Housing should be a human right

In his 1944 State of the Union address, Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared adequate housing should be a basic human right. “We cannot be content,” he said, “if some fraction of our people ... is ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-housed and insecure.”

Today, 80 years later, we are still debating whether housing is a human right. The answer must be a resounding yes. Yet, we are far from actualizing this dream of housing for all. A home remains a privilege.

A person can’t get housed based on need. Housing is, after all, a market, and a person has to meet several requirements to be a viable candidate. In most cities, applicants must pay the first month’s rent and a security deposit when signing a lease. Applicants may also be required to pay the final month’s rent. Renting an apartment for $1,700 — the average cost of a one-bedroom apartment in the U.S. — requires $3,400 to $5,100 just to sign a lease.

But that’s not the only requirement. Many landlords have minimum income requirements. In cities like Chicago and New York, prospective tenants must prove a gross monthly income at least three times the monthly rent. A prospective tenant in that “average” $1,700 one-bedroom apartment must show a monthly income of at least $5,100, or $61,200 a year. One major study of homelessness in California showed in the months before participants left their last housing, most had a monthly household income of $960.

Many landlords also require rental fees, references from previous landlords, and recent pay stubs and bank statements. Discrimination laws prevent landlords from renting based on race, gender or sexual orientation, but they can require above-average credit scores.

If someone lacks the resources to compete in the housing market, they can use a co-signer — another privilege — who must prove stable income and credit ratings, usually above the threshold for the renter.

A person can live with other people, of course, or apply for a Housing Choice Voucher (HCV), which restricts rent to 30% of income. And they can apply to live in public housing. Both of these options involve lengthy waits: 28 months, on average, for an HCV. In Chicago, the waiting list for an HCV is closed.

According to a recent report, the average wait time for public housing is 19 months. Only two of the 50 largest public housing authorities have wait times under a year. In Chicago, 215,000 people are on the Chicago Housing Authority waiting list. The wait time is 2.5 years on average, up to more than 25 years. The Washington, D.C. Housing Authority waiting list for public housing and HCVs is closed, with no timeline for reopening it.

What do people do in the meantime? Many are displaced into homelessness.

Finally, and essential to the debate, housing is a vital standard of humanity. A person experiences an instant transition in status when they lack a place to live and the privileges that come with it. Many are quick to hate people who don’t have these things, seeing them as outcasts and “undesirables” because these basic building blocks of healthy life are out of reach.

In 2023, the rate of homelessness increased by 12% across the nation. So what is the solution?

Several states are making good progress. Houston has decreased the homeless population by 64%, using a housing first model — the idea that all people deserve permanent housing.

The constitutions of Finland, Austria, South Africa and Scotland guarantee the right to housing. Scotland’s housing laws require permanent rehousing within 90 days. Finland converted all shelter beds into affordable housing and requires that 25% of all new housing be affordable, government-subsidized, social housing, for a steady decrease in homelessness.

These models recognize that housing is a human right. They remove restrictions and earmark funds to build high-quality, mixed-income housing; strengthen tenant protections; and fight the social stigma associated with housing insecurity and homelessness.

We are far from realizing that dream. As long as homelessness persists, as FDR stated in 1944, we cannot be content.

Kara Young Ponder, Ph.D., is the director of community engagement and racial justice at the University of California San Francisco Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative and a Public Voices fellow of the OpEd Project.

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