Answer:

Dear Daniel,

I can sense some fear and despair behind your question, and I hope my response will bring you relief.

Let me start by reminding you that earth is our home. Recent explorations into outer space notwithstanding, we are here. This planet is for all of us.

Despite this, many of us face housing insecurity. Precarity can start with birth-- into a certain class or caste, or a particular part of the world. It very much matters where we are born, and to whom. Unfortunately, that is still the biggest predictor of housing insecurity.

It may be of little comfort to know that precarious housing is not a phenomenon unique to your generation. This condition has plagued different generations in different ways, probably since the start of the age of imperialism and industry. That said, what your generation is facing is very scary. What is at stake is the very livability of the whole earth.

For example, Pacific Islanders are already losing their ancestral lands. In Vanuatu dozens of villages must be relocated in the next two years. Young people in those parts of the world might not be able to live or die on the islands of their birth, because the sea will rise to swallow them up.

That’s the bad news.

The good news is: earth is still great! It provides everything we need to live well, together. In every generation there are people who remind of us this fact, who wake us up from the nightmare of manufactured scarcity. Remember the anarchist watch makers of your own Swiss Jura mountains, whose great sense of timing alarmed the capitalist world? Did you see how the people of Vanuatu just won their battle at the United Nations to have the highest international court establish and enforce every country’s obligations to address the climate crisis? I hope you will look up these stories, and be inspired.

Behind your question, I hear another one: how to live with everyday housing precarity? My immediate answer is to expand your notion of “house” and “home.” Your home will not be the same as those of your parents or grandparents. Don’t be afraid to let go of the ideas of home, belonging, family, housing and “affordability” that no longer ring true for you. Design new ways of living that match your emerging reality.

So, do I think young people will ever be able to afford housing in their lifetimes? I can’t say exactly—depends on which young people, when and where. My guess is sometimes you will, and sometimes you won’t.

But I do know you will inherit this earth. It is, and will always be your home.

Your friend,

Adeola