Rights, Citzenship, and Shelter

This article discusses the complexity of the concept of ‘rights’ as applied to the field of shelter, housing, and homelessness. It focuses on the philosophical division between ‘natural’ and ‘socially constructed’ rights and suggests that a ‘third way’ can be found by using Martha Nussbaum’s ‘central human capabilities’ approach as a foundation for universal human rights. It proposes ‘citizenship’ as a conceptual bridge between the philosophical discourse on rights and its practical application at national or international level. We translate T.H. Marshall’s classic division between ‘civil’ and ‘social’ citizenship rights into a distinction between ‘legal rights’ to housing (individuals’ formal rights to a dwelling of a certain standard) and ‘programmatic rights to housing’ (what general housing standard members of certain society can legitimately expect). The article demonstrates that it is logically possible to object to natural and/or human rights in the housing field and be in favour of clearly delimited ‘positive’ legal rights to housing for homeless people. Conversely, one may be in sympathy with the discourse of universal moral rights, but be sceptical about individually enforceable legal rights, particularly with respect to the potential for such selective rights to stigmatise their ‘beneficiaries’. The importance of maintaining a critical perspective on rights discourses in the housing field is emphasised throughout.