Housing
The right to home, to a house, is codified in the proposed Constitution of Chile and in the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. In Berkeley, the idea seems out of reach. There are students piling into cramped spaces burdened by rising prices. We live in a city where the unhoused roam our streets as we as students actively displace and play a role in the problem as we try to find solutions for ourselves. They build community and the university tears it down. We rally and fight for them and for ourselves, but we are still left trying to find a home.
Living communally is far from a new idea, but revisiting it through the lens of the histories of Venezuela and Chile can help contextualize the space that students find themselves in, especially from the perspective of a Berkeley student.
The new proposed Chilean constitution establishes a housing commission within the governmental system, the failed constitutional proposal signals that citizens have the right to “decent and adequate housing” where the cultural relevance of the housing is central to this, and housing policies will be built with low-income individuals in mind. housing movements in Chile play a considerable role in the words iterated here. Under the Allende government, low-income individuals enjoyed housing policies that favored them and felt provided for by the state. This would soon be ripped away under the Pinochet dictatorship. Fast forward to 2022, as the new constitution is being drafted, to communities like Nuevo Amancer, where the people have settled on the land without the permission of the government. Many of these residents settled here with money that was given to them by governmental agencies during the Covid-19 pandemic. Further, the constitutional process is fought for them as well, upholding what is known as the “dignity to live.”
In Venezuela, the assemblies of Venezuela’s Movimiento de Pobladores y Pobladoras (MPPV) has focused its efforts on creating communities and not buildings. After the election of Chávez, this organization consisting of the most marginalized groups excluded from the housing system fought back against neoliberal policies that prioritized home ownership establishing themselves based on communities. Similar to modern Chile, they built unconventional homes and fought to stay in these homes. The constitution granted them that but focused additionally on this environmental aspect. The building of community was centralized for this group but beyond that the state considered not only the people living on this land, making community but also the land itself.
This brings us to where we stand as students at Berkeley. After the brief pause in enrollment that occurred in the last year, and now the displacement of the residents of People’s Park, housing is at the forefront of the minds of students. Community centered living like Berkeley student cooperatives has long provided affordable and community based housing for students. In the context of the displacement of our neighbors, the strong democratic powers of this community have been disbanded by the governing institutions that is the University. But yet, we point to again the lack of codification in our own US constitution that grants its right for our people.
Angarita, Andreina Torres. “From Housing to Homespace in Bolivarian Caracas.” NACLA Report on the Americas, vol. 54, no. 3, 2022, pp. 286–294., https://doi.org/10.1080/10714839.2022.2118018.
Perez, Miguel (2022) The housing movement in neoliberal Chile: paradoxes and contestations, International Journal of Housing Policy, 22:3, 463-466, DOI: 10.1080/19491247.2022.2102088
Rudich, Juiletta, director. Changing of the Guard in Chile. Dw.com, Deutsche Welle , 29 Aug. 2022, https://www.dw.com/en/changing-of-the-guard-in-chile-a-new-generation-takes-power/video-62960480. Accessed 15 Nov. 2022.
Vaz, Ricardo. “Venezuela: Popular Movements Mobilize to Demand Housing Self-Management.” Venezuelanalysis.com, Venezuela Analysis , 24 Feb. 2022, https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14550.
