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It’s not just that renters are in the minority – some minorities have real power – but the nation’s attitude to housing is deeply ambivalent and well hidden. There has been, and still is, a public dialogue about the problem of housing affordability and plenty of sympathy expressed for the disenfranchised, but the majority who own a house are quietly happy with their high prices, and economists and businesspeople approve of the economic “wealth effect”. Also, the minority who don’t own a house talk about the property ladder and the need to get on it. The idea of housing as the main, if not the only, form of real wealth creation for ordinary people is deeply embedded in the national psyche. Superannuation is starting to rival it but is still a long way behind.

That means doing something about it requires true political leadership – that is, doing something right that’s unpopular. Study after study on the subject has concluded that the high price of housing is leading to dangerous inequality and distorting the economy and society, yet political leaders have never tackled it effectively, for obvious reasons.

The fact that one of the three least-populated countries on earth contains the world’s second-most expensive housing is a national calamity and a stunning failure of public policy. For decades, political leaders have paid lip service to housing affordability, while doing nothing that would bring prices down. In fact, most of the big political decisions have done the opposite.

While some blame supply shortages or overseas investors, the primary factor contributing to this crisis is the outsized role of investment properties. Too many individuals and corporations have purchased properties solely for investment purposes, driving up prices and exacerbating the shortage of affordable housing. These investment properties sit idle or are rented out at exorbitant prices, and regular citizens can no longer find affordable homes.

The housing crisis is both an economic and a human rights issue. Housing is a basic necessity for life, health, and dignity. When treated as a speculative financial asset rather than a social good, inequality grows, and vulnerable populations suffer.

To address this crisis, we need bold solutions that answer the scale of the problem. By implementing progressive taxation, incentivizing the conversion of investment properties, and introducing anti-speculation regulations, there is a path to revolutionize the housing market and make affordable housing a reality for all. But it’s going to take fundamental, uncomfortable and unpopular change. Band-aid fixes and minor policy tweaks will not cut it.

New polling finds that President Joe Biden’s approval rating has hit an all-time low amid a groundswell of support for Palestinian rights among young voters.

According to an NBC poll released on Sunday, a whopping 70 percent of voters aged 18 to 34 say that they disapprove of how Biden is handling Israel’s massacre and ethnic cleansing in Gaza. The findings come as Biden has been giving Israel military assistance and political support with no red lines, despite a deluge of historians, human rights organizations and advocates for Palestinian rights warning that Israel is carrying out a genocide in Gaza and creating a humanitarian crisis of astronomical proportions.

For the world’s viruses, this is a time of unprecedented opportunity. An estimated 40,000 viruses lurk in the bodies of mammals, of which a quarter could conceivably infect humans. Most do not, because they have few chances to leap into our bodies. But those chances are growing. Earth’s changing climate is forcing animals to relocate to new habitats, in a bid to track their preferred environmental conditions. Species that have never coexisted will become neighbors, creating thousands of infectious meet-cutes in which viruses can spill over into unfamiliar hosts—and, eventually, into us. Many scientists have argued that climate change will make pandemics more likely, but a groundbreaking new analysis shows that this worrying future is already here, and will be difficult to address. The planetary network of viruses and wildlife “is rewiring itself right now,” Colin Carlson, a global-change biologist at Georgetown University, told me. And “while we thought we understood the rules of the game, again and again, reality sat us down and taught us: That’s not how biology works.”

Every day, you have to hold two contradictory ideas in your head. On the one hand, you have to accept that you're living through the collapse of industrial civilization. You have to deal with the moral injury that comes from realizing that many of your friends and family don't care enough about you to do a few simple things. You have to deal with a government that isn't just funding genocide but is actively participating it in it, while lying to you when it comes to... just about everything that pertains to your survival.

On the other hand...

This collapsing civilization isn't going to give you a break. It requires your participation. You still have to go to work. You still have to smile at customers, even through a mask, if you're allowed to wear one. You still have to go through the motions. You have to observe superficial politeness. You have to pay for rent and groceries. You have to pay taxes.

It's a lot.

In recent decades, many Sun Belt cities—like Atlanta, Houston, and Phoenix—have seen growing populations, while populations have tended to remain stable or decrease in places in the Midwest or Northeast—like Chicago, Detroit, and Pittsburgh.

But despite their lack of population growth, Chicago, Detroit, and Pittsburgh have been gaining households in recent years. In Chicago, the population has remained stable, but the number of households has increased by 6.2 percent. In Detroit, while population dropped 5.5 percent between 2010 and 2018, the number of households has increased by 4.4 percent. And in Pittsburgh, even though the population dipped during the same period, the number of households increased by 9.3 percent.

Long sentences handed to two Just Stop Oil protesters for scaling the M25 bridge over the Thames are a potential breach of international law and risk silencing public concerns about the environment, a UN expert has said.

In a strongly worded intervention, Ian Fry, the UN’s rapporteur for climate change and human rights, said he was “particularly concerned” about the sentences, which were “significantly more severe than previous sentences imposed for this type of offending in the past”.

He said: “I am gravely concerned about the potential flow-on effect that the severity of the sentences could have on civil society and the work of activists, expressing concerns about the triple planetary crisis and, in particular, the impacts of climate change on human rights and on future generations.”

Rishi Sunak’s posh-boy reshuffle means members of the infamous Bullingdon Club have occupied the great offices of state for 85% of the time since 2010.

Since 11 May 2010, a member of the Bullingdon Club has been either Prime Minister, Foreign Secretary, or Chancellor for 4122 days – over 11 years continuously. At one point, Bullingdon Boys occupied half of the great offices of state - but had been absent since Boris Johnson was ousted from No10.

But the shock return of David Cameron as Foreign Secretary means the elitist organisation is once again represented at the top of government. 

This issue of Interface, on community housing models, speaks directly to the contrast of increasing luxury and corresponding prices on one hand, and displacement on the other. Taking up the question of what is needed to support, sustain, and expand the non-market-driven housing sector, the papers provide insight into housing provided through community leadership and cooperative ownership models. Each author in this Interface is an experienced practitioner and researcher. They are writing from the Anglo-American perspective – England, the UK, Canada, and the US – facing housing systems that are inadequate to the level of need for secure and affordable housing access.

The reflections in this Interface seek to define the core elements of community housing and to illustrate the diversity of its forms and its aims. The papers suggest that rationales for community-led housing are found in a wide range of ideological positions – from revolutionary and anti-colonial, to seeking equitable participation in democracy, to mainstream cost-benefit analyses of the benefits of this form of affordable housing provision. All, however, agree that at the core is the leadership and enfranchisement of the people living in the community, in housing that is not buffeted by market forces.

The limited number of existing units, combined with low turnover rates, make co-op housing an unviable option for most Canadians, despite being so in-demand.

Consequently, since market landlords aren’t competing against the affordability of co-op housing, they are free to jack rents as high as the market will bear, Thomas said. She points to pressure from industry lobbying the government against investing in non-market housing.

Geordie Dent, executive director of the Federation of Metro Tenants' Associations in Toronto, told Ricochet that’s an accurate assessment of what happened behind the scenes, that lobbying by landlords certainly played a key role.

“I don't think anyone ever came out publicly and said that,” he said. “It was always pitched as ‘market efficiency’ to the public, while I think privately, a bunch of landlords realized they were going to make a ton of money down the road. The government just swallowed everything they said and they didn't care if it was true or not.”