WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.040 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. It's good to be 00:00:02.040 --> 00:00:05.080 here. I want to start today with, well, with 00:00:05.080 --> 00:00:07.419 a bit of a mental exercise. I want you to picture 00:00:07.419 --> 00:00:10.699 the phrase public housing. Just, you know, close 00:00:10.699 --> 00:00:12.439 your eyes for a second, unless you're driving. 00:00:12.560 --> 00:00:13.939 Please don't close your eyes if you're driving. 00:00:14.019 --> 00:00:15.759 And just get an image in your head. What do you 00:00:15.759 --> 00:00:19.359 see? Now, depending on where you're sitting right 00:00:19.359 --> 00:00:22.399 now listening to this, that image is going to 00:00:22.399 --> 00:00:26.260 be, well. radically different. If you're in Chicago 00:00:26.260 --> 00:00:29.199 or maybe parts of Paris or London, you might 00:00:29.199 --> 00:00:32.340 be picturing a crumbling concrete high rise. 00:00:32.619 --> 00:00:34.859 Yeah, I'm thinking broken windows, maybe some 00:00:34.859 --> 00:00:38.079 graffiti, a place that feels pretty isolated. 00:00:38.439 --> 00:00:41.539 Exactly. A place of last resort. Right. A place 00:00:41.539 --> 00:00:43.859 you go when you have absolutely no other options. 00:00:43.920 --> 00:00:46.140 The bottom of the barrel. But what if you're 00:00:46.140 --> 00:00:49.000 listening to this in Singapore or maybe Vienna? 00:00:49.450 --> 00:00:51.049 Oh, that's a totally different picture. Your 00:00:51.049 --> 00:00:52.929 mental image is completely different. You might 00:00:52.929 --> 00:00:55.350 be picturing, I don't know, a manicured garden, 00:00:55.530 --> 00:00:59.009 a high speed elevator. And honestly, you might 00:00:59.009 --> 00:01:01.729 be thinking about your asset portfolio. And that's 00:01:01.729 --> 00:01:03.850 the paradox we're really digging into today. 00:01:04.170 --> 00:01:07.370 In Singapore, something like 90 percent of the 00:01:07.370 --> 00:01:10.390 resident population lives in homes built by the 00:01:10.390 --> 00:01:13.260 government. 90 percent. It's not a safety net 00:01:13.260 --> 00:01:16.560 for the destitute. It's the absolute norm from 00:01:16.560 --> 00:01:21.200 taxi drivers to CEOs. That is just how people 00:01:21.200 --> 00:01:24.939 live. It's such a staggering contrast. How can 00:01:24.939 --> 00:01:28.680 one two word phrase public housing mean urban 00:01:28.680 --> 00:01:30.859 decay in one place and middle class stability? 00:01:31.680 --> 00:01:34.180 That is the big question. And to answer it, we 00:01:34.180 --> 00:01:36.299 have to look at how humanity has tried to solve 00:01:36.299 --> 00:01:38.700 one of the most basic biological needs we have, 00:01:38.939 --> 00:01:41.519 shelter. Right. But we aren't just talking about 00:01:41.519 --> 00:01:43.120 bricks and mortar today. We're looking at something 00:01:43.120 --> 00:01:45.180 much deeper. We're looking at social engineering. 00:01:45.239 --> 00:01:47.319 Social engineering. I mean, that sounds a little 00:01:47.319 --> 00:01:49.599 ominous. It can be. But think about it. When 00:01:49.599 --> 00:01:51.819 a government decides where to build, what to 00:01:51.819 --> 00:01:54.980 build and who gets to live there, they are. literally 00:01:54.980 --> 00:01:57.599 engineering society. They're deciding how people 00:01:57.599 --> 00:01:59.780 interact, how families are structured. Even how 00:01:59.780 --> 00:02:02.840 citizens see themselves. Exactly. Are they isolated 00:02:02.840 --> 00:02:06.099 individuals competing in a market or are they 00:02:06.099 --> 00:02:08.020 part of a collective? The design of their homes 00:02:08.020 --> 00:02:11.699 tells them the answer. So our mission today is 00:02:11.699 --> 00:02:13.719 to trace this whole experiment. We're going to 00:02:13.719 --> 00:02:16.020 go from the absolute squalor of the Industrial 00:02:16.020 --> 00:02:19.719 Revolution through the garden cities of England. 00:02:20.199 --> 00:02:23.020 the superblocks of the Soviet Union, all the 00:02:23.020 --> 00:02:25.960 way to the modern voucher systems that we see 00:02:25.960 --> 00:02:28.080 in the U .S. today. It's a global tour of how 00:02:28.080 --> 00:02:30.599 we house ourselves and, more importantly, why 00:02:30.599 --> 00:02:33.599 it works in some places and seems to fail so 00:02:33.599 --> 00:02:36.419 spectacularly in others. Okay, before we fire 00:02:36.419 --> 00:02:38.060 up the time machine, though, we probably need 00:02:38.060 --> 00:02:39.699 to lay some ground rules. We need a definition. 00:02:40.259 --> 00:02:43.180 When we say public housing or you hear social 00:02:43.180 --> 00:02:45.759 housing, what are we actually talking about? 00:02:46.080 --> 00:02:48.400 Because the terminology gets messy. It does. 00:02:48.599 --> 00:02:50.960 At its absolute core, though, we're talking about 00:02:50.960 --> 00:02:53.159 housing that is not purely driven by the free 00:02:53.159 --> 00:02:55.240 market price tag. It's subsidized. It's affordable. 00:02:55.419 --> 00:02:57.240 And it's usually owned and managed by the government, 00:02:57.400 --> 00:03:00.560 either local or central or by nonprofits. So 00:03:00.560 --> 00:03:03.060 the landlord is basically the state or a proxy 00:03:03.060 --> 00:03:07.620 for the state. Usually. Yeah. But. The key differentiator, 00:03:07.659 --> 00:03:09.680 the thing that really separates it from just, 00:03:09.740 --> 00:03:13.120 say, renting a normal apartment, is this concept 00:03:13.120 --> 00:03:15.680 of rationing. Rationing. OK, break that down 00:03:15.680 --> 00:03:17.539 for me. Well, think about the private market. 00:03:17.659 --> 00:03:20.879 How is housing rationed there? It's rationed 00:03:20.879 --> 00:03:22.680 by your bank account. If you have the cash, you 00:03:22.680 --> 00:03:24.520 get the keys. If you don't, you don't. Simple. 00:03:24.960 --> 00:03:29.599 Precisely. Allocation by ability to pay. In public 00:03:29.599 --> 00:03:32.629 housing, that logic is flipped on its head. Allocation 00:03:32.629 --> 00:03:34.870 is usually based on administrative measures of 00:03:34.870 --> 00:03:37.349 need. So things like means testing. Means testing, 00:03:37.509 --> 00:03:39.669 how much you earn, how big your family is, are 00:03:39.669 --> 00:03:42.289 you vulnerable, are you elderly. It's an attempt 00:03:42.289 --> 00:03:45.090 to treat housing as a utility or a right rather 00:03:45.090 --> 00:03:48.330 than just another luxury good. And just to give 00:03:48.330 --> 00:03:50.590 people a sense of scale here, because I was honestly 00:03:50.590 --> 00:03:52.689 surprised by this data in our research stack. 00:03:52.810 --> 00:03:56.349 You look at the OECD, basically the Club of Wealthy 00:03:56.349 --> 00:03:59.469 Nations, and social housing averages about 7 00:03:59.469 --> 00:04:01.939 % of the total housing stock. That's the average, 00:04:02.020 --> 00:04:04.080 but the average, as always, kind of hides the 00:04:04.080 --> 00:04:06.680 real story. The range is just wild. So give us 00:04:06.680 --> 00:04:09.099 the extremes. On the low end, you have a country 00:04:09.099 --> 00:04:12.719 like Colombia, where it's under 1%. So statistically 00:04:12.719 --> 00:04:15.740 negligible. It barely exists. But on the high 00:04:15.740 --> 00:04:18.089 end... The Netherlands. I've heard this stat. 00:04:18.110 --> 00:04:21.629 It's huge, isn't it? It's about 34%. One in every 00:04:21.629 --> 00:04:24.230 three homes in the Netherlands is social housing. 00:04:24.509 --> 00:04:27.170 Wow. So when we talk about this, we aren't talking 00:04:27.170 --> 00:04:30.089 about some fringe issue. In many major cities, 00:04:30.350 --> 00:04:32.470 this infrastructure is the backbone of urban 00:04:32.470 --> 00:04:34.949 life. If you take it away, the city stops functioning 00:04:34.949 --> 00:04:37.410 because the people who run the city, the nurses, 00:04:37.550 --> 00:04:40.029 the teachers, the bus drivers, they have nowhere 00:04:40.029 --> 00:04:42.189 to live. Okay. So we know what it is. We know 00:04:42.189 --> 00:04:44.790 it varies wildly. Now I want to know where it 00:04:44.790 --> 00:04:48.610 came from. Because I'm assuming, well, actually, 00:04:48.689 --> 00:04:50.829 I shouldn't assume. Did medieval kings build 00:04:50.829 --> 00:04:53.870 public housing? Not exactly. But it's not a strictly 00:04:53.870 --> 00:04:56.209 modern invention either. For the real origin, 00:04:56.329 --> 00:04:58.930 we have to make a quick stop in the 16th century. 00:04:59.730 --> 00:05:03.230 Augsburg, Bavaria. The Fugerei. The Fugerei. 00:05:03.310 --> 00:05:06.110 It is the world's oldest social housing complex 00:05:06.110 --> 00:05:08.250 that is still in use today. It was founded in 00:05:08.250 --> 00:05:11.649 1521 by a man named Jacob Fugger the Rich. Jacob 00:05:11.649 --> 00:05:14.589 the Rich. Yeah. Very subtle nickname. I like 00:05:14.589 --> 00:05:17.029 it. Well, he earned it. He was a banker and merchant, 00:05:17.170 --> 00:05:19.629 one of the wealthiest men in history. And he 00:05:19.629 --> 00:05:23.230 built this beautiful walled enclave for the needy 00:05:23.230 --> 00:05:26.470 Catholic citizens of Augsburg. And here's my 00:05:26.470 --> 00:05:30.350 favorite detail. The rent. What was the rent 00:05:30.350 --> 00:05:34.069 in 1521? One Rhenish guilder per year. But what 00:05:34.069 --> 00:05:36.410 is the rent today? It's still the equivalent 00:05:36.410 --> 00:05:40.040 of one Rhenish guilder, which is about... 0 .88 00:05:40.040 --> 00:05:42.439 euros. Wait, wait. Under a dollar a year? Under 00:05:42.439 --> 00:05:45.379 a dollar a year. Get out. People live there for 00:05:45.379 --> 00:05:47.959 less than a dollar a year. They do. But, and 00:05:47.959 --> 00:05:49.699 this is a big but, there's a catch. It wasn't 00:05:49.699 --> 00:05:51.759 just about money. It was about moral standing. 00:05:52.060 --> 00:05:54.319 Ah. You had to be Catholic. You had to be an 00:05:54.319 --> 00:05:56.839 honorable citizen who had fallen on hard times. 00:05:56.879 --> 00:05:59.879 And this is actually part of the lease. You have 00:05:59.879 --> 00:06:02.139 to pray three times a day for the soul of the 00:06:02.139 --> 00:06:05.410 founder, Jacob Fugger. So it's housing. But with 00:06:05.410 --> 00:06:08.449 a side of mandatory spiritual gratitude. Exactly. 00:06:08.629 --> 00:06:10.949 And that's a theme that comes back again and 00:06:10.949 --> 00:06:13.870 again. The deserving poor. The idea that if they're 00:06:13.870 --> 00:06:17.089 rich or the state give you housing, they own 00:06:17.089 --> 00:06:18.910 a little piece of your behavior. They get to 00:06:18.910 --> 00:06:21.089 decide if you're worthy. That is a fascinating 00:06:21.089 --> 00:06:22.790 thread we're definitely going to pull on later. 00:06:23.370 --> 00:06:26.389 But the fougere was an outlier, right? It wasn't 00:06:26.389 --> 00:06:30.149 a system. It was one rich guy's project. No, 00:06:30.189 --> 00:06:33.420 it was philanthropy. The story of modern public 00:06:33.420 --> 00:06:36.240 housing, the kind that changes nations, really 00:06:36.240 --> 00:06:38.759 begins with the villain of so many of our deep 00:06:38.759 --> 00:06:41.860 dives. The Industrial Revolution. The Great Disruptor. 00:06:41.879 --> 00:06:44.240 It's just so hard for us to really grasp the 00:06:44.240 --> 00:06:47.680 speed of urbanization back then in the 19th century. 00:06:47.959 --> 00:06:50.480 You had millions of people pouring from the countryside 00:06:50.480 --> 00:06:52.819 into cities like London, Manchester, New York, 00:06:52.920 --> 00:06:54.579 and there was literally nowhere to put them. 00:06:54.740 --> 00:06:56.920 And the free market response to that explosion 00:06:56.920 --> 00:06:59.579 of humanity was, well, it was a catastrophe. 00:06:59.620 --> 00:07:02.000 It was the slum. I was reading the source material 00:07:02.000 --> 00:07:04.699 you sent over, specifically from Henry Mayhew. 00:07:04.759 --> 00:07:07.439 He was a journalist in London in the 1840s and 00:07:07.439 --> 00:07:11.339 50s. And his description of Bethnal Green, honestly, 00:07:11.519 --> 00:07:13.199 it makes you want to take a shower just reading 00:07:13.199 --> 00:07:16.259 it. It is visceral stuff. He talks about roads 00:07:16.259 --> 00:07:18.800 that weren't roads. They were just unmade alleys 00:07:18.800 --> 00:07:21.879 of mud, houses built with no foundations, just 00:07:21.879 --> 00:07:25.220 piles of bricks on the damp earth. And then there's 00:07:25.220 --> 00:07:28.060 this phrase that just stuck with me. Lakes of 00:07:28.060 --> 00:07:31.709 cutrifying night soil. Putrefying night soil. 00:07:31.930 --> 00:07:33.949 Which is a very polite Victorian way of saying. 00:07:34.149 --> 00:07:37.050 Human waste. Just sitting there in the street. 00:07:37.719 --> 00:07:39.939 Because there were no sewers. And it wasn't just 00:07:39.939 --> 00:07:42.439 the waste. He describes the smell of boiling 00:07:42.439 --> 00:07:44.980 tripe, melting tallow from the candle makers, 00:07:45.279 --> 00:07:47.939 the stench from slaughterhouses. It was a complete 00:07:47.939 --> 00:07:49.899 sensory assault. And that's the crucial point 00:07:49.899 --> 00:07:51.759 to understand. It wasn't just that it was ugly. 00:07:51.899 --> 00:07:54.139 It wasn't just that rich people on the West End 00:07:54.139 --> 00:07:56.480 didn't like the smell wafting over. It was a 00:07:56.480 --> 00:07:59.079 biological time bomb. The disease rates were 00:07:59.079 --> 00:08:02.519 just off the charts. Cholera, typhoid, tuberculosis. 00:08:03.100 --> 00:08:05.740 In the old nickel slum in London, which was notorious, 00:08:06.040 --> 00:08:09.519 the infant mortality rate was horrific. One in 00:08:09.519 --> 00:08:11.620 four children died before their first birth. 00:08:11.660 --> 00:08:13.639 One in four. Just try to imagine that. Every 00:08:13.639 --> 00:08:17.000 fourth crig is empty. That reality, that sheer 00:08:17.000 --> 00:08:19.779 scale of death, it forced a shift in thinking. 00:08:20.300 --> 00:08:22.860 The Victorians were obsessed with laissez -faire, 00:08:22.980 --> 00:08:25.800 leave the market alone. But they eventually realized 00:08:25.800 --> 00:08:27.920 that the market was literally killing the workforce. 00:08:28.459 --> 00:08:30.980 So initially, did the government step in? Not 00:08:30.980 --> 00:08:33.600 immediately. First, you had the philanthropists 00:08:33.600 --> 00:08:36.379 again, the model dwellings companies. George 00:08:36.379 --> 00:08:40.120 Peabody is a famous one. Wealthy people who thought 00:08:40.120 --> 00:08:42.120 they could build decent housing and still make 00:08:42.120 --> 00:08:45.960 a tidy 5 % profit. 5 % philanthropy. Right. And 00:08:45.960 --> 00:08:48.279 you had factory owners building villages for 00:08:48.279 --> 00:08:51.039 their workers. Port Sunlight is a famous example, 00:08:51.200 --> 00:08:53.879 built in 1888 by the Lever Brothers, the soap 00:08:53.879 --> 00:08:56.299 kings. That makes a kind of cold logical sense. 00:08:56.519 --> 00:08:58.259 If your workers are dying of cholera, they can't 00:08:58.259 --> 00:09:00.899 make soap. Exactly. It was enlightened self -interest. 00:09:01.370 --> 00:09:04.370 But they all realized charity and corporate villages 00:09:04.370 --> 00:09:06.490 weren't enough to scale. The problem was just 00:09:06.490 --> 00:09:08.490 too massive. So the government finally says, 00:09:08.590 --> 00:09:11.750 fine, we'll do something. Slowly. Tentatively. 00:09:12.429 --> 00:09:15.429 In England, you had the Housing of the Working 00:09:15.429 --> 00:09:18.570 Classes Act of 1885. That was the legal turning 00:09:18.570 --> 00:09:20.929 point where the state officially said. We have 00:09:20.929 --> 00:09:23.789 an interest in this. And then in 1890, the Lennon 00:09:23.789 --> 00:09:26.309 County Council started the Boundary Estate. Which 00:09:26.309 --> 00:09:28.330 replaced that old nickel slum we were just talking 00:09:28.330 --> 00:09:30.330 about. Right. They cleared the slum. I mean, 00:09:30.330 --> 00:09:32.850 they raised it to the ground and built the world's 00:09:32.850 --> 00:09:36.330 first large scale social housing project. It 00:09:36.330 --> 00:09:38.210 was beautiful, actually. Arts and crafts style. 00:09:38.490 --> 00:09:41.659 High quality. But here's the thing that I found 00:09:41.659 --> 00:09:44.100 so interesting in the timeline. We see these 00:09:44.100 --> 00:09:46.860 little experiments in the late 1800s. But the 00:09:46.860 --> 00:09:49.419 real accelerator, the thing that took public 00:09:49.419 --> 00:09:51.500 housing from a local experiment to a national 00:09:51.500 --> 00:09:54.960 mandate, was war. World War I changed everything. 00:09:55.179 --> 00:09:57.220 Explain that connection for me. Because usually, 00:09:57.379 --> 00:10:00.399 war destroys housing. How did it build it? It 00:10:00.399 --> 00:10:02.559 all comes down to manpower. When Britain tried 00:10:02.559 --> 00:10:04.899 to conscript soldiers for World War I, they started 00:10:04.899 --> 00:10:07.120 processing these young men from the cities, and 00:10:07.120 --> 00:10:10.750 the generals were just... Shocked by the physical 00:10:10.750 --> 00:10:14.549 state of the recruits, they found that 41 % of 00:10:14.549 --> 00:10:18.129 the conscripts were unfit to serve. 