ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the minimum, bottom, or “floor” perspective which regards housing as a basic need. Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs encompasses five consecutive levels of need: two physical needs (physiological needs and security and safety needs) and three social needs (sense of belonging, self-esteem or ego needs, and self-actualization needs). There is a maximum, top, or “ceiling” perspective that regards the right to housing as an aspirational ideal embedded in many international human rights declarations, laws, and treaties, which, perhaps surprisingly, do not play a major role in U.S. housing policy discussions.
