"Too much housing" in capitalist America?

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8 SOCIALIST ACTION MAY 1987 Tomeless in New York By W.I. MOHAREB Last month, Socialist Action reported on the housing crisis in New York. The article by Brenda Bishop pointed out that there are an estimated 60,000 homeless people in that city alone.

Across the United States, some 3 million people—one-third of them families with children-face at least temporary homelessness this year, according to the National Coalition for the Homeless.

Recently, the U.S. Census Bureau issued some statistics on housing. A summary was published in The New York Times on March 29. The Census Bureau and the Times gloat that there are now "100 million places to live" in the United States.

But a look at the statistics reveals a more somber picture. The number of occupied housing units is 89.7 million. The number of vacant units is 10.3 million. Since 1970, the number of vacancies has jumped 94.3 percent, while the number of occupied units has risen only 41.5 percent.

Of the vacant units, 4.4 million are homes and apartments awaiting rental or sale-at the right price, of course. Some 2.4 million units are for "seasonal use" (vacant second or even third homes for the rich). And another 3.6 million units are off the market for one reason or another.

A worldwide crisis In general, the housing picture in other capitalist countries is even worse. Japanese workers are crammed into tiny, expensive apartments that commonly lack plumbing fixtures. (Some observers call them "rabbithutch housing.")

In Japan and capitalist Europe, home -lessness is a growing problem affecting the working class, youth, and oppressed nationalities. In South Korea and Hong Kong, it is not uncommon for seven or eight people to be jammed into one room.

The picture is even worse when one turns to the most oppressed capitalist countries. Millions of homeless roam the streets of Sao Paulo, Calcutta, and Cairo. More than 100 million are homeless in India alone. Yet vacant houses and apartments can be found in all, even the poorest, capitalist countries-again only awaiting the "right price."

The contrast with the workers' states— including Cuba, the Soviet Union, the People's Republic of China, the German Democratic Republic (GDR), etc.—is particularly striking.

Due in part to bureaucratic mismanagement, people are often inexcusably crowded or conditions. But homelessness phenomenon.

Furthermore, housing—including heat and utilities-generally consumes less than 15 percent of a worker's income. In the GDR, it averages between 4 percent and 6 percent of income.

"Too much" housing?

By comparision, housing in the capitalist countries eats up over 40 percent of a worker's paycheck, on the average. Median monthly rental costs have risen 31 percent since 1980. The cost is such that a layoff, illness, or divorce can quickly lead to overcrowding-or homelessness.

As with practically every other commodity, there is "too much" housing under capitalism today, according to the capitalists and landlords. The U.S. government claims there are "only" 250,000 homeless people here. The Coalition for the Homeless says the real figure is closer to 3 million.

We know that there are at least 10.3 million vacant housing units in the United States alone. Even if 2 million of those units were unfit for human habitation, there would still be enough vacant homes and apartments in place today to comfortably house over 20 million people.

The task of tasks is to develop the organized strength of the workers and oppressed to fight for the housing we need.. housed in substandard is not a mass Vol. 2. No. 2 Spring 1987 Women & Work in Western Europe; Anti-Apartheid Struggles and Class Struggles; The Crisis of the PLO; ... and more.

International Marxist Review is published three times a year under the auspices of the United Secretariat of the Fourth International. A one-year subscription is $18. Send check payable to PEC to 2, rue Richard Lenoir, 93108, Montreuil, France.

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