Resolved: The United States ought to guarantee the right to housing.

I accept your argument, RonPaulConservative. First, allow me to point out one unrelated thing. I did not vote for Bernie Sanders in the 2016 election. This debate is the same resolution as the March/April Lincoln Douglas Debate Resolution for the National Speech and Debate Association, and I would like some different view points. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights stated in 1948 that, "Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control. " I therefore affirm resolved: The United States ought to guarantee the right to housing. I provide the following definitions to further ground today"s debate: The United States refers to the entire country per the Oxford English Dictionary Ought is defined by Merriam Webster as an obligation Guarantee does not mean it will happen, only responsibility, Collins English Dictionary Right, per the Collins English Dictionary, means something legally granted Housing refers to buildings where people live per the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language I value utilitarianism in today"s debate, best defined my Merriam-Webster as a doctrine that the determining of consideration of right conduct should be the usefulness of its consequences; a doctrine that the useful is the good. Thus, my criterion will the promotion of social welfare, where the only manner of gauging the usefulness of conduct will be through the insurance of a just society for all. The best way to ensure for a just society will be through the guaranteeing of the right for housing. Contention 1: Housing is a human right Subpoint A: The right to housing is widely recognized internationally as a human right United Nations, 2009 International human rights law recognizes everyone"s right to an adequate standard of living, including adequate housing. millions are forcibly evicted, or threatened with forced eviction, from their homes every year. Adequate housing was recognized as part of the right to an adequate standard of living in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Other international human rights treaties have since recognized or referred to the right to adequate housing or some elements of it, such as the protection of one"s home and privacy. Subpoint B: Violating the right to housing violates a host of human rights and social opportunities United Nations 2009, Human rights are interdependent, indivisible and interrelated. the violation of the right to adequate housing may affect the enjoyment of a wide range of other human rights and vice versa. Access to adequate housing can be a precondition for the enjoyment of several human rights, including the rights to work, health, social security, vote, privacy or education. The possibility of earning a living can be seriously impaired when a person has been relocated following a forced eviction to a place removed from employment opportunities. Subpoint C: Adequate housing is essential to human welfare Leilani Farha, 2016, It should go without saying that housing is essential to well-being, even life. It is so much more than a physical space or structure. It"s where we develop our first social relationships, it ties us to our communities, and it"s connected to our livelihoods. Just as housing goes beyond four walls and a roof, homelessness is not about just the lack of a house. Subpoint D: The need for housing is unquestioned Florence Wagman Roisman, 1971. 39 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 691 1970-1971 Millions of Americans have no effective choice but to live in dwellings that suffer any of the defects by which we measure bad housing: insufficient size; inadequate facilities; unsuitable location; actual danger to safety or health; cost that exceeds the means of the family. Securing housing is a calamity for the poor. Too often the dilemmas of housing the poor are masked by considering them in conjunction with the housing problems of the moderate, middle and upper income groups. Furthermore, separate consideration of the housing problems of the poor is necessary because it generally will not be politically popular to help the poor, at least so long as many Americans continue to despise them for being poor (especially if they also are Black, Indian or Spanish-speaking). Discussions of housing problems generally, or of the housing problems of "low and moderate income groups," usually have little to do with the poor. Contention 2: The right to housing decreases discrimination and better ensures safety Subpoint A: Equal Housing upholds equality under the law Florence Wagman Roisman, 1971. the constitutional argument is that a local jurisdiction's provision of public housing when inadequate in quantity or location contravenes the guarantee of equal protection of the laws. It is difficult to contemplate resistance to the common-sense proposition that artificial limits imposed upon public housing eligibles are often racial. ["]housing involves both racial and economic discrimination. Strict enforcement of statutes, [especially the Open Housing Act of 1968] will help establish an atmosphere in which such discrimination will be the exception rather than the rule. The consequence is thus heightening the tendency for racial polarity in our society. In addition to general abuses prejudice against discrete and insular minorities may seriously curtail the operation of those political processes relied upon; to protect minorities, Subpoint B: A right to housing is pragmatic. It is the foundation of accessing all social benefits and reduces wealth inequality Rachel G. Bratt, et al. , 2006, The call to adopt and implement a Right to Housing not only has an ethical basis in principles of justice It is also based on a highly pragmatic perspective-the central role that housing plays in peoples" lives. Given the many ways in which housing is, or can be, the basic building block for a range of related bene@257;ts""a host of new social relationships and economic opportunities would emerge if a Right to Housing were realized, and the extensive negative impacts of poor housing would largely disappear. A Right to Housing would also go a long way toward countering the pernicious trend toward our society's extremes of material well-being and opportunity"disparities that have a clear racial dimension as well and that make true democracy impossible. Subpoint C: Homelessness magnifies all other problems in life Shelton, 2009 The physical and mental health of people who are homeless is considerably worse than that of the general population. The prevalence of mental disorders is three to four times higher among the homeless population, with rates of affective and anxiety disorders and drug and alcohol abuse particularly elevated. Rates of DSM diagnoses among the homeless are almost double those among persons who have never been homeless, whereas the rate of alcohol use disorder co-occurring with one or more psychiatric disorders has been identified as five times greater. Subpoint D: The Neg"s absolutist perspective overdetermines race and obscures privilege L. A. Visano, 2002 Whiteness is a complexly articulated plurality of discourses that are never static but rather ongoing cultural processes. Whiteness is not a monolithic, homogeneous, nor absolutist category. , whiteness, acquires meaning in reference to its active relatedness or forms of dynamic embeddedness. Whiteness is a fragmentary set of assumptions about privilege rooted well within structures of dominance.