Shelter and Housing

The current crisis in housing arises from the commoditization of real estate by the institution of private property.

Before the Europeans colonized native countries, the land was owned communally, with management being done by the chieftain.

But the Europeans instituted modern private property in the 19th century.

The trading of land allowed the rapid development in the 20th century, as well as the loss of native lands for tribes.

This led to the rise of cities and then the homelessness in cities.

Shelter as a Human Right

Singapore solved housing from the 1960s by empowering the government to acquire private land for public uses.

The Usufruct Economy of Supereconomics establishes shelter as a human right, but not housing.

This is because establishing housing as a right will lead to the expansion of housing into farmlands and native lands where plants and animals already live.

Shelter is the absolute minimum physical barrier required to protect a human being from external elements and maintain biological life. Shelter includes access to:

• sanitation
• drinking water, running water
• electricity
• internet

A system that does not provide such access is not really providing shelter.

Housing and Residence

Housing is a scarce, permanent physical structure. It differs from shelter in terms of its permanence of lodging.

Residence is the legal, social, or geographic designation of where a person currently lives. It is a relational concept rather than a physical object.

Usufruct Shelter can involve both:

• permanent shelters like housing
• temporary shelters like tents for refugees

Both require land.

This means that the government will have control of the land in order to provide shelter to all as a human right.

Building Code

Permanent shelters need to be safe from earthquakes and typhoons as much as possible.

Desinged for Exploring the Stars

The Usufruct Economy is designed to transition a rigid Earth-based economy into a flexible one as humans evolve into a space-faring species after levitation and telportation technologies are discovered.

It does not make sense to invest in a beautiful house when people will be exploring more beautiful planets most of the time.