“Under One Roof: Building an Abolitionist Approach to Housing Justice,” jointly sponsored by the Journal of Legislation and Public Policy and the NYU Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy, will explore what housing policy, research, and advocacy can learn from abolitionists and, in particular, the scholarship and advocacy that have shaped movements for prison and police abolition. Nationwide movements for racial justice—combined with the racially-disparate health and economic effects of COVID-19—have drawn attention to longstanding inequities and discrimination in housing. The Symposium seeks to imagine what a housing justice framework centered on abolitionist principles might look like.
Panel 1: Overview of Abolitionist Frameworks (12:30 – 1:45)
This panel will lay out the key dimensions of abolitionist frameworks and movement-building. This discussion will familiarize the audience with abolitionist principles and with contemporary abolition movements, including prison and police abolition. Panelists will situate both housing policy and abolition in historical contexts, and begin to explore how abolition can inform housing scholarship, policy, and advocacy.
Panel 2: Housing Policy Through the Lens of Abolition (2:15 – 3:30)
This panel will consider what it might mean to take an abolitionist lens to housing policy, research, and advocacy. Panelists will examine what “housing justice” means in the context of abolition democracy; foundational conditions for and obstacles to housing justice; and where this suggests that we should direct resources today. This discussion will explore both the current state of housing policy and activism and the possibilities and challenges of abolitionist mobilization in housing.