Day 22’s post is dedicated to Article 17, which affirms everyone’s right to own property and to not be arbitrarily deprived of his or her property.
On any given night, over 550,000 individuals are experiencing homelessness in the United States alone (endhomelessness.org) and in a single year more than 2.7 million Americans face eviction (Forbes). Contrary to popular belief, losing one’s home doesn’t necessarily need to be the result of extreme circumstances–it can really be as simple as not paying one or two bills on time. On top of that, keeping one’s property is not exactly the most effortless task, as according to Time, Forbes, and CNBC, housing prices have jumped over 6.5% since mid-2017 and rental prices have increased so much that on average, Americans are spending over $17,000 per year on rent.
Whenever the rights to property and housing are violated, other human rights can be compromised as well, such as the right to food, privacy, work, and security of person. For example, state laws that ban lying down, sleeping, and sitting in public have increased, so now one can even be arrested, put in jail, and end up with a criminal record for a minor “offense.” This would add yet another obstacle to finding employment if one’s situation were to improve. This entire system essentially perpetuates the cycle of food, work, and housing insecurity. And to make it all worse, housing concerns are drowned out by other conversations when it comes to political discussions and any sort of concrete urban policy action.
Many public housing structures are also in squalid disarray and have rodents, flaking lead paint on the walls, and dozens of other housing code violations that can lead to injuries and even death. Yet very little is done to restore these areas because either tenants and residents are afraid of being evicted, or because after they complain, landlords and real estate operators refuse to acknowledge and report these transgressions.
The housing situation in the U.S. is quite a complicated and contentious issue. We encourage everyone to parse out this multifaceted topic and brainstorm ideas as to what you can do on both a local and institutional level to aid those facing property violations and homelessness.
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Check out standup4humanrightsct.org/blog for the full blog post and more information on the event.