People Power, Tenant Power!—Rebuilding Trust Through Housing Rights Movements and Activism

Abstract

This chapter looks at social movements as a space of trust-building. It is argued that joining housing rights movements, which more and more people feel inspired to in times of crisis, is a way to rebuild that trust that has been lost. The network of trust that is rebuilt here functions as living infrastructure to give people stability where homes and communities are threatened. The first section discusses how people’s experiences in the housing market translate into their activism. The data show that people’s housing biographies influence their political biographies. The distrust that is experienced due to the housing crisis functions as a catalyst for housing activism. The second section then analyzes the trust networks within social movements more closely. The main focus is on the experience of in-group trust within activist networks, which works both as a gate keeping mechanism and as a means to build alliances between those at the margins of the housing market. The final section centers on the right to housing as the ultimate goal. It asks what role activism can play in establishing access to affordable and adequate housing as a de facto right and what strategies activists use to promote housing justice.

Chant at housing rallies