Housing

Housing encompasses more than just a roof over one's head—it includes safe, stable, affordable shelter that provides dignity, security, and a foundation for all other aspects of life. Housing is where we rest, raise families, build community, and establish roots. When housing is treated as a commodity rather than a right, people are forced to choose between shelter and other basic needs, creating cycles of instability that ripple through entire communities.

A housing cooperative transforms residents from renters into owners, giving them democratic control over their living conditions and building equity in their homes. Worker-owned housing co-ops can take several forms locally: construction cooperatives that build affordable housing using member labor, property management co-ops where maintenance workers collectively own and operate the business, or community land trusts paired with worker co-ops that develop and maintain permanently affordable housing stock. Local opportunities include forming renovation and weatherization co-ops that improve existing housing while training workers in skilled trades, or creating cooperative housing development corporations where construction workers, architects, and planners share ownership. These enterprises keep wealth circulating in the community rather than extracting it to distant landlords and developers, while ensuring quality work since the workers have a stake in long-term outcomes. By treating housing as a cooperative enterprise, we break the cycle of profit-driven development that prices communities out of their own neighborhoods. Worker-owners gain not just jobs but careers with equity, while residents gain stable, democratic housing that responds to community needs rather than investor returns.

Housing problems can be compounded by property taxes, water bills, gas bills, and electric bills. Data Centers can play a large role in increasing the bills. Therefore we are against the use of data centers in almost all scenarios.