Shelter Skelter

In issue #239 (10-25 Oct 2005) of The Big Issue, Chris Middendorp writes in Shelter Skelter (on pp.13-14) that there are at least 200,000 household applications awaiting allocation of public housing in Australia. This represents those who are willing to wait ten years or more for a home of their own. There are cases of people paying $155 per week for rent out of a pension of $190 pw. The author concludes:

... Public housing works best when it consists of ordinary homes in ordinary streets. It's a question of dignity.

From my conversations with housing workers in several Australian states, it's clear that there's a substainal degree of shared insight. While it's certainly true that some people become homeless because of personal predicaments such as domestic violence, drug addiction or a disability, the recurring theme is that with professional support many personal problems are manageable. Most people are able to live the kinds of lives we all accept as our God-given right. To make this possible, people need a place to call home. A home offers an anchor; it offers peace of mind. Public housing allows people ... the chance for a fresh and promising beginning.

The author traces the decline in public housing to the shift in government ideology towards the private rental market. But the author does not expand on this.

I believe that this shift creates a rentier class whose income depends on the rents and capital growth of residental properties. These are not capitalists who risk money in businesses (services or manufacturing) but people who are really parasites on the Capitalist system. The rentiers do not increase the wealth of the economy but rely on the increase in wealth to increase their rents without any investment whatsoever.

From the perspective of the ruling class, the rentiers are more docile than the petite bourgeious, and more reliable in supporting the status quo. Increasing the number of rentiers makes for more dependent people while discouraging the petite bourgeious.

The captalist economy suffers as more capital is removed from productive investments into the dead zone of property investments. The ruling class maintains control by slowly strangling the capitalist economy.

An expanded public housing programme would force this unproductive capital back into the productive parts of the economy. In this case, a socialist policy invigorates the capitalist economy.