Housing - A human right or big business? | Us & Them | DW Documentary

Housing is a recognized human right in Mexico and Canada. But it’s also big business and a major source of conflict in many countries around the world.

In Mexico City, Mary Paz Ramirez Valenzuela’s days in her home of 20 years are numbered. Her landlords can make more money renting their properties to digital nomads through Airbnb than to locals like Mary Paz. Blocks away, travel blogger Kesi Irvin chats with other American digital nomads at her Airbnb about how much more they can afford in Mexico than in big cities back in the US. In a tense and emotional exchange, Mary Paz tells Kesi that digital nomads are "kicking us out of our spaces" and that it’s their fault she’ll soon be "on the street."

In Vancouver, one of the world’s most desirable - and expensive - places to live, the Indigenous Squamish people are constructing thousands of new apartments, including at the site of their village Senakw, where all 6,000 units will be rental apartments – one in five of them officially designated “affordable.” Leader Wilson Williams says the new towers will bring financial security - and housing - for his people, who were driven out of their villages a century ago. They are also teaming up with other First Nations groups to build high rises at the Jericho Lands former military base, on traditional indigenous territory. But neighbors like Bill Tieleman are campaigning against the towers, even though they admit the city desperately needs more apartments. They argue the ultra-high-density housing projects will destroy the local character and won’t benefit those who need housing most.

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