41%. Almost 00:10:18.129 --> 00:10:22.149 half the male population. They had rickets. They 00:10:22.149 --> 00:10:24.990 were stunted for malnutrition. They had respiratory 00:10:24.990 --> 00:10:27.850 issues from breathing coal smoke in damp basements 00:10:27.850 --> 00:10:31.629 their whole lives. The slums had physically degraded 00:10:31.629 --> 00:10:33.289 the population to the point where they literally 00:10:33.289 --> 00:10:36.320 couldn't fight a war. That's incredible. So it 00:10:36.320 --> 00:10:38.639 wasn't benevolence. It wasn't, oh, these queer 00:10:38.639 --> 00:10:41.500 people need nice homes. It was, we need soldiers 00:10:41.500 --> 00:10:44.600 who can carry a rifle without collapsing. National 00:10:44.600 --> 00:10:47.639 security is a powerful motivator. So in 1919, 00:10:47.879 --> 00:10:50.019 right after the war, you get the Homes Fit for 00:10:50.019 --> 00:10:52.669 Heroes campaign. The prime minister, David Lloyd 00:10:52.669 --> 00:10:55.210 George, promised housing for the returning veterans, 00:10:55.490 --> 00:10:58.370 and the Housing Act of 1919 compelled local councils 00:10:58.370 --> 00:11:00.990 to provide that housing. It wasn't charity anymore. 00:11:01.110 --> 00:11:03.289 It was about rebuilding the biological strength 00:11:03.289 --> 00:11:05.710 of the nation. It's amazing how often social 00:11:05.710 --> 00:11:08.129 welfare is actually just national defense in 00:11:08.129 --> 00:11:10.450 disguise. It happens more than you think. The 00:11:10.450 --> 00:11:12.490 interstate highway system in the U .S. was also 00:11:12.490 --> 00:11:15.070 justified by national defense moving troops and 00:11:15.070 --> 00:11:17.409 equipment. Now, while this is all happening in 00:11:17.409 --> 00:11:19.509 the U .K., this big realization that the state 00:11:19.509 --> 00:11:22.159 must build what's going on in the United States. 00:11:22.440 --> 00:11:24.659 We usually think of the U .S. as being very late 00:11:24.659 --> 00:11:26.980 to the party on social welfare. They were a bit 00:11:26.980 --> 00:11:29.340 later. Yeah. And the motivation was slightly 00:11:29.340 --> 00:11:32.299 different. The first U .S. public housing project 00:11:32.299 --> 00:11:35.139 was Techwood Homes in Atlanta, which was dedicated 00:11:35.139 --> 00:11:39.220 in 1935. 1935. So we are deep in the Great Depression. 00:11:39.480 --> 00:11:43.059 We are. And FDR is trying to jumpstart the economy. 00:11:43.220 --> 00:11:45.820 So in the U .S., public housing started largely 00:11:45.820 --> 00:11:48.620 as a jobs program. It was about putting construction 00:11:48.620 --> 00:11:50.940 workers back to work. And here's a distinction 00:11:50.940 --> 00:11:52.820 we need to make really early on, because it's 00:11:52.820 --> 00:11:54.659 going to matter a huge amount later in the story. 00:11:54.899 --> 00:11:56.980 When we think of projects in the U .S. today, 00:11:57.789 --> 00:12:00.529 We have a very specific demographic and economic 00:12:00.529 --> 00:12:02.710 picture in our minds. We do. We think of concentrated 00:12:02.710 --> 00:12:06.370 poverty. But in 1935, at Techwood Homes. In the 00:12:06.370 --> 00:12:09.590 1930s, early U .S. public housing was often for 00:12:09.590 --> 00:12:12.029 the working poor and even the middle class. It 00:12:12.029 --> 00:12:14.529 was for families who had jobs but were temporarily 00:12:14.529 --> 00:12:16.389 down on their luck because of the Depression. 00:12:16.730 --> 00:12:18.929 And we should be honest about the other demographic 00:12:18.929 --> 00:12:22.409 reality of 1935. It was segregated, explicitly. 00:12:23.149 --> 00:12:26.559 Techwood Homes was for white families only. There 00:12:26.559 --> 00:12:28.299 were other projects built for black families, 00:12:28.399 --> 00:12:31.200 but they were separate and often unequal in funding 00:12:31.200 --> 00:12:34.460 and quality. The key point, though, is that in 00:12:34.460 --> 00:12:37.100 the beginning, public housing in the U .S. wasn't 00:12:37.100 --> 00:12:40.080 seen as a warehouse for the destitute. It was 00:12:40.080 --> 00:12:43.100 seen as a stepping stone, a temporary boost to 00:12:43.100 --> 00:12:45.559 get you back on your feet. OK, so we have the 00:12:45.559 --> 00:12:48.899 origins. We have the why getting rid of the night 00:12:48.899 --> 00:12:51.919 soil, stopping cholera, building healthy soldiers 00:12:51.919 --> 00:12:54.340 and jumpstarting the economy. Right. The need 00:12:54.340 --> 00:12:56.600 is established. So now let's talk about the how. 00:12:56.840 --> 00:12:59.320 Because once governments decided to build, they 00:12:59.320 --> 00:13:01.580 had to decide what to build. And this takes us 00:13:01.580 --> 00:13:03.700 into the world of architecture. And not just 00:13:03.700 --> 00:13:05.740 architecture, but ideology. This is where it 00:13:05.740 --> 00:13:08.100 gets really fun. Because the architects of the 00:13:08.100 --> 00:13:10.980 1920s and 30s, the modernists, they didn't just 00:13:10.980 --> 00:13:12.659 want to build apartments. They wanted to build 00:13:12.659 --> 00:13:15.120 a new kind of human being. A new human being. 00:13:15.360 --> 00:13:17.960 Absolutely. They believed in architectural determinism. 00:13:18.039 --> 00:13:20.399 The idea that if you change the space a person 00:13:20.399 --> 00:13:22.480 lives in, you change their behavior. You change 00:13:22.480 --> 00:13:24.720 their soul. Okay, so let's look at that interwar 00:13:24.720 --> 00:13:29.559 period. Weimar Germany, 1925 to 1930. The Bauhaus 00:13:29.559 --> 00:13:31.919 movement is in full swing. What was the vibe 00:13:31.919 --> 00:13:34.539 there? The reaction was against the slum. The 00:13:34.539 --> 00:13:37.100 slum was dark, chaotic, dirty, and irrational. 00:13:37.399 --> 00:13:40.080 So the modernists said, we will build the opposite. 00:13:40.460 --> 00:13:44.580 Which means? Light, air, and sun. Licht, Luft, 00:13:44.840 --> 00:13:47.299 und Son. That was the mantra. They built these 00:13:47.299 --> 00:13:49.620 beautiful, low -rise developments, often in suburban 00:13:49.620 --> 00:13:52.480 settings. Everything was about hygiene and efficiency. 00:13:52.940 --> 00:13:55.919 Clean lines, white walls. And this gives us one 00:13:55.919 --> 00:13:58.019 of the most famous examples of social engineering 00:13:58.019 --> 00:14:00.370 inside the home, the Frankfurt kitchen. Yes. 00:14:00.929 --> 00:14:03.149 Designed by Margaret Shidley -Hotsky, a true 00:14:03.149 --> 00:14:05.230 pioneer. We have a diagram of this in the notes. 00:14:05.269 --> 00:14:08.009 It looks like a modern galley kitchen. It does. 00:14:08.110 --> 00:14:09.929 And that's because she basically invented it. 00:14:09.970 --> 00:14:12.970 Before this, kitchens were big, messy rooms where 00:14:12.970 --> 00:14:16.269 people ate, cooked, and washed. She applied Taylorism 00:14:16.269 --> 00:14:18.169 to the kitchen. Taylorism. That's the scientific 00:14:18.169 --> 00:14:20.629 management stuff, right? Like timing how long 00:14:20.629 --> 00:14:22.429 it takes a factory worker to screw on a bolt. 00:14:22.789 --> 00:14:25.559 Exactly the same thing. She treated the housewife 00:14:25.559 --> 00:14:28.919 like a factory worker. She analyzed every movement. 00:14:28.980 --> 00:14:32.019 How many steps from the stove to the sink? How 00:14:32.019 --> 00:14:34.759 far do you have to reach for the flour? She designed 00:14:34.759 --> 00:14:37.799 a kitchen that minimized movement to reduce fatigue. 00:14:38.220 --> 00:14:40.320 So it wasn't just, here's a room to cook in. 00:14:40.379 --> 00:14:43.179 It was, here is a machine for living. That was 00:14:43.179 --> 00:14:46.200 the phrase, a machine for living. The goal was 00:14:46.200 --> 00:14:49.759 to liberate women from household drudgery through 00:14:49.759 --> 00:14:52.500 efficient design. It sounds incredibly modern 00:14:52.500 --> 00:14:54.460 when you think about it. It does. But there was 00:14:54.460 --> 00:14:58.600 another maybe darker side to this modernization. 00:14:58.820 --> 00:15:03.100 The concrete. The towers. Ah, yes. The tower 00:15:03.100 --> 00:15:05.000 in the park. This is the image that I think most 00:15:05.000 --> 00:15:07.429 of us have. And it comes from one man. largely 00:15:07.429 --> 00:15:10.490 le corbusier le corbusier the swiss french architect 00:15:10.490 --> 00:15:13.269 who loved concrete more than perhaps anyone else 00:15:13.269 --> 00:15:15.549 in history what was his philosophy why the towers 00:15:15.549 --> 00:15:18.629 he hated the messy narrow streets of old cities 00:15:18.629 --> 00:15:21.889 he called them donkey paths he wanted to bulldoze 00:15:21.889 --> 00:15:23.850 the center of paris and build the radiant city 00:15:23.850 --> 00:15:26.750 which was what exactly huge monolithic towers 00:15:26.750 --> 00:15:30.639 set in vast expanses of green parkland Everything 00:15:30.639 --> 00:15:33.840 separated. A zone for living, a zone for working, 00:15:34.059 --> 00:15:36.519 a zone for shopping, all connected by massive 00:15:36.519 --> 00:15:39.019 highways. It sounds nice on paper. Big towers, 00:15:39.100 --> 00:15:41.879 lots of trees. It seduced city planners all over 00:15:41.879 --> 00:15:44.100 the world, especially after World War II, when 00:15:44.100 --> 00:15:45.820 Europe was in ruins and they needed to house 00:15:45.820 --> 00:15:48.580 millions of people instantly. The tower seemed 00:15:48.580 --> 00:15:50.559 like the most logical answer. You could stack 00:15:50.559 --> 00:15:53.519 people up, use prefabricated concrete panels, 00:15:53.700 --> 00:15:56.120 and build incredibly fast. This brings us to 00:15:56.120 --> 00:15:59.889 the Soviet Union. The Khrushchevka. The Khrushchevka, 00:15:59.929 --> 00:16:02.490 yes. If you've ever seen photos of Moscow or 00:16:02.490 --> 00:16:05.450 East Berlin or Warsaw, you have seen these. Miles 00:16:05.450 --> 00:16:08.470 and miles of five -story gray concrete boxes. 