September-October 2020 Volume 29: Number 1 Under One Roof: Building an Abolitionist Approach to Housing Justice Sophie House and Krystle Okafor I. Introduction this suggests that we should direct re- tion of abolition democracy, described sources today. in his essay Black Reconstruction in This essay invites housing scholars America. Du Bois documents the con- and policymakers to consider how we tinued disenfranchisement and exploi- can learn from the ongoing project of II. Abolition in Historical tation of Black Americans following the abolition. Abolition here refers to the and Contemporary formal abolition of slavery. After eman- body of scholarship and advocacy-- Context cipation, white lawmakers thwarted beginning with the abolition of slavery efforts by newly-freed Black citizens and extending through contemporary Although the activism of the Move- to create democratic institutions that movements for the abolition of prison ment for Black Lives has introduced would grant Black Americans full eco- and the police--that seeks to do away the conception of abolition to a broader nomic and social citizenship (Du Bois, with institutional racism and the relics audience, it remains widely misunder- 1935; Davis, 2011). Because Du Bois’s of slavery in the United States. Recent stood and oversimplified. Contempo- vision of “abolition democracy” has not nationwide protests for racial justice rary abolitionism finds its roots in the been realized, contemporary abolition- have drawn attention to longstanding end of chattel slavery. Its intellectual ists extend his work—and the work inequities and discrimination in hous- cornerstone is W.E.B. Du Bois’s no- (Please turn to page 2) ing finance, policymaking, and plan- ning. Meanwhile, despite many activ- ists’ visionary contributions, housing IN THIS ISSUE: policy has remained technocratic and incrementalist, even in response to en- Under One Roof: Building an Abolitionist trenched and systemic disparities (Bell, Approach to Housing Justice ..................................... 1 2019; Shelby, 2016). Learning from Sophie House and Krystle Okafor abolitionists compels housing policy- The Urgent Public Health Need to Extend Eviction makers instead to imagine and articu- Moratoria and Mortgage Forbearance Programs ....... 3 late what “housing justice” might look Gregory D. Squires and Ira Goldstein like; the necessary foundational con- Looking to the Future and Learning from the Past: ditions for housing justice; and where New Deal Housing Policy and COVID-19 ..................... 5 Hilary Botein Sophie House (sophia.house@nyu. Monopolizing Whiteness: An Interview edu) is a legal fellow at the Furman with Erika Wilson ....................................................... 7 Center at New York University, and From Grenfell to Granby: Challenging Spatial Krystle Okafor ([email protected]) is Injustice through Collective Alternatives to Public a second year student at the NYU School Housing ...................................................................... 9 of Law. Matthew Thompson A longer version of this essay was Please Donate! .......................................................... 11 first published in the NYU Journal of Legislation and Public Policy Quorum. Poverty & Race Research Action Council • 740 15th Street NW • Suite 300 • Washington, DC 20005 202/866-0802 • E-mail: [email protected] • www.prrac.org Recycled Paper (UNDER ONE ROOF: Cont. from page 1) pragmatism to what end? As surely as must develop new strategies for con- abandoning pragmatism might lead to ceptualizing, studying, and actualizing of countless other abolitionists‘ of chat- failure, pragmatism in a vacuum housing justice. tel slavery—into the present, where leads—and arguably has led housing The late Critical Resistance co- abolition now serves as a fulcrum for practitioners—to sturdy bridges to no- founder Rose Braz explained the im- social movements. where. We invite our colleagues in portance of naming and claiming prison Abolition requires identifying the housing to engage in this bold think- abolition as a goal: “a prerequisite to conditions necessary to “imagine a ing, examining the relics of slavery in seeking any social change is the nam- world without prisons,” considering housing and questioning incremental- ing of it . even though the goal we which structures must be dismantled, ist approaches to systemic disparities. seek may be far away, unless we name fortified, or newly constructed it and fight for it today, it will never (Kushner, 2019). Prison abolitionists come.” We thus invite housing acknowledge that in order to do away Housing policy is as policymakers to articulate a vision of with prisons, American social policy housing justice for their work, and would need to be both reconfigured implicated as criminal operate in pursuit of it. Recognizing and redoubled. Tying their project to law in the American that people of color and, particularly, the full abolition of slavery, abolition- schema of racialized Black people in America have been ists insist that crime prevention requires social control. systematically excluded and exploited that all communities have access to the out of opportunities for homeowner- full range of services and institutions ship, housing justice—often inter- that address the roots of criminal be- twined with conversations about repa- havior. They also recognize that safety III. Building an rations—might envision the creation of requires more than crime prevention: Abolitionist Approach wealth in Black households and com- it requires freedom from racism, ha- to Housing Justice munities; abundant quality, affordable rassment, and poverty; protection from housing; “open housing” in amenity- environmental hazards; adequate food A. Housing Justice in Abolition rich areas; or community wealth build- and shelter; and more. Democracy ing and land ownership (Archer, 2019; These values are reflected in the Taylor, 2019; Kaplan & Valls, 2007). ways that abolitionists organize. Cen- The chauvinism that pervades ra- We might call housing justice the rup- tral to abolitionist mobilization is op- cial terror and the Great Migration ex- turing of the link between ZIP Codes position to “reformist reforms”—ef- clusionary zoning and redlining, urban and a host of health, economic, and forts that direct additional resources renewal and capital flight, New Deal educational outcomes. Or we might to the systems that abolition targets. exclusion, and predatory inclusion is emphasize housing stability, imagining Accordingly, abolitionists oppose ex- as readily apparent as the chauvinism a world in which no one faces the pansions of jail and prison systems and that pervades chattel slavery, the Black threat of losing their home. Looking mobilize against increasing policing Codes, convict leasing, Jim Crow, and to the leadership of the Movement for budgets. Broad coalition-building is also mass incarceration. Housing policy is Black Lives, housing justice might en- at the core of abolitionism. Within this as implicated as criminal law in the tail a guarantee of housing and utilities coalition-building, abolitionists seek to American schema of racialized social for all. There are myriad ways to ar- be led by, and offer material support control. Since the Reconstruction era, ticulate housing justice; what matters to, those most directly affected by the state-sanctioned expulsion, exclusion, is to name and envision them. prison industrial complex and by po- and extraction have constrained Black lice violence. Americans’ housing outcomes. Against B. Foundational Conditions and New Abolitionist theory and practice thus historical injustices of this magnitude, Democratic Institutions encourage critical reflection and po- a limited focus on “technocratic sup- litical imagination. Rather than center- ply-side and deregulatory solutions” What are the foundational condi- ing pragmatism, abolitionism asks: will not do (Roy & Rolnik, 2020). We tions necessary to make housing jus- tice a reality? If just housing is safe housing, safety requires freedom not Poverty & Race (ISSN 1075-3591) is published three times a year by the Poverty and Race Research Action Council, 740 15th Street NW, Suite 300, Washington, DC 20005, only from crime but from hazards like 202/906-8052, fax: 202/842-2885, E-mail: [email protected]. Sofia Hinojosa, editorial assis- lead paint and environmental injustice. tant. Subscriptions are $25/year, $45/two years. Foreign postage extra. Articles, article It also means eradicating domestic vio- suggestions, letters and general comments are welcome, as are notices of publications for lence and child abuse, which in turn our Resources Section—email to [email protected]. Articles generally may be reprinted, requires directing resources towards providing PRRAC gives advance permission. a variety of social, mental health, and © Copyright 2020 by the Poverty and Race Research Action Council. All rights re- served. community intervention services (Please turn to page 4) 2 • Poverty & Race • Vol. 29, No. 1 • September-October 2020 The Urgent Public Health Need to Extend Eviction Moratoria and Mortgage Forbearance Programs Gregory D. Squires and Ira Goldstein The latest Census Household Pulse COVID-19 test positivity rate has been the peak pandemic rate exceeding Survey (October 14–26, 2020) reveals on the rise for the last two months and 18%. that 1.1 million rental households the city’s Department of Public Health It is within this economic upheaval (13.1%) and 395 thousand owners considers