Housing Policy
Housing is a basic human right. Under capitalism it is also a commodity bought and sold on unstable markets and the object of speculation in pursuit of maximum private profit. The threat of a lack of shelter and income are essential to capitalism to force workers to compete for jobs where they produce all the wealth but are given the least recompense possible in the prevailing labour market conditions. High real estate prices and low (or “restrained”) wages are good for the capitalist economy and the owners of property. These are the basic contradictions within capitalism that mean that the housing problem will never be fully resolved as long as that social and economic system exists.
Of course, people will struggle against injustice and, just as workers organised in unions made significant advances in their working lives, they also made gains in the field of housing. Chief among these were the massive public housing projects launched as part of the creation of the “welfare state” after WW2. At the time, capitalism was under increasing pressure from socialism in a still ongoing ideological battle.
The gains made by peoples building socialism obliged the capitalist ruling class to show a modest degree of “generosity” to workers in developed capitalist countries like Australia. States and territories undertook massive public housing construction projects via various trusts, commissions and departments. The success of the sector put a partial brake on high rents and house prices on the private market.
With the destruction of the USSR and most of the socialist world, capitalism is under much less pressure to deliver benefits such as a large-scale public housing sector. Since the 1980s, public housing rents have been moved to the market rate and housing stocks sold off without being replaced as was previously the case. Properties were allowed to run down. Accessibility was restricted to those on very low incomes and was supplanted by “social housing” and so-called “affordable housing”.
The results of this long, sustained attack are now evident. Around 120,000 people living in Australia have no home at all. Roughly half of low-income earners live in “housing stress” where more than 30 percent of their pay is committed for accommodation. Fewer Australians can afford their own home and are forced to endure high private rents and insecure accommodation. The negative health (including mental health), education, employment and other consequences of this crisis are well known but make little impact on policy makers acting in the interests of the capitalist ruling class.
It is against this backdrop that the ACP presents its policy for struggle for better housing conditions under capitalism and its vision for the solution to the housing problem with the building of a socialist Australia.
The Struggle for Low-Cost Accommodation Under Capitalism
As has been indicated, gains and reforms under capitalism are not guaranteed and can be taken back when there is a change in the balance of political forces, an intensified attack by the ruling class on the rights of the people or a downturn in the struggle waged by the oppressed. However, while holding to our longer-term vision and gathering support for it, we endorse the following demands and seek to work with others to achieve them:
Massive investment in publicly owned, constructed and managed accommodation.
Public housing available to all who do not own other accommodation.
Public housing to be built and maintained by public enterprise.
Properly resourced support for those re-integrating into the community and housing after periods of homelessness, imprisonment and personal crises.
Design and maintenance to a high standard administered with the voluntary involvement of tenants.
Tenants to have the option of buying their accommodation. Proceeds of sale to go exclusively towards the construction of new housing.
Public housing to be served with all necessary amenities, including cultural facilities.
A stock of quality housing be maintained to house those people finding themselves without secure accommodation.
Caps on private rents and house prices as long as the private housing market continues to exist.
Re-orientation of land use and zoning policy to eradicate speculation and profiteering in housing. Stiff penalties for corruption at all levels of government and administration to enforce this.
The acquisition of private housing for inclusion in the stock of public housing.
The restriction and eventual elimination of the concept of investment properties. Changes in social allocations so that workers will not fear poverty in old age.
High quality housing with a view to the full participation of tenants in work, education and the social life of their communities.
Longer-Term:
Land will cease to be for sale freehold. Land will be made available on long-term leases from the state according to use determined by an overall economic and social plan.
No private ownership of housing beyond the home for personal use (family home).
The vast majority of housing will be public housing built to high standards with community and cultural facilities of high quality accessible to all.
Rents will be fixed at a maximum of 10 percent of family (or individual or group) income.
Decentralisation of urban centres, which will become fully achievable in a socialist economy.
Democratically formed committees to oversee rational use of accommodation to ensure equity of floor-space and other advantages for tenants and the least disruption to those being re-housed.
Private homes to assumed into the public housing stock on the death of the occupants; full employment, liveable pensions, guaranteed public housing, education and healthcare, will remove the need for inheriting the former family home.