NRR: Is housing truly a human right?

So you want to argue semantics because you agree that all Americans should have access to shelter. Should be a riveting thread.

Article 25 Section 1.

"Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control."

https://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/

snoreville wrote:

So you want to argue semantics because you agree that all Americans should have access to shelter. Should be a riveting thread.

I'm just saying that maybe at a basic level it should be guaranteed. Or maybe it shouldn't? I don't really know

Clearly we need shelter from trump.

"Human rights" is a construct, not an actual thing but if enough people agree that something qualifies as a human right the thing becomes one or is at least treated as such. It is common though for people advocating for a thing to call the thing a right. Personally, I'm all for thinking of housing as a basic human right and think we need to do some serious work on addressing the issue of homelessness but semantically I could not claim it as such.

There is already more than enough housing and homeless shelters. Some people just prefer to bum around on the streets regardless of the help they are offered. What we need is to remove the apparent human right to camp out in public sidewalks.

Gainful employment is a basic human requirement

Yes in a modern society shelter should be a basic right. The worse the society is the less likely this will be true. It is not far from citizens having access to clean drinking water.

The way people on the left think, anything can be a "basic human right" just because they want it to be. This is not in any way a rational position. There is no fact of nature that says anyone has a right to housing. Just where the Hell did the UN the right to declare rights? In the course of dictating "rights" like housing they injure the people who are forced to provide said free stuff. No housing isn't a right. Think about the sheer stupidity of that idea. If you get shipwrecked and stranded on a desert island, is someone violating your "basic human right" to housing? When housing didn't exist 10,000 years ago, was someone violating "basic human rights" by failing to provide heating, plumbing, etc.? Housing is something you have to trade for just like everything else produced by others. If you want to help poor people afford housing, eliminate all regulations on it, so entrepreneurs can provide it cheaply.

iflyboats wrote:

The way people on the left think, anything can be a "basic human right" just because they want it to be.

Thanks for supporting me!

Human rights shouldn't exist. They're the second biggest mistake in enlightenment history (democracy being the first)

Farmer in Chehalis, Washington wrote:

There is already more than enough housing and homeless shelters. Some people just prefer to bum around on the streets regardless of the help they are offered. What we need is to remove the apparent human right to camp out in public sidewalks.

If camping on the sidewalks is nicer than the shelters then maybe we need to rethink the quality of the shelters.

It's not only the left that claims something is a right just because they want it to be. The right loves to talk about the right to own guns. There is no such right but because an official document says there's such a right it's treated as one. The question about there being a right to this thing or that thing is just rhetoric. The real issue is whether or not your society is better off if everyone can afford a place to live, own a gun, get an abortion, drive a car, etc. If you claim any of these things as a right you feel like you have the higher moral ground in the debate and therefore the better argument.

David S wrote:

Farmer in Chehalis, Washington wrote:

There is already more than enough housing and homeless shelters. Some people just prefer to bum around on the streets regardless of the help they are offered. What we need is to remove the apparent human right to camp out in public sidewalks.

If camping on the sidewalks is nicer than the shelters then maybe we need to rethink the quality of the shelters.

Not my problem. Under no circumstance is camping out on a public sidewalk or parking lot acceptable and we shouldn't be encouraging it giving out free tents.

Weird logic. The right to own a gun isn't having the government give you a gun. It's just the ability to own a gun. Do humans have the right to defend themselves?

I'm all for allowing people to build their own homes in as less of a restrictive manner as possible, but that's a far cry from having the state create and give out housing to people.

Your rights stop when they impact other people. Every human being has the right to find a place live. No other human should be taxed or compelled to furnish a dwelling for irresponsible strangers who have gotten themselves onto the street.

Senator Clay Davis wrote:

In reading about the group of mom's who started squatting in an abandoned home in Oakland, I noticed one of them stated that "housing is a basic human right". I guess I've been lucky and have had secure housing my entire life, I even recently bought my first home, but I'm struggling with the idea that it's a guaranteed human right. Don't get me wrong, I think everyone should be sheltered or have access to shelter, I'm just hung up on the human right part.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jan/15/moms-4-housing-oakland-homelessness-eviction

[quote]Senator Clay Davis wrote:

By buy a house do you mean you just assumed a massive amount of debt. As a citizen of a country one is expected to work, pay taxes, participate in the political process. You can’t be a stable consistent worker if you don’t have stable consistent shelter.

apparently the federal government thought it was a basic human right at worst and good politics at best. They created the FDIC, FSLIC, and FHA in order to put “a house on every lot” to help Americans realize their dream of owning a home. This smacks of socialism, but hey it’s better than communism.

Same logic as stealing a loaf of bread.

mytopfivelist wrote:

Your rights stop when they impact other people. Every human being has the right to find a place live. No other human should be taxed or compelled to furnish a dwelling for irresponsible strangers who have gotten themselves onto the street.

Yeah man! Just let them die!