00:16:08.870 --> 00:16:10.809 Why five stories? Was that an aesthetic choice? 00:16:11.049 --> 00:16:13.470 No, no. Nothing in the Soviet Union was an aesthetic 00:16:13.470 --> 00:16:16.210 choice. It was pure economics. Five stories was 00:16:16.210 --> 00:16:18.169 the maximum height you could build without legally 00:16:18.169 --> 00:16:20.450 requiring an elevator. And elevators are expensive. 00:16:20.850 --> 00:16:23.090 And they break down. And they need maintenance. 00:16:23.370 --> 00:16:26.470 So five stories it was. The goal was quantity 00:16:26.470 --> 00:16:30.480 over quality. Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet premier, 00:16:30.679 --> 00:16:33.460 wanted to end the housing shortage. He famously 00:16:33.460 --> 00:16:35.740 told the architects, we don't need beautiful 00:16:35.740 --> 00:16:38.480 curves. We need square meters. Rudely practical. 00:16:38.700 --> 00:16:42.360 But it went further than just. It was also about 00:16:42.360 --> 00:16:45.940 destroying the old way of life. In Romania, under 00:16:45.940 --> 00:16:49.240 the dictator Nicolae Sasescu, you had a policy 00:16:49.240 --> 00:16:52.299 called systematization. That is a terrifying 00:16:52.299 --> 00:16:54.320 name for a housing policy. It was as aggressive 00:16:54.320 --> 00:16:56.179 as it sounds. They looked at the traditional 00:16:56.179 --> 00:16:59.000 Romanian villages, little cottages, erratic streets, 00:16:59.240 --> 00:17:01.379 gardens, and they said, this is backward. This 00:17:01.379 --> 00:17:04.500 is peasant life. So they bulldozed entire villages 00:17:04.500 --> 00:17:07.380 and forced the people into these new standardized 00:17:07.380 --> 00:17:10.650 concrete blocks. So you're taking a farmer. who 00:17:10.650 --> 00:17:12.950 is used to having a garden and chickens and a 00:17:12.950 --> 00:17:15.589 community, and you're shoving him into a concrete 00:17:15.589 --> 00:17:18.250 box on the fourth floor. Exactly. The idea was 00:17:18.250 --> 00:17:20.750 to create the new socialist man, a man who lived 00:17:20.750 --> 00:17:22.829 in a collective urban environment, who relied 00:17:22.829 --> 00:17:25.190 on the state, not on his own plot of land or 00:17:25.190 --> 00:17:27.849 his village. That is the ultimate social engineering. 00:17:28.380 --> 00:17:31.339 using architecture to erase history and culture. 00:17:31.519 --> 00:17:35.700 And it worked, in a way. By 2012, communist -era 00:17:35.700 --> 00:17:38.759 flats still accounted for something like 37 % 00:17:38.759 --> 00:17:42.740 of total housing in Romania. That legacy is physically 00:17:42.740 --> 00:17:45.240 built into the landscape. So on one side, you 00:17:45.240 --> 00:17:48.039 have the Soviet concrete blocks. But let's contract 00:17:48.039 --> 00:17:50.420 that with the UK again, because before they went 00:17:50.420 --> 00:17:53.119 all in on towers in the 60s, they had a very 00:17:53.119 --> 00:17:56.460 different idea. The Garden City. Ebenezer Howard. 00:17:56.910 --> 00:17:58.789 He was a visionary. He looked at the city and 00:17:58.789 --> 00:18:01.710 saw overcrowding and slums. He looked at the 00:18:01.710 --> 00:18:04.170 countryside and saw a lack of opportunity. He 00:18:04.170 --> 00:18:06.210 said, let's combine the best of both. Town country. 00:18:06.349 --> 00:18:09.470 Yes. He drew these famous diagrams of the three 00:18:09.470 --> 00:18:12.109 magnets. The idea was to build these cottage 00:18:12.109 --> 00:18:14.849 estates, places like Totterdown Fields in London. 00:18:15.029 --> 00:18:17.250 Which just sounds lovely. Totterdown Fields. 00:18:17.490 --> 00:18:19.529 It was meant to be. These were low density. Everyone 00:18:19.529 --> 00:18:21.349 got their own front door. Everyone got a little 00:18:21.349 --> 00:18:23.960 garden to grow vegetables. That seems to be the 00:18:23.960 --> 00:18:26.140 fundamental split in public housing philosophy, 00:18:26.299 --> 00:18:28.920 doesn't it? You stack people up to save space 00:18:28.920 --> 00:18:31.059 and money, or you spread them out to give them 00:18:31.059 --> 00:18:33.980 a homely feel. And that split usually comes down 00:18:33.980 --> 00:18:37.339 to land value and cultural ideals. Look at New 00:18:37.339 --> 00:18:39.220 Zealand, for example. New Zealand has public 00:18:39.220 --> 00:18:41.660 housing. They have a very proud history of it. 00:18:41.720 --> 00:18:45.480 From 1937 to the 1950s, their state housing was 00:18:45.480 --> 00:18:48.319 almost entirely detached, single -family cottages. 00:18:48.720 --> 00:18:50.720 That's pretty unique. Usually when you say public 00:18:50.720 --> 00:18:54.019 housing, you think apartments. Not there. Not 00:18:54.019 --> 00:18:57.140 then. The cultural ideal in New Zealand was the 00:18:57.140 --> 00:18:59.960 quarter acre dream. Every man deserves his castle 00:18:59.960 --> 00:19:02.460 and a bit of lawn. So the state tried to provide 00:19:02.460 --> 00:19:04.539 that. They built really high quality bungalows. 00:19:04.559 --> 00:19:06.420 In fact, they were often better built and had 00:19:06.420 --> 00:19:08.480 more modern amenities than the private houses 00:19:08.480 --> 00:19:10.539 of the time. OK, so we've got the history. We've 00:19:10.539 --> 00:19:13.319 got the architectural philosophies from the machine 00:19:13.319 --> 00:19:15.720 for living to the quarter acre dream. Now, I 00:19:15.720 --> 00:19:18.309 want to take this global tour. Because, as we 00:19:18.309 --> 00:19:21.130 said in the intro, the outcomes of these experiments 00:19:21.130 --> 00:19:23.130 have just been wildly different. We're going 00:19:23.130 --> 00:19:25.369 to see some distinct models emerge, what you 00:19:25.369 --> 00:19:27.549 could call the universal model, the crisis model, 00:19:27.710 --> 00:19:29.890 and the safety net model. And I want to start 00:19:29.890 --> 00:19:31.930 with the gold standard that everyone talks about, 00:19:32.029 --> 00:19:36.029 the one that urban planners drool over. Singapore. 00:19:36.450 --> 00:19:38.690 Singapore is the case study that just breaks 00:19:38.690 --> 00:19:41.509 all the Western stereotypes of public housing. 00:19:42.029 --> 00:19:44.349 We mentioned that 90 percent homeownership rate 00:19:44.349 --> 00:19:46.589 earlier, but I want to dig into that. How does 00:19:46.589 --> 00:19:49.809 that even work? If it's public housing, how do 00:19:49.809 --> 00:19:52.170 you own it? It's managed by the Housing and Development 00:19:52.170 --> 00:19:55.950 Board or HDB. They build the flats and we're 00:19:55.950 --> 00:19:58.509 talking high density, high rise towers, very 00:19:58.509 --> 00:20:01.529 modern, very clean. But instead of renting them 00:20:01.529 --> 00:20:05.170 out for life. They sell them to citizens on 99 00:20:05.170 --> 00:20:07.970 -year leases. So you buy a 99 -year lease from 00:20:07.970 --> 00:20:10.490 the government. Yes. And because the government 00:20:10.490 --> 00:20:13.230 controls the land and the construction, they 00:20:13.230 --> 00:20:15.710 can subsidize the initial sale price heavily 00:20:15.710 --> 00:20:18.609 for first -time buyers. It acts as an asset. 00:20:18.789 --> 00:20:20.789 You can live in it. You can sell it on the open 00:20:20.789 --> 00:20:22.710 market after a certain period. You make a profit. 00:20:22.849 --> 00:20:24.589 And make a profit. Or you can downgrade to a 00:20:24.589 --> 00:20:26.869 smaller flat when you retire and cash out the 00:20:26.869 --> 00:20:29.480 difference for your pension. So the public housing 00:20:29.480 --> 00:20:32.380 system is actually a wealth generation engine 00:20:32.380 --> 00:20:35.519 for the population. Exactly. It forces savings. 00:20:35.960 --> 00:20:38.660 Every month, a portion of your salary goes into 00:20:38.660 --> 00:20:40.759 a central provident fund, a sort of national 00:20:40.759 --> 00:20:43.200 savings account, and you use that to pay your 00:20:43.200 --> 00:20:45.579 mortgage. But here's the key question for me. 00:20:45.819 --> 00:20:49.980 Is it just for the poor? No. And that is the 00:20:49.980 --> 00:20:53.059 secret sauce. Public housing in Singapore ranges 00:20:53.059 --> 00:20:56.339 from small studio units all the way up to what 00:20:56.339 --> 00:21:00.000 they call executive condominiums. Executive condominiums. 