Guest Commentary: Is Housing a Right or a Commodity?

BY JULIA ARAIZA

The City of Santa Ana recently approved rent and eviction control ordinances that are far more restrictive than current state law. The city council hearing on September 21, 2021 was a stage for tenant activists to voice their concerns. Their mantra was “Housing is a Right.” They advocate that those who cannot afford the housing they want should receive it without paying its value as determined by the market rent. Many reasons were cited: avoiding homelessness, helping the community, health and safety of the recipients, and others. These reasons were also cited at the next two city council meetings that followed. All are noble goals, but to refute any of those concepts labels one as heartless.

Defining housing as a “right” rewrites our social structure. As an example, healthcare is now a “right.” Both healthcare and housing are commodities, and they were commodities before advocates began redefining them as rights. But government — not the medical industry — made treatment available to those who could not afford it. The medical industry was not required to provide doctor care, medicines, or hospital care for free or at reduced rated. It is true that rates are negotiated, but they are not set by government — or activists.

Let’s go further down this path of increasing “rights.” Other commodities that could be redefined as rights include food, public transportation, vehicles, and fuel. Those are also necessary for a quality of life, health, employment, and safety. Will they be next? If a commodity is not affordable to a group of people, do they have the right to receive it for free or at a discount? It seems like they do, according to the activists. What’s next? Will grocery stores and auto manufacturers be required to reduce or freeze their prices?

Conscripting or seizing a product is confiscation, and that is supposed to be illegal and unconstitutional. Housing may or may not be a “right,” but it certainly is a commodity. It is produced by purchase or construction. It requires upkeep, repair, management, money, and labor. It can be rented or sold. It is indeed a commodity.

The providers of the commodity are not the cause of the unaffordability. The marketplace creates the imbalance. As with medical treatment, if housing is now deemed a right, then taxpayers should underwrite the cost of providing the desired housing. The housing industry should not be decimated or nationalized into a government entity.

On a larger scale, elements in our nation are rewriting many concepts. Large companies swallow up business opportunities. They are destroying the opportunities that used to help courageous, hard-working people join the middle class by investing their time and savings. Personal failure to thrive in our economy is now blamed on intangibles. The notions of equality and meritocracy have been redefined. It is now wrong to discuss how peoples’ innate abilities and ambitions, and the sacrifices they are willing to make, are also contributing factors in their economic position and ongoing advancement. The current view is on equality of outcome, which means someone else must supplant the conditions that impact the lives of those who struggle and are less fortunate.

Ultimately, the cost of supplying housing, as a “right,” must be paid by taxpayers as a whole, not by the providers of the commodity of housing.

About the Author: Julia Araiza is an independent rental property owner and AAOC member.

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