Around 4 p.m. on Wednesday, a three-story apartment building at 1321 Flatbush Avenue collapsed into a construction excavation site in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. As of publication, at least eight workers and tenants have died in the collapse, with at least 17 people injured, including seven children and three firefighters. Four victims reportedly remain in critical condition, and dozens have been displaced from their homes. Rescue operations remain ongoing.

While the official cause of the collapse is under investigation, excavation work has been underway at the construction site next door since September. Officials said the lot had been approved for a three-story building, but the real estate developers had plans for a nine-story, mixed-use building that had yet to be approved. According to CBS New York, city records show a demolition contractor received a violation in April for tearing down a previous structure on the lot despite a stop-work order.

The tragic deaths and casualties expose in the most brutal way how real estate developers prioritize profits over the lives and well-being of our communities.

Flatbush is a predominantly Black, Brown, and immigrant working-class community, where residents face unsafe, unhealthy, and deteriorating living conditions while rents skyrocket and real estate developers grow richer. As prices increase, people are forced to move out of their own communities and longstanding businesses are forced to close. This process of gentrification has become increasingly common in many of the world’s most expensive cities.

This tragedy is yet another example of housing under capitalism. It exposes a racist, exploitative system that treats housing as a commodity rather than a human right, one that disproportionately affects Black, Brown and immigrant communities. The housing crisis reflects deep class inequalities and the capitalist logic of real estate speculation. Ultimately, addressing it will not come from tinkering within the system of capitalism; it requires tackling these problems at their roots and putting the needs of working-class people and communities before profits.

It means taking the demands of Black Lives Matter to their logical conclusion and fighting for an end to a racist system that denies economic democracy and security to communities of color. In a country where there is endless money for war, endless funding for genocide, and constant tax breaks given to billionaires, there is no reason why working class folks should have to worry about dying when simply sitting inside of their homes or working on a construction project.

In the United States, we hear a constant, mind-numbing refrain about a lack of housing or a housing crisis. But let’s be clear: while capitalists and their media mouthpieces frame this as a puzzle that is too complex to wrap our minds around, it’s actually much simpler: We live in a country where there are more empty homes than unhoused people. The “housing crisis” is entirely generated by a system that puts capitalist profits over human need.

The Housing System We Need

The crime of the state and real estate developers in Brooklyn is only the most recent example of why we need a massive public housing construction and renovation program. This should be distinguished clearly from the so-called “affordable” housing units in luxury buildings, many of which sit empty. We do not need more unaffordable crumbs thrown by capitalist developers as our communities are gentrified.

While fixing the housing crisis has been a key part of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s agenda, this tragedy exposes the limits of market-based reforms. Last year, Mamdani supported Propositions 2, 3, and 4, which expanded the mayor’s power to fast-track certain housing developments by reducing community input and shifting approval authority away from City Council. Since earlier this year, his administration has been pushing so-called SPEED reforms that would reduce timelines for affordable housing projects.

But many New Yorkers reasonably question how affordable these new units would be. Analysis suggests that many of the “affordable” housing projects do not benefit the lowest-income tenants on the verge of eviction or displacement. And Wednesday’s tragedy raises questions about the consequences of new fast-tracked development.

We need to build hundreds of thousands of high-quality, publicly owned homes, prioritizing working-class neighborhoods, low-income families, and people experiencing homelessness. We must repair deteriorating buildings and guarantee safe living conditions for all tenants. In a world that can create trillionaires, there is absolutely zero excuse for our inability to meet people’s most basic needs.

We also need a comprehensive plan for housing and urban development. Housing must be integrated with accessible public transportation, healthcare, education, parks, and other essential services. And in the process of planning such a system, decision-making power must be taken out of the hands of capitalists and their politicians who have shown time and time again they are more than willing to sacrifice our lives on the altar of capital. Housing construction must be put under the democratic control of workers, tenants, and neighborhood housing committees, eliminating profit-driven developers and intermediaries.

We need to expropriate the millions of apartments and houses held vacant by profit-seeking landlords and real estate speculators, and make them available to those who need them as part of guaranteeing housing for all. This system’s glorification of the ongoing commodification of housing shows the rot at its center. Why do we have entire TV series like Netflix’s Selling Sunset glorifying the commodification of housing by capitalists? Expropriating land and properties held by these major real estate corporations, and making it available for working-class housing, has been a long time coming. We should impose progressive taxes on large real estate holdings, speculative vacancies, corporate profits, and major fortunes to finance public housing and infrastructure.

How We Fight

History has shown us that capitalist politicians and their political parties will not be our allies. The legal system can’t even impose modest taxes on billionaires, as evidenced by the failure of the recent measure in California.

But we can look internationally for examples of the path forward. On the same day as the Brooklyn building collapse, tenants, workers, and unions, led by young people, took part in a historic general strike across the Spanish State, in which the right to housing was a central demand. In late September, 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal was evicted from her home by the police, and in response, tenants, workers, and the youth took to the streets to denounce a housing crisis that mirrors that in the United States. Pressure from below created the momentum for a general strike on November 11, and millions took to the streets, organizing committees to coordinate the strike and mobilizations. The strike denounced the real estate speculators and the “progressive” government that backs them.

We need to follow their example. We must organize in our schools, universities, workplaces, and unions to fight back against housing inequality,  real estate speculation, and unsafe, precarious conditions for workers. We need to build a movement from below that fights for housing as a fundamental human right, not a source of profit for landlords and real estate developers. In that process our movement needs to fight to end the capitalist system that continues to sacrifice our basic needs and our lives.

Housing is a human right! Public, safe, dignified housing for all!

The post From Flatbush to the Spanish State: Housing Is a Human Right, Not a Profit Source appeared first on Left Voice.

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