00:21:00.059 --> 00:21:02.130 That sounds fancy. They are. They have swimming 00:21:02.130 --> 00:21:04.849 pools, gyms, tennis courts, all the amenities 00:21:04.849 --> 00:21:07.529 you'd find in private luxury developments. Because 00:21:07.529 --> 00:21:10.190 the system is universal or near universal, there 00:21:10.190 --> 00:21:13.250 is absolutely no stigma. Right. Living in an 00:21:13.250 --> 00:21:15.529 HDB flat doesn't mean you failed. It means you 00:21:15.529 --> 00:21:17.930 live in Singapore. That's the aha moment for 00:21:17.930 --> 00:21:19.609 me. If everyone lives in public housing, then 00:21:19.609 --> 00:21:21.950 public housing just because housing, the adjective 00:21:21.950 --> 00:21:24.710 disappears. It de -stigmatizes the safety net 00:21:24.710 --> 00:21:27.519 by making the safety net the entire floor. And 00:21:27.519 --> 00:21:29.579 it allows for some pretty direct social integration. 00:21:30.019 --> 00:21:32.700 The government actually has quotas, the ethnic 00:21:32.700 --> 00:21:34.819 integration policy. They ensure that different 00:21:34.819 --> 00:21:37.839 ethnic groups, Chinese, Malay, Indian, are mixed 00:21:37.839 --> 00:21:39.839 within the blocks to prevent ethnic enclaves 00:21:39.839 --> 00:21:42.839 from forming. That is social engineering in its 00:21:42.839 --> 00:21:45.559 most direct form. you will live together. And 00:21:45.559 --> 00:21:48.539 largely, it has worked to create social cohesion 00:21:48.539 --> 00:21:51.279 in a very diverse nation. Okay, now let's hop 00:21:51.279 --> 00:21:54.640 over to Hong Kong, also high density, also a 00:21:54.640 --> 00:21:57.099 huge public housing sector. Yes, nearly half 00:21:57.099 --> 00:21:59.960 the population in Hong Kong lives in public housing, 00:22:00.039 --> 00:22:02.900 either rental or through various ownership schemes. 00:22:03.220 --> 00:22:06.079 But the origin story here is very specific. It 00:22:06.079 --> 00:22:08.660 wasn't a planned top -down vision like Singapore. 00:22:08.900 --> 00:22:11.880 It was a disaster. The fire. The Shek Kip May 00:22:11.880 --> 00:22:14.829 fire of 1953. happened there? Well, you have 00:22:14.829 --> 00:22:17.609 to imagine 1953 Hong Kong. You had this massive 00:22:17.609 --> 00:22:20.150 influx of refugees from mainland China after 00:22:20.150 --> 00:22:22.430 the communist revolution. They were living in 00:22:22.430 --> 00:22:24.809 squatter settlements, these incredibly dense 00:22:24.809 --> 00:22:27.569 shanty towns of wooden shacks built on the hillsides. 00:22:27.670 --> 00:22:30.670 Very dangerous. Bitter boxes. Literally. On Christmas 00:22:30.670 --> 00:22:34.089 night 1953, a fire swept through the Shek Kip 00:22:34.089 --> 00:22:37.109 May settlement and left 50 ,000 people homeless 00:22:37.109 --> 00:22:40.589 overnight. 50 ,000 in one night. That's a small 00:22:40.589 --> 00:22:43.509 city. Overnight. The British colonial government 00:22:43.509 --> 00:22:45.809 realized they couldn't just leave 50 ,000 people 00:22:45.809 --> 00:22:47.630 on the street. It was a crisis response. They 00:22:47.630 --> 00:22:50.849 had to act. So they built these massive resettlement 00:22:50.849 --> 00:22:53.210 estates, and they built them fast. What did these 00:22:53.210 --> 00:22:55.410 first buildings look like? They were incredibly 00:22:55.410 --> 00:22:57.910 basic. They were called the Mark I buildings. 00:22:58.450 --> 00:23:02.210 Seven -story, H -shaped blocks. No elevators. 00:23:02.390 --> 00:23:05.690 No private bathrooms. You had communal latrines 00:23:05.690 --> 00:23:07.950 and washing areas down the hall. Families of 00:23:07.950 --> 00:23:10.509 five or six people lived in tiny cubicles, maybe 00:23:10.509 --> 00:23:13.240 120 square feet. So it was just shelter, bare 00:23:13.240 --> 00:23:15.519 bones survival. It was survival. But from that 00:23:15.519 --> 00:23:18.180 crisis, the program grew and evolved. Today, 00:23:18.420 --> 00:23:20.900 Hong Kong public housing is much more sophisticated, 00:23:21.200 --> 00:23:23.980 but it remains a crucial lifeline in one of the 00:23:23.980 --> 00:23:26.160 most expensive real estate markets on earth. 00:23:26.680 --> 00:23:28.940 Without it, the city would completely collapse. 00:23:29.339 --> 00:23:32.299 So Singapore was a planned nation building exercise 00:23:32.299 --> 00:23:35.380 and Hong Kong was a crisis response that became 00:23:35.380 --> 00:23:38.359 permanent. In many ways, yes. Now. Yeah. We have 00:23:38.359 --> 00:23:41.019 to talk about the United States, KC, the safety 00:23:41.019 --> 00:23:43.720 net model. And the stigma model. Why is it so 00:23:43.720 --> 00:23:46.920 different? Why didn't we get HDBs in Chicago 00:23:46.920 --> 00:23:50.400 or New York? Why did public housing in the U 00:23:50.400 --> 00:23:53.759 .S. become so synonymous with failure? It comes 00:23:53.759 --> 00:23:56.019 down to a fundamental philosophical difference. 00:23:56.319 --> 00:23:59.059 In Singapore, housing is seen as infrastructure, 00:23:59.299 --> 00:24:02.400 like a road or a power grid. In the U .S., housing 00:24:02.400 --> 00:24:04.740 is seen as a commodity. And commodities are for 00:24:04.740 --> 00:24:07.750 selling. For profit. Exactly. And this is where 00:24:07.750 --> 00:24:10.250 the lobbying comes in. We talked about how early 00:24:10.250 --> 00:24:12.849 U .S. projects were for the working class. But 00:24:12.849 --> 00:24:14.970 the private real estate builders and lobbyists, 00:24:15.089 --> 00:24:17.609 the National Association of Real Estate Boards, 00:24:17.690 --> 00:24:20.069 were terrified of the government competing with 00:24:20.069 --> 00:24:21.930 them. They didn't want the government building 00:24:21.930 --> 00:24:23.990 nice houses for the middle class because then 00:24:23.990 --> 00:24:26.049 who would buy their houses? Precisely. Don't 00:24:26.049 --> 00:24:29.569 steal our customers. So they lobbied Congress 00:24:29.569 --> 00:24:32.029 hard to ensure that public housing was legally 00:24:32.029 --> 00:24:34.799 restricted to the poorest of the poor. to make 00:24:34.799 --> 00:24:37.220 sure it was only a safety net, not a competitor. 00:24:37.420 --> 00:24:39.799 So they basically engineered the failure from 00:24:39.799 --> 00:24:42.420 the start. In a way, yes. And then there's the 00:24:42.420 --> 00:24:45.359 not in my backyard aspect. White communities, 00:24:45.440 --> 00:24:48.319 especially in the suburbs, systematically blocked 00:24:48.319 --> 00:24:50.720 public housing from being built in their neighborhoods. 00:24:50.980 --> 00:24:53.740 So public housing was forced into already low 00:24:53.740 --> 00:24:57.019 income areas, often designated as slum clearance 00:24:57.019 --> 00:25:00.359 zones, which usually meant. bulldozing existing 00:25:00.359 --> 00:25:03.119 black neighborhoods. So you concentrate the poorest 00:25:03.119 --> 00:25:05.759 people in the poorest areas and then over time 00:25:05.759 --> 00:25:08.599 you cut off the funding for maintenance. Precisely. 00:25:08.619 --> 00:25:11.650 And we can't ignore the racial component. As 00:25:11.650 --> 00:25:13.470 the white working class moved to the suburbs 00:25:13.470 --> 00:25:16.369 after World War II, aided by government -backed 00:25:16.369 --> 00:25:19.390 mortgages that were often explicitly denied to 00:25:19.390 --> 00:25:21.890 black families through redlining, the demographics 00:25:21.890 --> 00:25:24.990 of public housing shifted dramatically. It became 00:25:24.990 --> 00:25:27.509 predominantly inhabited by impoverished single 00:25:27.509 --> 00:25:29.250 -parent households and communities of color. 00:25:29.410 --> 00:25:31.490 And then the narrative kicks in. The projects. 00:25:31.750 --> 00:25:34.589 Right. The narrative of crime, drugs and failure. 00:25:34.710 --> 00:25:37.349 And it became a self -fulfilling prophecy because 00:25:37.349 --> 00:25:39.950 when you concentrate poverty and remove opportunity, 00:25:40.269 --> 00:25:43.470 social problems explode, which then led to these 00:25:43.470 --> 00:25:46.230 punitive policy responses like the one strike 00:25:46.230 --> 00:25:49.650 your outlaw in 1996. This is the Clinton era 00:25:49.650 --> 00:25:53.349 law, part of the big crime bill. Yes. It enabled 00:25:53.349 --> 00:25:56.430 housing authorities to evict an entire family 00:25:56.430 --> 00:25:59.029 for criminal activity, even if you were just 00:25:59.029 --> 00:26:01.980 tried. not convicted, even if it was a family 00:26:01.980 --> 00:26:04.539 member or a guest who committed the crime, not 00:26:04.539 --> 00:26:06.440 the tenant themselves. Wait, work me through 00:26:06.440 --> 00:26:08.839 that. If I'm a grandmother living in public housing 00:26:08.839 --> 00:26:11.339 and my grandson comes to visit and gets caught 00:26:11.339 --> 00:26:13.960 with drugs outside the building. You can be evicted. 