Conflict of interest: Montreal politicians making decisions on housing are also landlords | Ricochet
Conflict of interest: Montreal politicians making decisions on housing are also landlords | Ricochet
This article is part of our joint investigation into Airbnb and the housing crisis with Pivot. You can read a French version on their site.
When people call the current political system a "bourgeois democracy", this is what they mean. The interests of politicians lay with their fellow capitalist oligarchs
The interests of politicians lay with their fellow capitalist oligarchs
AlwaysHaveBeen.jpg
I don't think this problem is specific to Montreal.
Nor to Canada, regards from the UK
This is solvable by outlawing landlords.
Really though. 10.8% of homes nationally are unoccupied. Can you imagine how much more accessible housing would be if landlords couldn’t sit on properties to find the next tenant to bleed dry?
That's a myth. What it actually means is they have no regular occupant, which means for example they're student houses full of students with a home address elsewhere.
Wouldn't it also be a conflict of interest if they were renters? How can someone not have any interest in housing?
Sure, but in that case their interests would be a human right. It's a conflict of interests because they are for profit owners; not just owners.
are for profit owners
Which homeowner isn't? There is good reason why nobody is moving to high unemployment Newfoundland to buy up the houses they can't give away even amid the "housing crisis". A home, even your primary residence, is a capital asset. Basically everyone is living where they do because that house provides them profit – most likely by it being a tool to provide access to a highly profitable labour market.
It may be a conflict of interest, but when there is no interest not in conflict, what are you going to do?
Why shouldn’t landlords be able to hold public office? Run against them if you’re so much better.