Property and the right to housing

This chapter considers the relationship between the right to housing and property. After an introductory section, in which I explore the interplay of the legal and material in housing and property, I turn to a brief discussion of the justifications and effects of property rights, and of the right to housing. The fourth section then addresses the synergies and tensions between the right to housing and the right to property. In concluding, the fifth section considers the implications of searching for a synergistic reading. I argue that harmony between the right to housing and property may not, in fact, be desirable, and may result in a constrained version of the right to housing, missing its radical potential as a tool of critique of existing property relations.