communities of color by predatory lending led to the greatest loss of Black wealth in a century.

Meanwhile, the millions of foreclosures have led to more than 2 million children pushed from

their homes, and another 6 million children at risk of homelessness.4

As millions of homes go

vacant, rental prices have soared. Not only did the banks make exorbitant profits through

inflated debt, fees, and securitization of mortgages, the financial system received what a recent

Ford Foundation sponsored study revealed to be not $700 billion, but $29 trillion in bailout funds

paid for by U.S. tax-payers.

2) The unprecedented degree of control banks hold over housing and land. Over 95% of the

housing stock in this country is privately owned and much of this is controlled by banks through

mortgages.6

With deregulation, banks gained unprecedented ability to use this housing stock to

speculate, making large profits while foreclosing on millions of homes.

While the current crisis is causing mass suffering, a growing resistance movement is

fighting back and winning significant victories. Through recent expanded foreclosure and

anti-displacement organizing, many more residents and activists are joining the movement.

Different sectors of the movement are working more closely together, including community

groups, Occupy, labor and environment sectors. The movement is countering the greed and

racism of Wall Street, with different values and visions.

Our vision is rooted in the understanding that housing is a human right. Housing must

first and foremost be created and exist to meet people’s needs. It should not principally be a

commodity to be bought and sold for profit. Our vision can only exist with what we name as the

right to the city: the collective right of all people to

1) To grow the housing justice movement from thousands to hundreds of thousands (if not

millions) led by those directly impacted. The breadth of the crisis and the rising consciousness

make this growth possible. We now can imagine uniting homeowners, renters, public housing

residents, and homeless individuals and families. We can see new levels of partnerships

between the different sectors of the movement.

2) To raise consciousness. The time is ripe to challenge, uproot and replace dominant values

and ideas that cause people so much harm. As we organize, we must deliberately make time to

dialogue and develop our own analyses and solutions. We must not be narrow, but explore and

address race, gender, class, and ecology in this process.

We need transformative demands to connect our fights to our vision and belief in housing as a

human right. Where we were defensive, we can now be offensive. Where we were timid, we

can be bold. In this moment, with deliberateness and successful strategies, we can build to

hundreds of thousands and we can win concrete victories that shift the balance of power. This

can only happen when we dream it and fight for it. We no longer have the excuse that people

are not ready or that the time is not right.

i. Solutions that Put People’s Needs Over Profit: Transformative demands are grounded in

the premise that the economy exists to serve the needs of the people and the planet rather than

maximizing profit. They put forward creative solutions that go beyond defending what we have

now, to creating alternatives that allow people and communities to control land and housing.

ii. Social Ownership: Transformative demands move economic ownership and decision-

making from banks and large companies to residents and communities. Tactics can be diverse

and creative and address the needs of current homeowners, renters, public housing residents

and homeless individuals/families. Examples of tactics may include worker and consumer

limited equity cooperatives, community land trusts, and creative social housing development by

non-profit organizations.

iii. Democratic Control: Transformative demands seek democratic control within social

housing and over private housing. They operate on the assumption that social ownership alone

is not enough. Whatever the form of social ownership, whether limited equity, land trusts, public

housing, etc, residents and communities must be the primary decision-makers. Also, there

must be democratic decision-making for public decisions over the allocation, location, and

standards of private housing.

v. Consciousness: Transformative demands are part of campaigns and fights that develop the

consciousness of members, activists and the larger public. We seek to increase awareness on

many fronts: the importance of organizing, analyses of the problem(s), our

values/principles/vision, and our concrete solutions.

An historic example of a transformative demand. We often draw from the lessons of the civil

rights era to reflect on the power and challenges of movement moments. An example of a

transformative demand from that time was the demand to “End Jim Crow,” which included the

demand for full enfranchisement for African Americans. Transitional demands such as an end to

segregation of lunch counters, buses, and schools, for example, connected to the larger

demand to transform southern society. The transitional demands played an important role by

● Win Community Controlled Housing. We must demand the transfer of bank and

government owned unoccupied properties to non-profits and communities, as well as the

conversion of their rental occupied properties to forms of collective ownership that

maintains permanent affordability. The current crisis allows us to call into question

banks’ control of the majority of housing and land in this country for profit and

speculation. These unoccupied and rental properties can be placed under permanent

resident and community control through different forms of social ownership, i.e.

community land trusts and limited equity models.

● Create a Community Reinvestment Bank. We can now demand pushing profit driven

banks out of the housing business altogether. We can call for the creation of a

Community Reinvestment Bank and new financial institutions that serve people’s

housing needs. This bank should operate at national and local levels and should have

adequate resources for those communities hardest hit by the crisis.

● Win Principal Reduction. Winning principal reduction for millions must be seen as one

step towards realizing housing as a human right. This step restricts a bank’s profits, and

asserts that people’s housing needs must come before greed. Principal reduction allows

residents to reduce their debt and stay in their homes. However, principal reduction

alone is not enough. It does not address the needs of renters, homeless

individuals/familes, and the homeowners who even with principal reduction cannot afford

to stay in their homes. And as long as banks retain significant control to speculate and

gamble with mortgages, new crises will occur and our housing will not be secure. Thus,

we also need transformative demands like the ones above.

● Make Banks Pay. One way to hold banks accountable is through passing local

ordinances that exact mandatory fees for each foreclosed property. These fees

generate immediate funds to maintain unoccupied properties, possibly as a first step to

resident and community ownership. An example of such an ordinance was won in

Springfield, Massachusetts in July 2011 by Springfield No One Leaves and City

Councilor Amaad Rivera.