furthermore, HUD estimates an approximate total of 68,000 new housing units are needed in tribal areas to combat this invisible housing crisis, a total that matches the more visible ten-year housing plan already in the works for New York City’s crisis. While poor, working-class, and unsheltered people are suffering through this housing crisis, a surplus of empty private properties exist across the United States and placement for unsheltered people and families could easily be made—if this was a priority. Housing is inaccessible when profit cannot be made of it. It’s clear that we cannot depend on a capitalist system that values profit over people to fix this ongoing crisis.

Much of our attention as leftists and progressives is paid to unsheltered folks, those who live on the streets and are considered “homeless.” But is a house without heat, water, or electricity really a “home?” Is a shelter without a functional kitchen or a safe place to sleep really a home? A 2016 article in The Atlantic noted that of the 135 million homes in the United States, thirty million are hazardous.3 This means thirty million families are regularly and unfairly exposed to health risks like asthma and pneumonia that reduce life expectancy and affect everything from mental health to education. And, although heating and electricity for private residences is the greatest contributor to carbon emissions, the mansions and McMansions belonging to the upper classes are clearly responsible for a large chunk of these emissions. After all, how can reservation or urban dwellings without heat or electricity possibly contribute to carbon emissions?

Our homes are where we live our lives, and perform basic functions like cooking, eating, sleeping, bathing, and making kin.

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