In my years working as a housing organizer in New York City, I witnessed first hand the human costs of gentrification. Despite organized efforts to stem the tide of evictions and rising housing costs, however, things are getting much worse all around us: the explosion in housing prices barely abated after the 2008 meltdown, and continues setting record breaking highs in the face of a deepening homelessness crisis. Luxury towers mushroom throughout the city in a time when most working-class people were barely making ends meet. Where is this deluge of money coming from? When did all this madness begin, and how can we end it?
As traditional organizing tactics and policy tools continue to fall short, the housing movement is in dire need of new strategies and paths forward. The purpose of this article is to identify money creation through the banking system as the root cause of gentrification, and propose that Bitcoin, a decentralized monetary system capable of transferring monetary authority back to the people, is a weapon that can help tenants and workers level the playing field.