Why can't we afford to live in our cities anymore?
Are you growing more and more concerned about the housing crisis? I know I am.
I am mortified about the lack of social housing, extortionate rents in London and cities around the world, and the goal posts for home ownership moving further and further away every day. So what's going on? How have we got here, and how can we make housing affordable again?
Photo credit: Tierra Mallorca on Unsplash
Push is a new documentary that thoroughly investigates why we can no longer afford to live in our capital cities anymore, the communities being pushed out and how more and more people are renting as prime properties sit empty and unaffordable. Fredrik Gertten looks at how we can reclaim housing as a fundamental human right, (which is what it should always be), instead of commondity (which is what it has become). The time for properties being an investment has to come to an end and it needs to come soon. I'm not sure why people are still ignoring the realities of our housing crisis, buying into this flawed system and shackling themselves to mortgages that will never offer them aspects of freedom, security and benefit that they once did for just a couple of generations before.
We paid for the film but guess what? There is a free screening and I would wholly recommend you take advantage of this. It's fantastic and alarming all at once. It's frightening but it gives me hope that people are investigating this, and seeking to change so that once again, our properties become homes, not financial assests who serve no one but the billionaires and corporates.
It's also highlights why 'gentrification' is a surface level factor, and goes nowhere near explaining why we can no longer afford a place of our own, rented or owned.
To find out more on the film, go the website.