By Sally Jane Black
There is more than enough housing for everyone.
The housing crisis in New Orleans is not caused by a shortage. It is caused by predatory developers and landlords who see every opportunity to develop as a chance to gouge workers and raise rents. Meanwhile, the few rights tenants have in Louisiana are often impossible to uphold because there is no support for workers in civil courts, and most of these laws were written by landlords in the first place.
There are thousands of housing units sitting empty in New Orleans and thousands of workers struggling to afford apartments that are often infested with vermin, rotting or covered in mold, over-crowded, and with no guarantee they won’t be kicked out tomorrow.
Recent attempts at relieving the housing crisis have included inclusionary zoning, limitations on short-term rentals, and property tax loopholes that all fail to address the fundamental issues: high rents and unsafe, inadequate housing options available to the working class. 64% of renters in the city pay more than a third of their income on rent (and a third of renters pay over half of their income). History shows developers will drop affordability requirements (which usually last a few decades at most) the instant they are able to, as they did at the American Can apartments. The city’s legal eviction rate (5.2%) is twice the national average and does not include the many who are evicted only with a threat, forced out with rising rents or harassment, or simply come home to find their possessions on the curb. Tenants cannot even withhold rent to force a landlord to make vital repairs to their homes.
Without a powerful tenants movement, this will not change. We must demand rights for tenants that empower workers, and we must demand rent control.
Unless a powerful tenants’ movement puts pressure on law-makers, “solutions” will always favor the rich. There is no way to make a tax cut big enough to make raising the rent less profitable. While working class homeowners deserve relief from the property tax increases, landlords need to be restricted more directly. Shelter is a basic human need, and landlords know tenants will pay anything to keep a roof over their heads. Strong rent control laws can put a limit on what landlords and property managers can charge tenants, including those who are already cost-burdened.
In New Orleans, every new development is taking tax payer money to build hotel rooms and condos while workers are being pushed out of neighborhoods by gentrification. The failed Amendment 4, backed by local nonprofits and conservative law-makers, was designed as a concession to developers before the fight had even begun. In Germany, mass movements have won rent control and have succeeded in forcing landlords to shut down developments and concede to demands for better housing regulations.
The laws we have are a reflection of the class struggle; law-makers answer to us only when we take militant and mass action against them, loud enough to drown out the money of the capitalists who fund their campaigns. With a tenants union strong enough to pressure the landlords, the people can fight back and protect the rights they win.