00:26:14.079 --> 00:26:16.519 The whole family can lose their apartment. That 00:26:16.519 --> 00:26:19.160 is incredibly harsh. It increased the policing 00:26:19.160 --> 00:26:21.960 and surveillance of these communities. It turned 00:26:21.960 --> 00:26:24.740 housing complexes into quasi -penal environments. 00:26:25.599 --> 00:26:27.200 You aren't really a resident. You're a suspect. 00:26:27.460 --> 00:26:30.460 And then came the demolitions, the Hope Six program. 00:26:30.900 --> 00:26:33.160 Hope Six is one of the most controversial chapters 00:26:33.160 --> 00:26:36.400 in this story. It started in 1993. The stated 00:26:36.400 --> 00:26:39.380 goal was revitalization. Let's tear down these 00:26:39.380 --> 00:26:41.880 crumbling superblocks like Cabrini -Green and 00:26:41.880 --> 00:26:45.200 build nice new mixed income communities. It sounds 00:26:45.200 --> 00:26:47.579 good on paper. But there's always a but. The 00:26:47.579 --> 00:26:50.279 big but was that they repealed the one for one 00:26:50.279 --> 00:26:52.700 replacement rule. OK, explain that. The rule 00:26:52.700 --> 00:26:55.730 used to be. If you demolish one public housing 00:26:55.730 --> 00:26:58.809 unit, you must build one new one to replace it, 00:26:58.869 --> 00:27:01.529 to keep the total number of affordable units 00:27:01.529 --> 00:27:05.309 stable. Hope Six got rid of that. They argued 00:27:05.309 --> 00:27:07.750 that the old buildings were too dense, so they 00:27:07.750 --> 00:27:10.230 demolished high -density towers and built lower 00:27:10.230 --> 00:27:13.190 -density townhouses. Which means, just simple 00:27:13.190 --> 00:27:17.670 math, fewer units. Exactly. The result was that 00:27:17.670 --> 00:27:20.130 far more units were demolished than were built. 00:27:20.559 --> 00:27:22.740 This led to the mass displacement of residents. 00:27:23.180 --> 00:27:25.599 The people who lived in the towers often couldn't 00:27:25.599 --> 00:27:28.400 afford or didn't qualify for the new mixed -income 00:27:28.400 --> 00:27:31.279 units, so they were pushed out, often given vouchers, 00:27:31.380 --> 00:27:33.579 and sent into the private market to fend for 00:27:33.579 --> 00:27:36.039 themselves. It sounds like revitalization was 00:27:36.039 --> 00:27:38.980 just code for removal. For many critics, yes. 00:27:39.200 --> 00:27:41.859 It was about dispersing poverty and reclaiming 00:27:41.859 --> 00:27:44.460 a valuable inner -city land rather than actually 00:27:44.460 --> 00:27:46.259 solving the problem of housing for the poor. 00:27:46.519 --> 00:27:48.259 Okay, let's look for a bright spot before I get 00:27:48.259 --> 00:27:50.660 too depressed. Let's go to Finland. because they 00:27:50.660 --> 00:27:52.740 seem to have a policy that is actually working. 00:27:52.900 --> 00:27:55.000 Finland is a fascinating counterexample. They 00:27:55.000 --> 00:27:57.319 adopted a housing first policy. Housing first. 00:27:57.440 --> 00:27:59.880 What does that imply? In many countries, the 00:27:59.880 --> 00:28:02.740 model is what you'd call the staircase. To get 00:28:02.740 --> 00:28:05.680 public housing or shelter, you have to jump through 00:28:05.680 --> 00:28:08.039 all these hoops. You have to be sober. You have 00:28:08.039 --> 00:28:09.599 to be in a treatment program. You have to have 00:28:09.599 --> 00:28:12.299 a job. You have to earn the housing. Right. Fix 00:28:12.299 --> 00:28:13.839 yourself, then we'll give you a room. Finland 00:28:13.839 --> 00:28:16.160 flipped it completely. They said you can't fix 00:28:16.160 --> 00:28:18.539 yourself if you're sleeping under a bridge. It's 00:28:18.539 --> 00:28:20.880 impossible to treat addiction or mental health 00:28:20.880 --> 00:28:22.539 issues when you don't know where you're sleeping 00:28:22.539 --> 00:28:25.579 tonight. So they give you the key first, no questions 00:28:25.579 --> 00:28:28.460 asked. The priority is unconditional permanent 00:28:28.460 --> 00:28:31.500 housing. You get the key to a small, self -contained 00:28:31.500 --> 00:28:35.680 apartment, no conditions on sobriety. Then, once 00:28:35.680 --> 00:28:38.720 you are housed and stable, the sports services 00:28:38.720 --> 00:28:41.599 health, addiction treatment, job counseling come 00:28:41.599 --> 00:28:44.470 to you. And the results. Homelessness in Finland 00:28:44.470 --> 00:28:48.990 reduced by 35 % between 2008 and 2019. It is 00:28:48.990 --> 00:28:51.150 one of the only countries in Europe where homelessness 00:28:51.150 --> 00:28:54.650 is significantly going down. And they found it's 00:28:54.650 --> 00:28:57.579 actually cheaper. Cheaper. It costs less to provide 00:28:57.579 --> 00:28:59.779 someone with an apartment and support services 00:28:59.779 --> 00:29:02.000 than it does to pay for the repeated emergency 00:29:02.000 --> 00:29:04.940 room visits, police interventions and jail stays 00:29:04.940 --> 00:29:07.420 that come with chronic homelessness. That is 00:29:07.420 --> 00:29:09.779 incredible. It just challenges that whole puritanical 00:29:09.779 --> 00:29:12.700 idea that you have to deserve help. It just says 00:29:12.700 --> 00:29:16.140 housing is a prerequisite for functioning. Correct. 00:29:16.299 --> 00:29:19.700 It treats housing as infrastructure for human 00:29:19.700 --> 00:29:22.890 life. Not a reward for good behavior. I love 00:29:22.890 --> 00:29:25.490 that. Infrastructure for human life. Now, we've 00:29:25.490 --> 00:29:28.549 done the big global heavy hitters, but I want 00:29:28.549 --> 00:29:31.250 to zoom in on some regional textures because 00:29:31.250 --> 00:29:33.990 the devil is always in the details. Let's talk 00:29:33.990 --> 00:29:36.690 about South Africa. South Africa is such a unique 00:29:36.690 --> 00:29:39.309 case because they are dealing with the specific 00:29:39.309 --> 00:29:42.150 brutal legacy of apartheid. Where the National 00:29:42.150 --> 00:29:45.200 Party only built for whites. Correct. For 40 00:29:45.200 --> 00:29:47.619 years, the state actively prevented non -white 00:29:47.619 --> 00:29:49.900 residents from having adequate housing. They 00:29:49.900 --> 00:29:51.799 were forced into townships on the edge of cities. 00:29:52.000 --> 00:29:55.099 So when the ANC took over in 1994, they had this 00:29:55.099 --> 00:29:57.900 massive structural backlog. But they also have 00:29:57.900 --> 00:30:00.180 a constitution that explicitly guarantees the 00:30:00.180 --> 00:30:02.400 right to housing, right? They do. Section 26 00:30:02.400 --> 00:30:05.240 of their constitution. It says everyone has the 00:30:05.240 --> 00:30:07.880 right to have access to adequate housing. And 00:30:07.880 --> 00:30:09.980 to their credit, the post -apartheid government 00:30:09.980 --> 00:30:13.660 launched these huge programs, the RDP, the Reconstruction. 00:30:13.839 --> 00:30:17.640 development program and later breaking new ground. 00:30:17.799 --> 00:30:20.079 I've seen photos of the RDP houses. They're these 00:30:20.079 --> 00:30:22.859 small standalone brick houses. They built over 00:30:22.859 --> 00:30:24.960 three and a half million of them. It's a huge 00:30:24.960 --> 00:30:28.640 achievement in terms of raw numbers. 3 .5 million. 00:30:28.799 --> 00:30:31.940 That is massive. It is. But there's always a 00:30:31.940 --> 00:30:34.099 but. The main criticism has been about location. 00:30:34.500 --> 00:30:37.420 Location, location, location. Exactly. Land in 00:30:37.420 --> 00:30:39.799 the city centers, near the jobs, near the businesses, 00:30:39.920 --> 00:30:43.319 is incredibly expensive. So to build 3 .5 million 00:30:43.319 --> 00:30:45.720 homes cheaply, the government bought cheap land 00:30:45.720 --> 00:30:48.420 on the periphery, far, far from the city. So 00:30:48.420 --> 00:30:50.299 you get a house, but you have a three -hour commute 00:30:50.299 --> 00:30:52.640 on a crowded minibus taxi to get to work. If 00:30:52.640 --> 00:30:55.619 you can even afford the fare, it reinforces the 00:30:55.619 --> 00:30:57.839 spatial segregation of apartheid, even if the 00:30:57.839 --> 00:31:00.059 intent is totally different. You own the house, 00:31:00.119 --> 00:31:02.200 but you're still excluded from the formal economy. 00:31:02.700 --> 00:31:04.400 But we should also note South Africa provides 00:31:04.400 --> 00:31:08.339 free basic services to the poor. Right. The first 00:31:08.339 --> 00:31:11.279 six kiloliters of water and 50 kilowatt hours 00:31:11.279 --> 00:31:14.539 of electricity per month are free for indigent 00:31:14.539 --> 00:31:17.180 households. That's a really specific, tangible 00:31:17.180 --> 00:31:20.220 safety net. It is. It acknowledges that having 00:31:20.220 --> 00:31:22.380 a house is useless if you can't afford to turn 00:31:22.380 --> 00:31:24.759 the lights on or have running water. What about 00:31:24.759 --> 00:31:27.400 Brazil? I feel like I've heard a similar story 00:31:27.400 --> 00:31:29.680 there with the location problem. Very similar. 