Is opposing new housing construction egalitarian? Rent as power

Abstract

A broad range of progressives, environmentalists, activists, and academics have argued that opposing certain types of new apartment construction is an important form of egalitarian struggle. Successfully opposing new housing construction is understood to (i) improve the lives and capacities for self-determination for locals and (ii) advance Left and egalitarian causes in general. This article shares the commitments to economic and social justice that underlie these views. But the best evidence and arguments available show that opposition to housing rooted in economic and social justice concerns is mistaken empirically and conceptually. This article presents evidence that building dense additional housing at all levels of income (i) improves the lives and capacities for self-determination for people in the vicinity of the new housing and (ii) advances a number of egalitarian causes, e.g. by easing the subsistence pressure that high housing costs inflict on workers and by reducing the total environmental damage caused by human settlements.