“For the oppressed, housing has always been in crisis. So, for many people, the housing crisis isn’t anything new. It feels like a crisis but for them it’s been a permanent reality … the only reason why we started talking about it in terms of a housing crisis is because white middle class people are now also feeling the impact.”
In In this episode, we speak with Cody Hochstenbach, Associate Professor of Urban Geography at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. He researches the politics of housing, processes of gentrification, homelessness and poverty in cities and urban areas.
Cody has also written two books in Dutch to make these issues more widely known with the wider public, called ‘Uitgewoond’ (which roughly translates as worn out’) and ‘In schaamte kun je niet wonen’ (‘shame is no place to live). They are based on research as well as his own experiences with housing.
In our conversation, Cody offers a damning account of how the Netherlands moved from a country that served as an example of how to do social housing well to one where social housing is now seen as a last resort. We also discuss the shame and stigma associated with homelessness and the glorification of home ownership, and the importance of collective action to call for fairer housing policies.
I refer to research that was undertaken in Milton Keynes in the UK, which can be found here.
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