00:31:29.779 --> 00:31:32.119 The program is called Minha Casa Minha Vida. 00:31:32.569 --> 00:31:36.710 My House, My Life, launched in 2009. Billions 00:31:36.710 --> 00:31:39.410 of dollars, millions of homes, but again, heavily 00:31:39.410 --> 00:31:41.569 criticized for being built in these massive, 00:31:41.630 --> 00:31:44.569 isolated developments far from city centers with 00:31:44.569 --> 00:31:47.069 poor infrastructure. It seems like we keep running 00:31:47.069 --> 00:31:50.069 into this problem. We can build the box, but 00:31:50.069 --> 00:31:52.009 we can't seem to put the box in the right place. 00:31:52.130 --> 00:31:54.329 Because the right place is expensive. And unless 00:31:54.329 --> 00:31:56.009 the government is willing to fight the market 00:31:56.009 --> 00:31:58.970 for that land like Singapore does, the poor get 00:31:58.970 --> 00:32:01.450 pushed to the edge. Okay, let's swing back to 00:32:01.450 --> 00:32:04.130 Europe for a moment. Vienna. You mentioned Red 00:32:04.130 --> 00:32:06.589 Vienna earlier. This seems to be a cult favorite 00:32:06.589 --> 00:32:09.589 among urban planners. Oh, urban planners absolutely 00:32:09.589 --> 00:32:13.410 love Vienna. And for good reason. The Gemeindebau. 00:32:13.920 --> 00:32:16.759 These are the large residential complexes built 00:32:16.759 --> 00:32:18.900 by the Social Democratic Party starting in the 00:32:18.900 --> 00:32:21.660 1920s. Places like the Karl Marxhof. Right. Karl 00:32:21.660 --> 00:32:24.160 Marxhof is enormous. It's over a kilometer long. 00:32:24.480 --> 00:32:26.460 But what's interesting is that these aren't just 00:32:26.460 --> 00:32:29.519 projects. They are culturally significant monuments. 00:32:30.000 --> 00:32:33.359 They have statues, arches, beautiful courtyards. 00:32:33.500 --> 00:32:35.299 They don't look cheap. No. They were designed 00:32:35.299 --> 00:32:38.500 to be palaces for the workers. They had kindergartens, 00:32:38.500 --> 00:32:41.200 laundries, libraries, and clinics built right 00:32:41.200 --> 00:32:43.829 into the complex. The idea was... to elevate 00:32:43.829 --> 00:32:46.150 the status of the worker, to give them dignity. 00:32:46.430 --> 00:32:48.990 And because of that quality in history, I assume 00:32:48.990 --> 00:32:51.289 the stigma is different. There is very little 00:32:51.289 --> 00:32:53.869 stigma. About 60 % of Vienna's population lives 00:32:53.869 --> 00:32:56.190 in subsidized housing of some kind. Middle class 00:32:56.190 --> 00:32:58.710 people live there, doctors, artists. It's just 00:32:58.710 --> 00:33:01.410 a normal, even desirable place to be. It proves 00:33:01.410 --> 00:33:03.250 that public housing doesn't have to be ugly or 00:33:03.250 --> 00:33:07.630 austere. It's a choice. And finally, Japan. We 00:33:07.630 --> 00:33:09.829 talked about the Danchi in the outline. The Danchi. 00:33:10.660 --> 00:33:13.319 These are large clusters of apartment buildings 00:33:13.319 --> 00:33:15.839 built in the 50s and 60s during Japan's post 00:33:15.839 --> 00:33:18.960 -war economic boom. What's fascinating here is 00:33:18.960 --> 00:33:21.559 the cultural shift they enabled. Before the war, 00:33:21.700 --> 00:33:24.339 Japan was largely multi -generational households. 00:33:24.720 --> 00:33:26.579 Everyone living with grandma and grandpa in a 00:33:26.579 --> 00:33:30.000 traditional, often wooden house. Right. The Donshi 00:33:30.000 --> 00:33:32.940 introduced the salaryman lifestyle, the nuclear 00:33:32.940 --> 00:33:37.059 family, mom, dad, two kids, in a modern apartment 00:33:37.059 --> 00:33:39.160 with a dining kitchen, a gas stove, refrigerator. 00:33:39.500 --> 00:33:42.319 It literally reshaped the Japanese family structure. 00:33:42.680 --> 00:33:45.559 And a unique feature I saw in the notes, no key 00:33:45.559 --> 00:33:48.339 money. Yes. If you've ever tried to rent in Japan, 00:33:48.480 --> 00:33:51.210 you know about key money. It's a mandatory gift 00:33:51.210 --> 00:33:53.529 to the landlord, often two months rent that you 00:33:53.529 --> 00:33:56.210 never get back, plus renewal fees every two years. 00:33:56.329 --> 00:33:59.230 That sounds painful. It is. But the U .R. or 00:33:59.230 --> 00:34:01.470 urban renaissance public housing doesn't charge 00:34:01.470 --> 00:34:03.950 key money and doesn't charge renewal fees. So 00:34:03.950 --> 00:34:06.029 for many people, it's a huge financial relief. 00:34:06.170 --> 00:34:08.409 It sets a standard that keeps the private market 00:34:08.409 --> 00:34:10.829 in check to some degree. OK, so we've done the 00:34:10.829 --> 00:34:12.889 tour. We've seen the palaces of Vienna and the 00:34:12.889 --> 00:34:16.150 high rises of Singapore. But now we have to talk 00:34:16.150 --> 00:34:19.090 about the shift. Because since the 1970s and 00:34:19.090 --> 00:34:23.030 80s, the vibe has changed. We move from the heroic 00:34:23.030 --> 00:34:27.809 era of building massive projects to, well, something 00:34:27.809 --> 00:34:30.349 else entirely, the neoliberal turn. Unpack that 00:34:30.349 --> 00:34:32.809 for us. What does that mean in terms of housing? 00:34:33.349 --> 00:34:36.309 Essentially, governments in the West, particularly 00:34:36.309 --> 00:34:39.309 the US and UK, started saying, maybe the state 00:34:39.309 --> 00:34:41.289 shouldn't be the landlord. Maybe the market can 00:34:41.289 --> 00:34:43.909 do this better. They moved away from building 00:34:43.909 --> 00:34:47.190 public housing to subsidizing private rentals. 00:34:47.289 --> 00:34:49.849 And this gives us the voucher system in the U 00:34:49.849 --> 00:34:52.969 .S., Section 8. Correct. It's tenant -based assistance. 00:34:53.250 --> 00:34:55.469 Instead of the government building a tower and 00:34:55.469 --> 00:34:57.070 putting you in it, they give you a voucher that 00:34:57.070 --> 00:34:58.929 pays for a chunk of your rent in the private 00:34:58.929 --> 00:35:01.750 market. And the theory is choice. The theory 00:35:01.750 --> 00:35:04.289 is you can take that voucher and move anywhere. 00:35:04.489 --> 00:35:06.190 You can leave the poor neighborhood and move 00:35:06.190 --> 00:35:08.670 to the suburbs, get your kids into better schools. 00:35:09.010 --> 00:35:11.699 That's the theory. In reality... It's much more 00:35:11.699 --> 00:35:14.639 complicated. First, there's a huge supply problem. 00:35:14.940 --> 00:35:17.059 There are massive wait times for these vouchers. 00:35:17.280 --> 00:35:20.179 In some cities, the wait list is closed for years. 00:35:20.320 --> 00:35:22.320 You literally can't even get on the list. And 00:35:22.320 --> 00:35:23.760 if you're one of the lucky ones who gets one. 00:35:24.079 --> 00:35:27.780 Then you face landlord acceptance. In many places, 00:35:27.980 --> 00:35:31.199 landlords simply refuse to accept vouchers. They'll 00:35:31.199 --> 00:35:33.159 find some other reason to deny your application. 00:35:33.679 --> 00:35:36.280 Or the vouchers don't cover enough rent to get 00:35:36.280 --> 00:35:38.539 you into a good neighborhood anyway. So you have 00:35:38.539 --> 00:35:40.829 a ticket to a better life. but no one will take 00:35:40.829 --> 00:35:43.670 it. Exactly. So people end up using the vouchers 00:35:43.670 --> 00:35:45.670 in the same poor neighborhoods they were trying 00:35:45.670 --> 00:35:48.510 to leave. And many studies have shown that residents 00:35:48.510 --> 00:35:51.429 actually prefer to stay near their support systems, 00:35:51.630 --> 00:35:54.010 their families, their churches, which are often 00:35:54.010 --> 00:35:56.510 in those neighborhoods. So the voucher program 00:35:56.510 --> 00:35:58.969 often fails to create the social and economic 00:35:58.969 --> 00:36:02.250 integration it promised. And in the UK, this 00:36:02.250 --> 00:36:05.289 shift took a different form. The right to buy. 00:36:05.429 --> 00:36:07.250 This was the Margaret Thatcher era revolution. 00:36:07.610 --> 00:36:09.889 The government allowed council tenants to buy 00:36:09.889 --> 00:36:12.289 their homes at a significant discount. Which, 00:36:12.329 --> 00:36:14.590 on the surface, sounds like a great deal for 00:36:14.590 --> 00:36:17.250 the tenant. Hey, you can own this house you've 00:36:17.250 --> 00:36:19.429 been renting for 50 % off. For that generation 00:36:19.429 --> 00:36:21.730 of tenants, it was the deal of a lifetime. It 00:36:21.730 --> 00:36:23.969 created a huge wave of working class homeowners. 