The housing crisis is now global. It shows just how undemocratic our nations have become | Leilani Farha

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Source: The Guardian Business · NewTimes editorial text based on the source feed.

When we can’t even afford to rent or buy somewhere to live, we have to ask: did we give the financial sector too much power?

Leilani Farha is the former UN special rapporteur on adequate housing In the summer of 2021, I visited a homeless community in a park in Toronto, Canada, and spoke to one of the residents.

He was living in a tent in the shadow of brand new skyscrapers, and had been homeless for about five years.

At one point he swivelled around, pointed up at a crane on the skyline, and said: “Who are they building those for?

Definitely not for me.” He was right.

And he captured something experienced by ordinary people around the world: the growing conviction that the housing system is no longer tethered to their needs.

What he was pointing at is not just a housing crisis.

It is a crisis of democracy.

Leilani Farha is the 2026 CBC Massey lecturer.

This piece is based on her new book: