A Right to Housing?

In the fight for housing and the right to the city, we are caught between the world we know and the world we want: We can envision a better city, but can we imagine actually arriving there? Offering two seemingly contradictory perspectives, A Right to Housing? is a stirring mix of inspiration and provocation for activists, planners, and everyday readers.

On the one hand, Stein offers practical policies drawn from on-the-ground organizing. This is a blueprint for enacting universal housing rights, including a right to shelter, a right to a home, and a right to the city, through a program that includes expansive rental assistance, broad rent control, and mass social housing. On the other hand, Stein explores why these ostensibly practical visions continuously crash against the rocks of political reality.

From the power of real estate capital to the inadequacy of our institutions, Stein lays out the forces that stand in the way of a right to housing and summons the complex feelings of a Left that lacks a certain faith in the future.
Through these two contrasting perspectives, the author creates space for action: we will do what needs to be done, with or without the illusive quality of hope. Drawing strength from movement elders, political theorists, and radical rabbis, the author invites readers to dwell in both the expanse of possibility and the wilderness of despair, and to fight on no matter the odds.