00:36:24.170 --> 00:36:26.190 It was a political masterstroke. It bought a 00:36:26.190 --> 00:36:28.869 lot of loyalty. But here comes the long -term 00:36:28.869 --> 00:36:30.849 hangover. The councils were often restricted 00:36:30.849 --> 00:36:32.849 from using the money they got from the sales 00:36:32.849 --> 00:36:36.349 to build new social housing. So you sold off 00:36:36.349 --> 00:36:39.389 the best stock. the nice houses with gardens, 00:36:39.630 --> 00:36:41.849 and you didn't replace them. So the total stock 00:36:41.849 --> 00:36:44.170 of affordable housing just shrinks and shrinks. 00:36:44.489 --> 00:36:46.969 Drastically. And the remaining stock is the stuff 00:36:46.969 --> 00:36:49.309 no one wanted to buy, the difficult to maintain 00:36:49.309 --> 00:36:53.269 tower blocks. So social housing became even more 00:36:53.269 --> 00:36:55.869 residualized, more concentrated with the most 00:36:55.869 --> 00:36:58.130 vulnerable people. And I've heard that many of 00:36:58.130 --> 00:37:00.510 those homes that were sold off are now back on 00:37:00.510 --> 00:37:03.320 the rental market. That's the cruel irony. Something 00:37:03.320 --> 00:37:06.219 like 40 % of ex -council flats in London are 00:37:06.219 --> 00:37:08.320 now owned by private landlords who rent them 00:37:08.320 --> 00:37:11.519 out at full market rates, often back to the local 00:37:11.519 --> 00:37:13.980 council who has to pay that market rate to house 00:37:13.980 --> 00:37:16.420 homeless families. So the state sold the house 00:37:16.420 --> 00:37:18.730 cheap? And now rent it back expensive. That's 00:37:18.730 --> 00:37:21.670 madness. It's a massive drain on the public purse 00:37:21.670 --> 00:37:24.289 now. It was a short -term asset transfer that 00:37:24.289 --> 00:37:27.050 created a huge long -term liability. And we're 00:37:27.050 --> 00:37:28.989 seeing similar privatization trends in Eastern 00:37:28.989 --> 00:37:32.050 Europe too, right? Yes. After the fall of communism, 00:37:32.190 --> 00:37:34.710 countries like Romania privatized everything. 00:37:35.329 --> 00:37:39.489 Home ownership hit 99 .9%. Which sounds like 00:37:39.489 --> 00:37:41.909 a statistic from a utopia. Everyone owns a home. 00:37:42.170 --> 00:37:44.590 But it's a trap because you have low -income 00:37:44.590 --> 00:37:47.110 owners living in these aging concrete blocks. 00:37:48.059 --> 00:37:50.760 Those blocks built in the 60s and 70s that need 00:37:50.760 --> 00:37:54.219 massive repairs, new roofs, elevators, insulation. 00:37:54.760 --> 00:37:56.280 And if everyone in the building is low income, 00:37:56.400 --> 00:37:59.039 nobody can afford to fix the roof. Exactly. The 00:37:59.039 --> 00:38:01.760 homeowner associations are either dysfunctional 00:38:01.760 --> 00:38:04.219 or broke. So you have a crumbling infrastructure 00:38:04.219 --> 00:38:06.860 that no one has the money or the will to fix. 00:38:07.019 --> 00:38:09.699 It's privatization without the capital to maintain 00:38:09.699 --> 00:38:12.139 the assets. And then there's the modern phenomenon 00:38:12.139 --> 00:38:15.679 of gentrification and this idea of social mix. 00:38:15.840 --> 00:38:17.619 We talked about hopes, but this is. happening 00:38:17.619 --> 00:38:20.219 in Europe too. France is an interesting battleground 00:38:20.219 --> 00:38:24.199 here. They have a law, the SRU law, that requires 00:38:24.199 --> 00:38:27.980 towns to have 20%, now raised to 25 % in some 00:38:27.980 --> 00:38:32.280 areas, of social housing to force a social mix. 00:38:32.519 --> 00:38:35.519 So rich towns are legally required to build housing 00:38:35.519 --> 00:38:39.019 for poorer people. That's the mandate. Many resist 00:38:39.019 --> 00:38:42.039 it. They choose to pay fines instead. But the 00:38:42.039 --> 00:38:45.400 goal is to break up the ghettos. However, in 00:38:45.400 --> 00:38:48.539 the UK, this drive for mixed developments has 00:38:48.539 --> 00:38:51.579 led to the infamous poor doors. Oh God, the poor 00:38:51.579 --> 00:38:54.119 doors. Explain this concept because it sounds 00:38:54.119 --> 00:38:56.320 like something from a dystopian novel. It happens 00:38:56.320 --> 00:38:58.840 when a private developer builds a luxury condo, 00:38:58.840 --> 00:39:01.320 but to get planning permission, the city forces 00:39:01.320 --> 00:39:03.280 them to include some affordable units in the 00:39:03.280 --> 00:39:05.309 same building. Okay. That sounds good so far. 00:39:05.429 --> 00:39:07.230 But the developer doesn't want the affordable 00:39:07.230 --> 00:39:09.849 tenants mixing with the luxury tenants. So they 00:39:09.849 --> 00:39:11.849 build a separate entrance, usually around the 00:39:11.849 --> 00:39:13.650 back near the garbage bins. So you live in the 00:39:13.650 --> 00:39:15.610 same building, but you can't use the marble lobby. 00:39:15.769 --> 00:39:18.250 You can't use the lobby. You can't use the concierge. 00:39:18.250 --> 00:39:20.789 You can't use the gym. Even if the gym is literally 00:39:20.789 --> 00:39:24.050 on your floor, your key fob won't open the door. 00:39:24.269 --> 00:39:26.769 It's structural segregation. It's an architectural 00:39:26.769 --> 00:39:29.369 wall inside the building. It is. It highlights 00:39:29.369 --> 00:39:32.590 the stigma perfectly. You can live here. But 00:39:32.590 --> 00:39:34.989 don't pretend you're one of us. And in Vietnam, 00:39:35.170 --> 00:39:37.730 those old coup tuptail blocks we mentioned earlier, 00:39:37.929 --> 00:39:40.130 the ones from the communist era. They're becoming 00:39:40.130 --> 00:39:42.829 dilapidated. And because the land they sit on 00:39:42.829 --> 00:39:46.210 is now incredibly valuable real estate in booming 00:39:46.210 --> 00:39:49.010 cities like Hanoi, they're being targeted for 00:39:49.010 --> 00:39:51.829 demolition. The low -income residents are pushed 00:39:51.829 --> 00:39:54.090 out to make way for high -income high -rises. 00:39:54.510 --> 00:39:57.570 It's the global story of gentrification. The 00:39:57.570 --> 00:39:59.909 poor hold the land until it becomes valuable, 00:40:00.170 --> 00:40:02.679 and then they are moved. So we've gone from the 00:40:02.679 --> 00:40:05.739 fougere, where you pay rent with prayer, to the 00:40:05.739 --> 00:40:09.000 superblock, from homes for heroes to vouchers 00:40:09.000 --> 00:40:11.400 and now to poor doors. It's been quite a journey, 00:40:11.460 --> 00:40:13.199 hasn't it? So what does this all mean? When we 00:40:13.199 --> 00:40:14.800 look at this global tour, all these different 00:40:14.800 --> 00:40:17.260 systems, what's the big takeaway? I think the 00:40:17.260 --> 00:40:19.400 big takeaway is that public housing is a mirror. 00:40:19.559 --> 00:40:22.320 It reflects the government's priorities and society's 00:40:22.320 --> 00:40:25.659 values. Is housing a commodity to be traded for 00:40:25.659 --> 00:40:28.619 profit or is it a human right to be guaranteed? 00:40:29.039 --> 00:40:32.099 And if you answer right. you get the Singapore 00:40:32.099 --> 00:40:34.599 model or the Finland model. You get universality. 00:40:34.820 --> 00:40:36.579 And if you answer commodity, you get the safety 00:40:36.579 --> 00:40:39.059 net model. You get stigma. You get a system designed 00:40:39.059 --> 00:40:41.300 only for those who have failed in the market. 00:40:41.480 --> 00:40:43.659 And that stigma is just so hard to wash off. 00:40:43.739 --> 00:40:46.679 It is. And here's a final provocative thought 00:40:46.679 --> 00:40:49.519 for our listeners to chew on. Hit us. In many 00:40:49.519 --> 00:40:52.599 places like Australia and the UK, we're seeing 00:40:52.599 --> 00:40:55.000 the public stock being sold off or transferred 00:40:55.000 --> 00:40:58.079 to nonprofits just to avoid the maintenance costs. 00:40:58.420 --> 00:41:01.380 The state is trying to exit the game. But if 00:41:01.380 --> 00:41:03.320 the state steps out of the housing game entirely, 00:41:03.780 --> 00:41:07.039 what happens when the market fails the most vulnerable? 00:41:07.780 --> 00:41:10.039 We are moving toward a world where the future 00:41:10.039 --> 00:41:12.659 of public housing might be no housing at all. 00:41:12.960 --> 00:41:15.239 Just a financial transaction. A voucher that 00:41:15.239 --> 00:41:17.440 bounces. Is the future of public housing just 00:41:17.440 --> 00:41:19.960 a Venmo payment from the government that isn't 00:41:19.960 --> 00:41:22.139 enough to cover the rent? That's the danger. 00:41:22.239 --> 00:41:25.119 If housing becomes purely a financial asset, 00:41:25.380 --> 00:41:27.820 then those without assets don't just lose a home. 00:41:27.980 --> 00:41:29.840 They lose their place in the city. They lose 00:41:29.840 --> 00:41:32.440 their citizenship in a way. A sobering thought 00:41:32.440 --> 00:41:35.260 to end on. Housing isn't just walls and a roof. 00:41:35.820 --> 00:41:39.179 It's about who belongs. Precisely. Thanks for 00:41:39.179 --> 00:41:41.079 diving deep with us today. This is a big one. 00:41:41.159 --> 00:41:43.219 A foundational one. See you next time.