Housing crises have posed persistent and substantial challenges to societies for millennia. Even ancient rulers tried to address the problem of unaffordability. Even ancient luminaries such as Juvenal, Plutarch and Xenophon chronicled the fight for decent housing in their day to day lives in ancient Rome and Greece. Their perspectives surfaced truths about housing that continue to ring true in our communities today.
The Roman poet Juvenal observed that the yearly rent for a property in Rome could buy a house in Egypt outright. This striking juxtaposition underscores the socioeconomic inequalities that plague the Island capital’s residents. Juvenal remarked, “An excellent house at Sora or Fabrateria or Frusino can be bought outright […] Here you’ll have a little garden […] Live in love with your hoe as the overseer of your vegetable garden.”
Plutarch, a Greek biographer and philosopher, noted that “the rich began to offer larger rents and drove out the poor.” Beyond the substantial economic burden, increasing rents have dangerous social consequences. Wealthier citizens are forcing poorer families into more vulnerable, insecure neighborhoods. He further lamented that “the poor, who had been ejected from their land, no longer showed themselves eager for military service, and neglected the bringing up of children,” indicating broader societal impacts stemming from housing unaffordability.
Like Xenophon in Athens, our writer lamented the soaring cost of housing. He floated the idea of the state allowing approved applicants to develop homes on empty city-owned lots. By giving them freehold of the land, the state would be bringing in a much broader and more interesting class of residents. His view is indicative of an emerging consensus about the positive and negative roles that government can take in housing markets.
Tiberius Gracchus, the fiery, populist Roman tribune whose land reforms would make him famous, might have thundered with equal passion against the housing crisis of his day. Disguised as a commoner, and accompanied by three slaves, he was said to have been profoundly moved by the homeless. Gracchus articulated a poignant message: “The wild beasts that roam over Italy have every one of them a cave or lair to lurk in; but the men who fight and die for Italy enjoy the common air and light, indeed, but nothing else. Houseless and homeless, they roam up and down with their wives and children. What about the interest of African Americans who do not own an inch of land?
The ancient historian Diodorus Siculus left a vivid account of the empty desperation faced by those living in Demetrius’ time. Only by huddling together in awful garrets, for rents have mounted to a fabulous height. He observed that “because rents at Rome were so high, Demetrius was living in a small and altogether shabby garret,” illustrating the dire circumstances many faced in securing adequate shelter.
Planting the seeds to protect tenant rights. One idea was to provide land at no cost to anyone who wanted to develop homes. This initiative pursued to help more Washingtonians find permanent homes as housing prices continue to rise.
