“Decommodification” of Housing Is Agenda of Big Civil-Rights Group

Zuckerberg-backed paper touts “decoupling access to housing from ability to pay”

A sign in a bank advertises mortgage rates, July 2013.

The Urban Institute, one of the five major civil rights organizations that led the 1963 March on Washington, is making a new push to get profit out of the housing business, floating instead a plan for the federal government to spend $7.3 trillion over ten years to build new housing projects.

“Commodification, which enables and incentivizes the treatment of housing as an asset to profit from rather than an essential good to be used, exacerbates housing unaffordability and housing insecurity,” a May 28 summary posted on the Urban Institute website says. “In contrast, decommodification, which entails decoupling access to housing from ability to pay, can contribute to a more equitable housing market by ensuring that low-income households, households of color, and other historically marginalized groups have access to safe, stable, and affordable housing.”

The summary links to a 40-page research paper, “funded by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative,” the charity of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan.