WEBVTT

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You can come in, you know.

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There\'s no place to sit, but you\'re
welcome to stand over here by the bar.

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I didn\'t know there was so many of you.
Go out! Go out!

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My friends, during this song,
I\'m going to make a toast.

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If you want
to join in this community moment,

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raise your hand and be counted.

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1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,

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8, 9, 10...

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20, 21, 22...

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22, I think we\'re at. 23, 24...

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Know the first sign that you\'re going
to have to leave your neighborhood?

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It\'s when vintage
clothing shops show up.

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Nothing worse for a neighborhood
than poor people with style!

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Then you know what they\'re going to do?
They\'re going to hang out at cafés,

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talk about making movies
and writing songs...

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They\'re going to make
the neighborhood really cool,

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then the housing value\'s going to go up,
then they\'re all going to get the push!

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If you can\'t keep up with
the housing market, well off you go!

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When faced with such stupidity...

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When faced with a system
that is so backwards and broken,

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and based on lies,

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there is something so pure
and so good about life,

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that it can give us
the hope to carry on.

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To the lips of your lover!

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To the simple act of kissing.

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May it get you through
the darkest of times.

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To kissing...

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I was actually a school teacher
for about ten years.

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I taught French as a second language,

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teaching the unteachable
to the unteachable.

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I taught about 10,000 classes
and I got bored.

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But here we got in...

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So I got interested in real estate.

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Started flipping properties: buying
a house, renovating it and selling it.

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I got the taste for real estate.

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Really small bathroom...

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What you see in Toronto right now
is a superheated market.

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So you\'ve got bedroom No. 2 here...

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And it\'s all bed.

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I was seeing increases
of prices of 20% in a month.

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There\'s a beautiful entertaining space.

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This will be very attractive to the buyers.

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You can see yourself out here
entertaining or having quiet time.

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Dinner out here,
barbecue back here.

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An essential part of staging:
Don\'t miss the cat!

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Meow!

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Again, I get the question as realtor...

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What percentage
over the list price will it sell for?

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And the answer is: No idea!

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So you\'re coming in... It\'s okay.

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Somebody\'s not going to go:
\"Ew, ugly pictures\".

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However...

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if you put something beautiful in...

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I\'ve got some traditional stuff:
You know, photography...

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For some reason,
I put this one in the bathrooms.

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It makes it beautiful
and somehow intimate.

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I think it contributes
to that feeling of: \"You\'re home\".

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My job is to go around the world
and investigate housing issues,

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and to see how are people faring
with respect to the right to housing.

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Maybe you could tell me
about needing to have a rent strike?

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For me personally, I have a mouse
problem and a cockroach problem.

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I\'ve got things that need
to be repaired in the building.

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They withhold services.
They run you around in circles.

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They frustrate you.
You get fed up.

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You just want to leave,
but where are we going to go?

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The rent situation
all over Toronto is the same way.

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It\'s eviction by another name.

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- Any response from MetCap?
- Harassment.

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Barb had a sign on her balcony
about the rent strike.

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And they threatened to evict her.

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\"I\'m giving you this notice
because I want to end your tenancy.

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\"I want you to move out of your rental
unit by (such & such) date.

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\"Reason: I believe that you,
or someone living with you,

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has committed an illegal act\"...

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- N6 is \"serious criminality\".
- Oh, my...

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- For illegal action.
- \"Guns and drugs\" is an N6.

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They came after her
with the hardest category.

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Pretty scary.

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- So this was based on the banner?
- Yeah.

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- We\'re not bad-mouthing them...
- It just says, \"May 1st rent strike\".

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They own 19 buildings in the area and
that\'s their plan for all the buildings.

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It\'s to get people like us out.
The neighborhood\'s getting gentrified.

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If you\'re familiar with Liberty Village?

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It\'s come right up to King & Dufferin.

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And it\'s only one direction
into our neighbor, and we\'re in the way.

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- I know, I know!
- Oh, my God! You\'re so loud.

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- You share it.
- We\'re splitting it.

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Yeah, you don\'t need to open two.

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- Did you shake it?
- Yes, I did.

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That is not half!

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Okay, whoever pours it,
the other person has to drink it.

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- No, I\'m putting some back.
- That\'s going to be a disaster...

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I\'m getting out of the way.

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You guys better go.

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- How\'s it going?
- Fine...

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- Did you go directly to the chart?
- Yeah.

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In the Greater Toronto area
in the last 30 years,

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housing prices have increased by 425%.

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Whereas, in a similar 30-year-period,

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average family income
has only grown by 133%

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So something else is in play,

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and clearly it\'s not
the economic fundamentals,

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as you can see by the above graph.

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- So, are you going to send this around?
- No. I don\'t know.

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I have a need to check the numbers first.
But it\'s pretty... grim.

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I think we are at
an incredibly urgent moment.

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The extent to which
we\'re seeing urbanization

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collide with stagnant wages
and a lack of affordability,

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is unprecedented.

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So you have poor people
really struggling now, like never before.

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But then you also have
the middle class unable to afford

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to live in cities and provide services
that are necessary for a city.

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I don\'t want to overuse the word crisis,
but it suggests a crisis.

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Then we start asking: Wait a second,
who is going to live in cities?

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Who are cities for?

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It\'s not rocket science.

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What do we think people need
to have a dignified life?

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And it\'s clear
that decent housing,

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affordable housing,
is one of those things.

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And it\'s supported by international law.

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A Kennedy Heights family
is just hours away

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from learning whether or not
they can stay in their home

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or be forced out onto the streets.

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The problem? Housing is gobbling up
more of shrinking paychecks.

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People in 59 out of 102
countries worldwide,

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would need to save their yearly income
for at least ten years

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in order to buy a house in their country.

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There are two histories, we might say,

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that intersect today
in that space that we call \"the city\".

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And one of them is a familiar issue,

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for which we have
used the term gentrification.

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When I hear people today
saying \"it\'s gentrification\",

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one, ironic, reaction is: \"if only\".

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It\'s much deeper than that,
it\'s much more foundational.

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The foundation of the house
is settling, it\'s sinking down.

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Everything is going down.

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We\'re in the home of an older woman.

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It\'s like she\'s living on top of the...

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Who is being pressured
to abandon her home

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because it\'s in the midst
of this big new development.

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Here, there was a hospital.

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It\'s been demolished.

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And it was demolished
to make way for luxury condominiums.

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They don\'t even own this land.

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I\'ve heard that there are many units
standing vacant already, luxury condos,

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because no one in Valparaiso
can afford to buy any of these units.

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So these developments are clearly not
for the people of Valparaiso.

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The real estate company
didn\'t ask for a permit.

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They call the project Parque Baron,
but they tore out all the trees.

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It was like the Garden of Eden:
olives, almonds, plum trees...

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All the kids came here to play.

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\"Parque Baron\"
is nothing like a park now!

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Well, this is what I\'m seeing
happening around the world.

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The buying up of land,
the displacement of the poorest people...

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And the putting up of luxury units

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that are not actually for the people
who live in the community.

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Because of the massive buying
of rural land...

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more and more people
have to leave the rural areas.

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They come to the cities.

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You can see that urban land
becomes precious land.

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Then that earlier gentrification story

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is sort of an older history.

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As long as you\'re well and healthy...

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- Thank you very much.
- Good to see you, give my regards.

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I was very proud to live in Notting Hill.

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When you go somewhere...
\"Where do you live? \" - \"Notting Hill.\"

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\'Cause they\'ve heard about the film...
\"Oh, yeah, Notting Hill.\"

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One more, chuck her up!

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The thing I like about this area
is the community.

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Your friends are
from all faiths, all colors...

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I\'m here!

00:14:28.000 --> 00:14:31.083
There\'s one word
for this community: family.

00:14:31.250 --> 00:14:34.417
It\'s actually a family, because
even if we don\'t know each other,

00:14:34.584 --> 00:14:36.083
we know each other by face.

00:14:36.250 --> 00:14:38.918
See me here!

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I was born just five minutes from here.

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And in the 70s, 80s, and 90s,
I\'ve seen the whole area change.

00:14:48.834 --> 00:14:53.417
Pop stars and people moving
into the area because they like the vibe.

00:14:53.584 --> 00:14:55.501
The vibe is really cool.

00:14:55.667 --> 00:14:59.417
People who\'ve seen the film, they come
over from all around the world,

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they want to see where the blue door is,
they want to see the bookshop...

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It became a very trendy place to live.

00:15:09.876 --> 00:15:13.292
And then the new school
and new leisure center,

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that\'s going to attract the wealthy
people to come down to the area.

00:15:18.375 --> 00:15:22.042
Then they start buying up properties...

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Don\'t need to live there,

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but, you know,
it\'s a fantastic investment for them.

00:15:29.250 --> 00:15:32.417
Better than putting it in the bank.

00:15:33.042 --> 00:15:38.999
So our fourth stop on the Highlight Tour
of London Kleptocracy properties...

00:15:39.125 --> 00:15:44.542
These two properties are worth
perhaps 20 million pounds each.

00:15:46.459 --> 00:15:50.542
I believe he paid something in the
region of 40 or 50 million pounds for it.

00:15:50.709 --> 00:15:52.999
If you could get a whole one of these,

00:15:53.125 --> 00:15:55.876
it would be 30 or 40 million pounds.

00:15:56.000 --> 00:15:58.042
Nobody lives here
and nothing is happening to this thing,

00:15:58.209 --> 00:16:01.417
so it\'s become a dead spot in London.

00:16:01.584 --> 00:16:04.334
There was news agents,
there were pubs,

00:16:04.501 --> 00:16:06.918
there were a couple of restaurants...

00:16:07.042 --> 00:16:10.751
But the community itself has evaporated.

00:16:12.834 --> 00:16:15.792
Slowly, slowly, people are forced out.

00:16:15.959 --> 00:16:19.125
They don\'t understand it\'s happening.

00:16:22.667 --> 00:16:26.083
We purchased our flat in \'94.

00:16:26.250 --> 00:16:29.918
If I sold my flat, I could not
live in Kensington Chelsea.

00:16:30.042 --> 00:16:31.792
I\'d be forced out of the area.

00:16:33.042 --> 00:16:36.667
I\'d have to actually
probably move out of London.

00:16:40.834 --> 00:16:43.167
I can stand in the middle of the street,

00:16:43.334 --> 00:16:46.918
with empty car parking spaces
all around me and no traffic coming.

00:16:47.042 --> 00:16:50.042
This place is now a dead zone.

00:16:50.209 --> 00:16:52.918
We\'ve very little indication
of who the owners are.

00:16:53.042 --> 00:16:56.626
And a lot of them are completely empty.
You can\'t go and ask them who they are,

00:16:56.792 --> 00:16:58.959
they\'re actually just empty all the time.

00:17:25.292 --> 00:17:30.083
I think this place
has been empty since 2003.

00:17:30.250 --> 00:17:34.042
Something like that, it\'s the last time
anybody actually operated in it.

00:17:34.209 --> 00:17:37.417
Lots of empty buildings about
and lots of homeless about,

00:17:37.584 --> 00:17:39.959
so it just makes sense.

00:17:40.083 --> 00:17:42.042
Who bought this place? Do you know?

00:17:42.209 --> 00:17:44.792
A Mr. Qatari, apparently.

00:17:44.959 --> 00:17:50.125
Apparently he\'s
an ex-army general from Qatar.

00:17:50.292 --> 00:17:54.209
- Do you know how much he paid?
- 25 million pounds.

00:17:55.334 --> 00:17:57.709
Ludicrous.

00:17:57.876 --> 00:18:01.292
How many homeless people are there?
How many empty buildings?

00:18:01.459 --> 00:18:02.999
It\'s just...

00:18:03.125 --> 00:18:06.792
Do you have a demand as a group?
Are you guys organized at all?

00:18:06.959 --> 00:18:09.375
Yeah, just to start
housing people, basically,

00:18:09.542 --> 00:18:12.542
or we\'ll keep squatting
these multi-million pound buildings

00:18:12.709 --> 00:18:14.334
until something is sorted.

00:18:14.501 --> 00:18:17.334
\"Occupy Belgravia\"...

00:18:17.501 --> 00:18:19.667
We will keep getting these places

00:18:19.834 --> 00:18:22.250
and we will keep doing it
until something is sorted out.

00:18:22.417 --> 00:18:27.292
Who else is going to help?
Someone\'s got to do it.

00:18:31.042 --> 00:18:35.292
One way of putting it is:
This is not at all about housing.

00:18:39.501 --> 00:18:43.250
The buildings, they function as assets.

00:18:47.042 --> 00:18:50.042
You want those houses
to be empty and unused.

00:18:51.459 --> 00:18:54.334
Because then you can play with them.

00:19:00.459 --> 00:19:06.292
Can you imagine?
These dark empty buildings...

00:19:06.459 --> 00:19:09.292
They are making money.
So when people think:

00:19:09.459 --> 00:19:11.417
\"Oh, poor investors!\"
something went wrong...

00:19:11.584 --> 00:19:12.584
Hell no!

00:19:26.375 --> 00:19:29.792
Cellphone, badge...

00:19:31.667 --> 00:19:36.542
My first reaction to learning about this
phenomenon of vacant dwellings,

00:19:36.709 --> 00:19:40.501
I was pretty outraged.
I remain outraged.

00:19:43.042 --> 00:19:45.242
In a humans-rights framework,
and through the UN system,

00:19:45.375 --> 00:19:48.334
it\'s very clear
who is accountable: States.

00:19:50.876 --> 00:19:53.584
States are responsible. They have
international human rights obligations,

00:19:53.751 --> 00:19:56.042
they sign treaties
and they make commitments

00:19:56.209 --> 00:19:58.042
to the international community

00:19:58.209 --> 00:20:01.167
that they will
uphold international human rights,

00:20:01.334 --> 00:20:04.959
which include
the right to adequate housing.

00:20:21.959 --> 00:20:25.292
- That\'s a real...
- Oh, shit!

00:20:27.667 --> 00:20:30.292
Somebody banged hard on my door.

00:20:31.667 --> 00:20:35.626
Then I opened the front door and
there\'s just a blanket of black smoke.

00:20:35.792 --> 00:20:39.584
So I closed the door
very calmly thinking:

00:20:39.751 --> 00:20:41.042
Oh, there\'s a fire.

00:20:41.834 --> 00:20:44.999
- The Tower\'s on fire...
- How is that possible?

00:20:45.125 --> 00:20:48.000
It\'s jumped up
all the way along the face of...

00:20:52.000 --> 00:20:53.459
How the fuck is that even possible?!

00:20:56.417 --> 00:21:01.250
And that was the beginning of the fire,
we were still in there for 2.5 hours.

00:21:01.667 --> 00:21:03.751
That\'s the beginning...
That\'s...

00:21:10.042 --> 00:21:12.334
So, I came to the balcony...

00:21:12.501 --> 00:21:16.417
I ran to the back of the estate.
I thought \"what the hell\'s going on?\"

00:21:16.584 --> 00:21:20.999
I saw everything, from start to finish.

00:21:21.125 --> 00:21:24.334
I never slept for two days straight.

00:21:30.417 --> 00:21:34.626
When I heard about it, I was in Canada.

00:21:34.792 --> 00:21:37.751
Watching it unfold through Twitter and...

00:21:37.918 --> 00:21:40.834
Then I started getting these details.

00:21:42.042 --> 00:21:44.999
Social housing estate...

00:21:45.125 --> 00:21:48.584
A marginalized community...

00:21:48.751 --> 00:21:52.125
set in a very rich, affluent, borough.

00:21:53.042 --> 00:21:58.751
Allegations of poor housing conditions
from before the fire.

00:22:03.042 --> 00:22:06.459
Then I see an arm,
up to about here,

00:22:06.626 --> 00:22:09.792
come through the smoke
and grab my wife.

00:22:09.959 --> 00:22:14.209
Then another arm, on the other side,
comes to grab me.

00:22:14.375 --> 00:22:17.584
I said: \"How about my dog?\"

00:22:17.751 --> 00:22:21.209
The officer said: \"No, sorry,
we\'re going to have to go.\"

00:22:21.375 --> 00:22:24.542
So I just looked at my dog...

00:22:24.709 --> 00:22:29.709
An amazing...
My dog\'s like my child,

00:22:29.876 --> 00:22:34.334
He\'s a two-year-old beagle
called Lewis Hamilton II.

00:22:34.501 --> 00:22:38.709
He chose his own name,
we gave him options and he liked Lewis.

00:22:38.876 --> 00:22:41.000
So he was, yeah...

00:22:45.042 --> 00:22:48.250
And then we were
off into the darkness.

00:22:50.459 --> 00:22:53.167
Then I\'m going down
and I\'m treading on things.

00:22:53.334 --> 00:22:57.667
They must have the water pipes
already in the stairwell,

00:22:57.834 --> 00:23:00.250
but then realization:
\"No, I think it\'s people.\"

00:23:00.417 --> 00:23:03.751
I\'m treading on... bodies.

00:23:03.918 --> 00:23:07.709
I\'m treading on something in my way.

00:23:16.459 --> 00:23:21.042
I was actually quite happy when they
put on cladding to make it pretty.

00:23:22.459 --> 00:23:25.501
To make it look nice
for the surrounding area.

00:23:27.542 --> 00:23:31.375
And somebody knew
that they\'d do it on the cheap.

00:23:42.709 --> 00:23:47.042
There were these elements that seemed
to be a bit of a global phenomenon.

00:23:47.209 --> 00:23:50.751
Where you have
a vulnerable community.

00:23:50.918 --> 00:23:54.125
Most of the people in Grenfell
are working, but they are \"working poor\".

00:23:54.292 --> 00:23:59.125
Literally living side-by-side
with incredibly wealthy people,

00:23:59.292 --> 00:24:02.417
and an incredible amount of wealth.

00:24:02.584 --> 00:24:04.918
The tension between the two...

00:24:05.042 --> 00:24:08.876
And then watching this fire,
it was like...

00:24:09.000 --> 00:24:13.959
a physical representation
of the displacement of a community.

00:24:14.083 --> 00:24:17.501
For me, that\'s the narrative
of the world right now.

00:24:21.209 --> 00:24:24.125
I heard one of the councilors say:

00:24:24.292 --> 00:24:27.042
\"If you can\'t live in Notting Hill,
then you shouldn\'t be in Notting Hill.\"

00:24:27.209 --> 00:24:29.751
What\'s all that about?
Who the fuck is he to say that?

00:24:29.918 --> 00:24:31.083
Do you get where I\'m coming from?

00:24:31.250 --> 00:24:34.042
So, people who have
lived there all their lives

00:24:34.209 --> 00:24:38.834
are just being treated like a piece
of shit, and it\'s wrong, isn\'t it?

00:24:38.999 --> 00:24:42.250
It makes me sick, talking about it.
It brings tears to my eyes.

00:24:42.417 --> 00:24:44.457
You can\'t just disregard them,
like they\'re rubbish.

00:24:44.584 --> 00:24:46.918
Like in that fire - they just burnt them.

00:24:47.042 --> 00:24:51.584
It\'s like... You know...
This is the richest town in the borough!

00:24:51.751 --> 00:24:53.626
How can that happen? How?

00:25:04.959 --> 00:25:09.417
Yeah, I\'ve written lyrics.
Me and my cousin made a song for it.

00:25:09.584 --> 00:25:12.375
Rest in peace
to the fallen from Grenfell

00:25:12.542 --> 00:25:14.709
My heart\'s with all of their families

00:25:14.876 --> 00:25:17.417
We have to stay strong for Grenfell

00:25:17.584 --> 00:25:19.542
We can\'t fall apart from this tragedy

00:25:19.667 --> 00:25:22.250
That community is special to me.

00:25:22.417 --> 00:25:24.709
This is where I\'ve grown up.

00:25:25.959 --> 00:25:28.042
But people will be forced out

00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:31.209
They try and push us out

00:25:31.375 --> 00:25:33.918
The community is strong
We put our foot down

00:25:34.042 --> 00:25:36.042
We stand together
our voice sings loud...

00:25:37.042 --> 00:25:40.999
I\'ll guarantee you I\'ll stay here,
I\'ll fight with everything I\'ve got.

00:25:41.125 --> 00:25:43.209
And I\'ll fight for the other people

00:25:43.999 --> 00:25:46.292
Rest in peace
to the fallen from Grenfell

00:25:46.459 --> 00:25:48.501
My heart\'s with all of their families

00:25:48.667 --> 00:25:51.125
We have to stay strong for Grenfell

00:25:51.292 --> 00:25:54.918
We can\'t fall apart from this tragedy...

00:25:57.667 --> 00:26:00.334
- You have human rights obligations.
- I agree...

00:26:00.501 --> 00:26:05.918
You can\'t let these investors
and the financial system

00:26:06.042 --> 00:26:08.792
run amok on its own

00:26:08.959 --> 00:26:09.999
I say: \"wow, human rights...\"

00:26:10.125 --> 00:26:13.709
Every single person
has a bunch of rights.

00:26:13.876 --> 00:26:16.334
Then I have a question for you.

00:26:16.501 --> 00:26:19.083
Are you a legal scholar on human rights?

00:26:19.250 --> 00:26:20.876
That\'s right.

00:26:21.000 --> 00:26:24.792
You have the instrumentality
that is the law?

00:26:24.959 --> 00:26:29.959
Because what I see, those with power,
boy, can they deploy the law

00:26:30.083 --> 00:26:32.083
in ways that work for them.

00:26:32.250 --> 00:26:35.334
Stuff is happening, you know?

00:26:48.375 --> 00:26:51.834
Prices go up in a neighborhood
that is fixed, that\'s one thing.

00:26:51.999 --> 00:26:54.667
Everybody understands that part.

00:26:54.834 --> 00:26:57.626
Then we should understand that at point,

00:26:57.792 --> 00:27:01.125
another actor
might come into the picture,

00:27:01.292 --> 00:27:05.999
a monster that nobody can see

00:27:06.125 --> 00:27:09.375
that nobody really understands.

00:27:10.667 --> 00:27:14.125
Whose language is incomprehensible.

00:27:15.042 --> 00:27:19.167
And then they can maybe be curious,

00:27:19.334 --> 00:27:22.959
and say:
\"let me check out that monster.\"

00:27:23.083 --> 00:27:27.501
\"Who is this monster?
What is happening here?\"

00:27:35.250 --> 00:27:39.918
I don\'t believe that capitalism itself
is hugely problematic.

00:27:41.459 --> 00:27:45.209
Is unbridled capitalism in an area

00:27:45.375 --> 00:27:49.334
that is a human right
problematic? Yes.

00:27:49.501 --> 00:27:53.918
And I think that\'s what differentiates
housing as a commodity,

00:27:54.042 --> 00:27:55.959
from gold as a commodity.

00:27:56.083 --> 00:27:58.999
Gold is not a human right,
housing is.

00:28:10.375 --> 00:28:14.834
This building,
this whole complex, has 1,700.

00:28:14.999 --> 00:28:16.501
1,700 units.

00:28:22.459 --> 00:28:25.250
The previous landlords,
I think, were C&C.

00:28:25.417 --> 00:28:27.959
I think they did
put the information up to let us know

00:28:28.083 --> 00:28:30.542
that the complex was going to be sold.

00:28:30.709 --> 00:28:33.709
This is before Fairfield came in.

00:28:33.876 --> 00:28:35.999
Who is Fairfield?
I don\'t know who they are.

00:28:36.125 --> 00:28:40.083
What I\'m told,
Fairfield is a subsidiary of...

00:28:40.250 --> 00:28:43.876
- Is it Blackstone?
- Right, the private equity firm.

00:28:44.000 --> 00:28:49.959
Exactly. They want to raise
the rent up to 900 dollars each.

00:28:50.083 --> 00:28:52.501
- By 900 dollars each?
- By 900 dollars.

00:28:52.667 --> 00:28:56.167
- Are you going to be able to pay that?
- I don\'t know.

00:28:56.334 --> 00:28:59.042
I can definitely say that next year,
there\'s no way.

00:28:59.209 --> 00:29:01.918
And where I\'m going to go,
I don\'t have a clue.

00:29:02.042 --> 00:29:04.751
Right... Do you mind me asking?

00:29:04.918 --> 00:29:07.167
- Are you employed?
- Yes, I am.

00:29:07.334 --> 00:29:11.209
So what percentage of your income
would this be, 2584?

00:29:11.375 --> 00:29:12.751
90%

00:29:12.918 --> 00:29:18.042
About 90, I\'d say...
That\'s right. 90%

00:29:18.209 --> 00:29:21.709
- Do you consider that affordable?
- No, it\'s not.

00:29:21.876 --> 00:29:25.167
If it goes to 3,400...

00:29:25.334 --> 00:29:28.375
Then I\'d have to be making six figures,

00:29:28.542 --> 00:29:31.292
I\'d have to be making
100,000 dollars a year.

00:29:31.459 --> 00:29:34.167
There\'s days I\'m optimistic.

00:29:34.334 --> 00:29:36.292
But then...

00:29:36.459 --> 00:29:39.209
There are some days I\'m more...

00:29:49.334 --> 00:29:52.751
I think Human Rights Law
hasn\'t caught up.

00:29:53.667 --> 00:29:57.918
And it worries me that I haven\'t
quite yet found the language...

00:30:00.083 --> 00:30:02.250
People are coming to me
more and more,

00:30:02.417 --> 00:30:04.501
and wanting me to talk about it,

00:30:04.667 --> 00:30:08.792
but how do we describe it in a way
that will make sense,

00:30:08.959 --> 00:30:11.292
resonate, and really get at that issue?

00:30:11.459 --> 00:30:16.083
I\'m still... I\'m looking for that.
I feel a bit desperate.

00:30:16.250 --> 00:30:21.792
So maybe I need to keep talking
to the people in the financial field.

00:30:34.667 --> 00:30:38.334
The first sign
I noticed when I came here

00:30:38.501 --> 00:30:43.584
was these very limited opening hours.

00:30:43.751 --> 00:30:46.751
They show their tenants
they are willing to meet them,

00:30:46.918 --> 00:30:51.334
but this is three hours per week,
on Tuesdays.

00:30:51.501 --> 00:30:57.459
D. Carnegie is the Swedish arm
of the Blackstone company.

00:31:00.709 --> 00:31:05.250
So many signs
that they don\'t bother much here.

00:31:07.250 --> 00:31:13.751
But it\'s a typical example of the type
of estates they are interested in.

00:31:13.918 --> 00:31:19.667
So every time an apartment is vacant,
they start this renovation,

00:31:19.834 --> 00:31:24.584
whereby they can increase
the rents with roughly 50%.

00:31:26.042 --> 00:31:31.542
But these increased rents have no
connection at all to the actual costs.

00:31:31.709 --> 00:31:35.667
While this is very profitable for them.

00:31:36.667 --> 00:31:40.459
They don\'t really want
to tie up all their money

00:31:40.626 --> 00:31:44.667
into those houses.

00:31:44.834 --> 00:31:47.334
So what they do is

00:31:47.501 --> 00:31:52.751
look for a large number of investors.

00:31:52.918 --> 00:31:56.292
And they create a security

00:31:56.459 --> 00:32:01.167
that says we own these 10,000 homes.

00:32:04.000 --> 00:32:09.042
And you, as the investor,
will get the rents

00:32:09.209 --> 00:32:13.959
and any capital gains
on those properties.

00:32:15.125 --> 00:32:20.542
And if you buy 1% of the security,
you get 1% of that flow.

00:32:22.250 --> 00:32:27.417
That means Blackstone doesn\'t
have its own money at risk

00:32:27.584 --> 00:32:31.876
to the same extent
that it otherwise would be.

00:32:37.667 --> 00:32:40.999
The house you can buy-sell, buy-sell...

00:32:41.125 --> 00:32:44.209
The asset built on that house,

00:32:44.375 --> 00:32:47.918
you can sell it in less than a second.

00:32:48.042 --> 00:32:51.999
You can sell it 35 times in an hour

00:32:52.125 --> 00:32:54.999
if you\'re dealing
with high-frequency trading.

00:32:56.667 --> 00:32:59.999
There is a total disconnect

00:33:00.125 --> 00:33:03.667
between the person living in the home,

00:33:03.834 --> 00:33:06.999
and the person owning the home.

00:33:07.125 --> 00:33:12.959
Owning the house is only
a means to making money.

00:33:14.959 --> 00:33:20.459
- How long have you been living here?
- I\'ve been living here for 32 years.

00:33:20.626 --> 00:33:26.083
I\'m a \"working-class hero\",
as I call myself...

00:33:26.250 --> 00:33:28.834
For fun, of course.

00:33:28.999 --> 00:33:33.125
I work with handicapped people.
And I work night shifts.

00:33:33.292 --> 00:33:35.999
If it became such
that your rent was increased...

00:33:36.125 --> 00:33:38.999
- would you be able to live here?
- It would be very difficult.

00:33:39.125 --> 00:33:44.959
Especially when you are a single parent.
Maybe I could work more, but I think...

00:33:45.083 --> 00:33:50.042
For me it will be difficult,
because I\'m tired as it is.

00:33:50.209 --> 00:33:53.167
They did it \"over our heads\",
as we say in Swedish,

00:33:53.334 --> 00:33:56.918
so \"behind our backs\"?

00:33:57.042 --> 00:33:59.876
And they didn\'t inform us very much.

00:34:14.250 --> 00:34:18.709
Finance is very different from the bank.

00:34:18.876 --> 00:34:20.959
We all need banks, that\'s fine.

00:34:21.083 --> 00:34:25.209
It sells something, we pay money
for that. Finance is totally different.

00:34:25.375 --> 00:34:28.959
I always say that finance
sells something it does not have.

00:34:31.042 --> 00:34:34.959
And in doing that,
it needs to invent brilliant instruments

00:34:35.083 --> 00:34:38.584
that allow it to invade other sectors.

00:34:38.751 --> 00:34:43.209
And that means that finance
is basically an extractive sector.

00:34:43.375 --> 00:34:45.417
It might as well be mining.

00:34:45.584 --> 00:34:50.834
The difference between finance
as mining, and the traditional bank,

00:34:50.999 --> 00:34:55.459
is that the bank wants the sons
and daughters of its current clients

00:34:55.626 --> 00:34:58.751
to do better, because it\'s commerce.

00:34:58.918 --> 00:35:00.999
Finance is like mining,

00:35:01.125 --> 00:35:05.667
once it has extracted what it needs,
it doesn\'t care what happens to the rest.

00:35:22.999 --> 00:35:28.209
I\'m not sure how much description
you\'ve had about the Swedish system.

00:35:28.375 --> 00:35:29.834
Not much.

00:35:32.167 --> 00:35:33.834
- This is the room.
- Thank you.

00:35:33.999 --> 00:35:37.209
People are really proud, it\'s amazing.

00:35:37.375 --> 00:35:41.042
Really proud of the very particular
Swedish housing system.

00:35:41.209 --> 00:35:43.792
I can see why,
as I\'m learning more,

00:35:43.959 --> 00:35:45.751
it\'s a unique system

00:35:45.918 --> 00:35:47.918
and it\'s very protective of the people

00:35:48.042 --> 00:35:52.125
So to bring an outsider in...
And they\'re known as,

00:35:52.292 --> 00:35:55.167
excuse the expression,
but \"vultures\", to some degree...

00:35:55.334 --> 00:35:59.334
To bring them in - I\'m surprised

00:35:59.501 --> 00:36:04.083
that Stockholm,
or Sweden, would do that!

00:36:04.250 --> 00:36:08.209
You have such a special system,
I\'d think you\'d want to protect it.

00:36:09.167 --> 00:36:11.584
And to me, if you look
at the situation, that is done.

00:36:11.751 --> 00:36:16.042
It\'s not realistic...

00:36:17.000 --> 00:36:19.417
to change the situation
and to buy them back,

00:36:19.584 --> 00:36:24.083
I think that\'s impossible.
To me, if you compare it with the tools...

00:36:24.250 --> 00:36:27.334
Maybe that\'s a political issue,
but it\'s already done.

00:36:35.792 --> 00:36:40.667
When you look at the political classes
which I hold responsible in part,

00:36:40.834 --> 00:36:45.999
for a lot of the extremes we\'ve reached
in terms of extracting value,

00:36:46.125 --> 00:36:48.334
so that all our governments now

00:36:48.501 --> 00:36:53.834
are poorer than they were in the 1980s,
when this sort of begins.

00:36:55.459 --> 00:37:01.834
The value of all real estate
that functions as an asset,

00:37:01.999 --> 00:37:06.751
is 217 trillion dollars.

00:37:07.542 --> 00:37:10.334
That\'s more than the global GDP

00:37:10.501 --> 00:37:14.375
of all the countries in the world,
of all the economies in the world.

00:37:14.542 --> 00:37:17.501
So you know that you\'re
dealing with something

00:37:17.667 --> 00:37:23.000
that exits the domain
of what we would call money.

00:37:29.042 --> 00:37:32.918
They are highly camouflaged extractions,

00:37:33.042 --> 00:37:37.667
because they come in the shape
of extraordinarily complex instruments

00:37:37.834 --> 00:37:40.959
that nobody who is not
in that business can understand.

00:37:41.083 --> 00:37:45.417
The political classes,
instead of doing their homework,

00:37:45.584 --> 00:37:47.792
and saying
\"We\'ve left traditional banking,

00:37:47.959 --> 00:37:50.501
we could all understand that,\"
something else has happened.

00:37:50.667 --> 00:37:54.334
It\'s so complex
that we delegate to the experts.

00:37:54.501 --> 00:37:59.292
Who are the experts?
The financial sector itself.

00:38:10.501 --> 00:38:15.584
Goodbye...
I\'ll see you and Ryan after school.

00:38:17.334 --> 00:38:19.125
Come on, Bean.

00:38:19.292 --> 00:38:21.709
Come on, come on...

00:38:30.876 --> 00:38:34.000
We\'re the largest real-estate
private equity firm in the world.

00:38:34.167 --> 00:38:37.667
We\'ve got investments
in people around the globe,

00:38:37.834 --> 00:38:40.375
but by keeping
our business entrepreneurial,

00:38:40.542 --> 00:38:42.083
we can move very, very quickly.

00:38:45.667 --> 00:38:49.999
Jon Gray is the Global Head
of Real Estate for Blackstone Group,

00:38:50.125 --> 00:38:53.792
which is the world\'s largest
private equity manager.

00:38:53.959 --> 00:38:58.626
So, one of the markets you went into
was single-family homes,

00:38:58.792 --> 00:39:00.000
and you have a big portfolio.

00:39:00.167 --> 00:39:01.834
- Was it 50, 000?
- Yes.

00:39:01.999 --> 00:39:03.959
- 50,000.
- Tell us about that.

00:39:04.083 --> 00:39:06.250
So, how do you even
find 50,000 homes to buy?

00:39:06.417 --> 00:39:11.042
You need a global financial crisis
for that to occur.

00:39:11.209 --> 00:39:13.751
You\'re sitting around in 2011,

00:39:13.918 --> 00:39:16.375
saying \"where is there
a large pool of assets

00:39:16.542 --> 00:39:20.000
\"that are going to be sold
by financial institutions

00:39:20.167 --> 00:39:23.250
\"at big discounts to underlying
replacement costs?\"

00:39:23.417 --> 00:39:26.292
And it was pretty obvious
it was single-family homes.

00:39:26.459 --> 00:39:29.375
Let\'s spend 25,000 or so fixing them up,

00:39:29.542 --> 00:39:31.000
and then let\'s rent them out

00:39:31.167 --> 00:39:33.334
and make income-producing
assets out of them

00:39:33.501 --> 00:39:36.125
like an apartment business,
but just not in one large complex.

00:39:36.292 --> 00:39:38.876
But if we do it in enough scale...

00:39:42.250 --> 00:39:44.667
I was just poking around,

00:39:44.834 --> 00:39:48.709
trying to get my head around
some of the stuff around hedge funds

00:39:48.876 --> 00:39:52.250
and buying up
distressed mortgages and all of that,

00:39:52.417 --> 00:39:56.375
and I went onto the Blackstone website...

00:39:56.542 --> 00:39:59.501
I\'ve worked with Bruce
for more than 20 years,

00:39:59.667 --> 00:40:03.959
He\'s an advocate, and thinks
so differently than anyone I know.

00:40:04.083 --> 00:40:07.709
Basically buy up the neighborhood,
gentrify the whole thing,

00:40:07.876 --> 00:40:10.667
and double or triple
the value of the real estate,

00:40:10.834 --> 00:40:14.999
just because you\'ve gentrified the
neighborhood and forced everyone out.

00:40:15.125 --> 00:40:17.751
And makes no mention of people, really.

00:40:17.918 --> 00:40:21.125
By minute 16.5,

00:40:21.292 --> 00:40:25.042
he hasn\'t mentioned the people
who would be living in those places.

00:40:25.209 --> 00:40:28.125
It\'s like a whole other world,
I definitely want to meet with him.

00:40:29.626 --> 00:40:33.918
We own properties around the globe.
We buy these investments on behalf...

00:40:34.042 --> 00:40:38.250
A company like Blackstone,
or any of the big financial enterprises,

00:40:38.417 --> 00:40:42.501
were the big winners in the crisis.

00:40:42.667 --> 00:40:45.999
They were the big winners
in the housing market.

00:40:46.125 --> 00:40:49.999
They were also the big winners
in the equity markets.

00:40:50.125 --> 00:40:54.834
It was as if the US government,
rather than helping the homeowners

00:40:54.999 --> 00:40:57.876
who were losing their homes,

00:40:58.000 --> 00:41:02.876
actually sided with the banks.

00:41:03.000 --> 00:41:06.250
Encouraged foreclosures
to clean up the books,

00:41:06.417 --> 00:41:10.751
gave the money to the hedge funds
and private equity firms,

00:41:10.918 --> 00:41:15.417
who then bought
the distressed assets to make money.

00:41:15.584 --> 00:41:19.626
So it is the way that the 2008 crisis

00:41:19.792 --> 00:41:23.834
has played an important role
in increasing wealth inequality

00:41:23.999 --> 00:41:27.375
in the US and in other countries
that have been afflicted by the crisis.

00:41:37.042 --> 00:41:39.959
It doesn\'t totally work as a statement yet.

00:41:40.083 --> 00:41:42.283
\"Let me give you a snapshot
of the new world of housing,

00:41:42.334 --> 00:41:45.292
\"and while I do so, I urge you
to reflect on the images behind me.\"

00:41:45.459 --> 00:41:46.751
- Just like that?
- Yeah.

00:41:46.918 --> 00:41:49.626
I can\'t remember how
we did it with the homelessness report,

00:41:49.792 --> 00:41:53.918
but I remember when I was
reading my statement, I did have that:

00:41:54.042 --> 00:41:57.125
\"If a pin dropped, we would
have heard it in the room.\"

00:41:57.292 --> 00:42:00.584
And that\'s what I need, because half
the time they\'re on their Blackberries,

00:42:00.751 --> 00:42:04.709
not paying attention.
Their iPhones, I suppose, now.

00:42:04.876 --> 00:42:07.000
Homelessness is
a bit different too, you know.

00:42:07.167 --> 00:42:10.250
We were seeing images of people
and part of the problem then

00:42:10.417 --> 00:42:12.792
is describing the stuff
that\'s supposed to be shocking...

00:42:12.959 --> 00:42:16.834
And it\'s all cranes, buildings
and glass and stuff.

00:42:16.999 --> 00:42:20.125
So you\'re not moved in the same way.

00:42:21.792 --> 00:42:25.209
\"Distinguished delegates,
we are living in a new world,

00:42:25.375 --> 00:42:29.167
\"a world in which the housing sector
has been transformed

00:42:29.334 --> 00:42:31.667
\"by global corporate financial actors,

00:42:31.834 --> 00:42:35.334
\"and massive amounts
of excess global capital.\"

00:42:36.667 --> 00:42:43.542
Global residential real estate
is now valued at 163 trillion dollars.

00:42:43.709 --> 00:42:49.584
More than twice the world\'s total GDP.

00:42:49.751 --> 00:42:53.000
Housing has been financialized.

00:42:53.167 --> 00:42:58.042
Valued as a commodity
rather than a human dwelling.

00:42:58.209 --> 00:43:01.792
What I am suggesting
is a significant change

00:43:01.959 --> 00:43:05.542
away from
the commodification of housing,

00:43:05.709 --> 00:43:08.751
in order to retrieve what housing means

00:43:08.918 --> 00:43:11.959
in terms of human dignity and security.

00:43:12.083 --> 00:43:17.000
As a lived experience.
As a human right. Thank you.

00:43:26.250 --> 00:43:31.334
Well, we\'re walking
through the new estate,

00:43:31.501 --> 00:43:33.209
which is now called Elephant Park,

00:43:33.375 --> 00:43:37.876
which replaces the Heygate Estate,
where I used to live.

00:43:46.042 --> 00:43:48.375
A bit of an empty feeling....

00:43:48.542 --> 00:43:51.667
Look, so many of them,
all of them are empty.

00:43:51.834 --> 00:43:54.584
The flats, many of the homes
in this part of the development

00:43:54.751 --> 00:43:57.667
were sold in Hong Kong and Singapore.
When they\'re sold overseas,

00:43:57.834 --> 00:43:59.626
they\'re not necessarily
sold for people to live in,

00:43:59.792 --> 00:44:01.667
they\'re sold as investments.

00:44:05.626 --> 00:44:08.459
Welcome to my nightmare.

00:44:08.626 --> 00:44:12.876
This is... \"Cell block one\".

00:44:14.999 --> 00:44:16.959
This is my place.

00:44:17.083 --> 00:44:21.000
We\'ve had no heat all through April.
No hot water all through April.

00:44:21.167 --> 00:44:24.918
There\'s water leaking
underneath the sink. It\'s just...

00:44:25.792 --> 00:44:31.000
I need a whole new window.
The windows don\'t match.

00:44:31.667 --> 00:44:34.000
The new owners have taken over.
We haven\'t met them,

00:44:34.167 --> 00:44:37.000
we haven\'t seen them,
we don\'t know anything about them.

00:44:37.167 --> 00:44:40.626
It could be Frosty the Snowman,
for all I know.

00:44:41.459 --> 00:44:44.375
And now
they\'re trying everything to evict us.

00:44:47.709 --> 00:44:50.334
A lawyer came.

00:44:50.501 --> 00:44:53.626
They said: \"Your contract is no good.\"

00:44:56.459 --> 00:45:01.083
By 2017, everyone was gone.
All the families...

00:45:01.250 --> 00:45:05.292
Finally, only my family was living here.

00:45:06.417 --> 00:45:08.501
Come on out...

00:45:08.667 --> 00:45:11.918
I\'ll show you the cameras.

00:45:12.042 --> 00:45:14.792
We\'ve got one here in the back.

00:45:14.959 --> 00:45:19.167
If you come out here, and look up
to your top right-hand shoulder,

00:45:19.334 --> 00:45:21.959
up in the corner,
you\'ll see another camera.

00:45:22.083 --> 00:45:24.083
And down here, on the porch,

00:45:24.250 --> 00:45:28.417
we have the other camera,
right behind you.

00:45:28.584 --> 00:45:30.918
What is this, a fucking prison?

00:45:31.042 --> 00:45:34.000
I\'ve never...

00:45:34.167 --> 00:45:36.000
had to live like this.

00:45:36.167 --> 00:45:37.999
I just don\'t know what to do anymore.

00:45:38.125 --> 00:45:40.250
Without this,

00:45:40.417 --> 00:45:43.042
I\'ll be out on the street
with the heavens pissing on me.

00:45:45.042 --> 00:45:46.834
One person, one family cried a lot.

00:45:46.999 --> 00:45:50.959
Why? He had lived here for 20 years.

00:45:54.999 --> 00:45:59.083
I wouldn\'t like to romanticize
what it was like before...

00:45:59.250 --> 00:46:03.834
It was an ordinary council estate,
lots of ordinary families in it.

00:46:03.999 --> 00:46:08.584
I suppose at this time of day, most
of them would have been off to work.

00:46:08.751 --> 00:46:12.918
Off to school
and off to college, and so on.

00:46:23.501 --> 00:46:26.292
This is where I grew up.

00:46:26.459 --> 00:46:31.042
I\'ll be hell-bent and bound
if I\'m going to be pushed out of here.

00:46:31.209 --> 00:46:34.584
- Or bullied out of here, for that matter.
- Bye, Phil!

00:46:34.751 --> 00:46:37.501
- Bye.
- Bye, sweetheart.

00:46:37.667 --> 00:46:39.209
By, boo...

00:46:39.375 --> 00:46:43.167
- You be a good girl.
- Okay.

00:46:43.334 --> 00:46:45.459
Have fun.

00:46:45.626 --> 00:46:48.792
- I\'ll see you, Sam.
- Okay, see you, guys...

00:46:48.959 --> 00:46:51.959
Bye, Danielle.

00:46:56.000 --> 00:46:58.918
We\'re dealing with...
It\'s a very particular period.

00:46:59.042 --> 00:47:05.250
The elite feel free to violate basic laws.
And then they\'re surprised

00:47:05.417 --> 00:47:11.000
that there is bitterness
among the working classes

00:47:11.167 --> 00:47:14.918
that have lost incredible ground,
a lot of ground, in our society.

00:47:15.042 --> 00:47:16.918
So, it\'s a tough moment.

00:47:17.042 --> 00:47:19.000
And following the money

00:47:19.167 --> 00:47:23.584
brings up a lot
of very substantive reasons

00:47:23.751 --> 00:47:27.125
as to why people are so angry.

00:47:27.292 --> 00:47:30.250
They don\'t know exactly,
they don\'t have the knowledge,

00:47:30.417 --> 00:47:33.000
but they know
that something is not right.

00:47:33.167 --> 00:47:37.042
My work was concerned about
asymmetries of information,

00:47:37.209 --> 00:47:39.667
the fact that some people
know things that other people don\'t,

00:47:39.834 --> 00:47:42.375
and that gives some people the ability

00:47:42.542 --> 00:47:45.250
to take advantage of others.

00:47:45.417 --> 00:47:48.167
You can make more money,

00:47:48.334 --> 00:47:50.834
not by making a better product

00:47:50.999 --> 00:47:55.125
and lowering cost of production,
which is the standard economic analysis,

00:47:55.292 --> 00:47:59.334
but by fishing for fools...

00:47:59.501 --> 00:48:02.834
Looking for people
you can take advantage of.

00:48:04.292 --> 00:48:09.501
They\'re not creating wealth,
they\'re actually just taking wealth.

00:48:10.042 --> 00:48:13.459
If you\'re somebody
like the head of Blackstone...

00:48:13.626 --> 00:48:18.999
I\'ve heard them talk about
the big advantages of deregulation.

00:48:21.042 --> 00:48:23.709
Of course he wants to be able to exploit

00:48:23.876 --> 00:48:28.209
the people who are living
in his properties.

00:48:43.042 --> 00:48:45.959
You know, preparing for
a meeting with Blackstone,

00:48:46.083 --> 00:48:49.584
what questions would you have
the Special Rapporteur ask?

00:48:49.751 --> 00:48:52.042
Blackstone,
depending on who I meet there.

00:48:52.209 --> 00:48:55.542
Because they\'re cash-rich,

00:48:55.709 --> 00:48:59.000
they\'re not a conventional landlord.

00:48:59.459 --> 00:49:04.542
They\'re completely speculating
on this future that they\'re creating.

00:49:04.709 --> 00:49:07.876
When you\'re a company
on the size and scale of Blackstone,

00:49:08.000 --> 00:49:09.334
you can buy a whole neighborhood.

00:49:09.501 --> 00:49:12.709
The power dynamic
is dramatically different.

00:49:12.876 --> 00:49:16.751
It\'s not just the power that comes
with the ability of having the cash

00:49:16.918 --> 00:49:21.083
to buy large swathes of land at once,
it\'s also political power.

00:49:21.250 --> 00:49:26.918
Yeah, that piece is very important to me,
because I hold states accountable.

00:49:27.042 --> 00:49:31.501
I need to be able to hold
the government of the US accountable,

00:49:31.667 --> 00:49:35.584
who can then hold Blackstone
and other private equity companies

00:49:35.751 --> 00:49:37.334
accountable to that whole model.

00:49:47.792 --> 00:49:51.375
In my family,
my immediate nuclear family,

00:49:51.542 --> 00:49:55.000
whenever there\'s a problem that arises,

00:49:55.167 --> 00:49:57.584
always say to my kids and my partner:

00:49:57.751 --> 00:50:03.501
The only way to get through this,
whatever it is, is to talk about it.

00:50:03.667 --> 00:50:05.918
I don\'t see it different
on the world stage.

00:50:06.042 --> 00:50:10.375
Maybe I\'m naive,
but I\'d like to be in a room with

00:50:10.542 --> 00:50:14.000
the Head of Global Real Estate
of Blackstone.

00:50:14.167 --> 00:50:19.959
If I can get him
to talk about the human side of this,

00:50:20.083 --> 00:50:21.834
then we might get somewhere.

00:50:54.250 --> 00:50:58.542
People could be having a great time,
and then you can just see it physically

00:50:58.709 --> 00:51:01.125
in their bodies when we get to that topic.

00:51:01.292 --> 00:51:05.334
You can see it in their eyes,
how they hold their shoulders.

00:51:05.501 --> 00:51:08.792
\"You know, I don\'t know
how long we can live here.\"

00:51:08.959 --> 00:51:13.334
\"I don\'t know how long
we\'re going to be able to stay.\"

00:51:22.417 --> 00:51:26.751
The reason we live in cities
is for those accidental intimacies.

00:51:31.501 --> 00:51:35.375
It\'s... You\'re walking down the street
when you bump into someone

00:51:35.542 --> 00:51:39.417
and you end up having a conversation.
You come to a bar, and you wind up

00:51:39.584 --> 00:51:43.999
sitting next to somebody who\'s 20-30
years older, or younger, than you.

00:51:44.125 --> 00:51:48.542
And get into a conversation and before
you know it, you\'re figuring out life.

00:51:58.250 --> 00:52:01.876
The big thing that pisses me off is
that everywhere there\'s a condo,

00:52:02.000 --> 00:52:04.125
there\'s another Shoppers Drug Mart
and another TD bank

00:52:04.292 --> 00:52:06.751
and another corporate store!

00:52:10.042 --> 00:52:15.792
Pulling our money out of the community,
when it should be circulating within us.

00:52:36.792 --> 00:52:41.626
Kreuzberg was
like Harlem or the Bronx.

00:52:43.000 --> 00:52:45.167
Now it\'s hip.

00:52:45.334 --> 00:52:47.626
And \"tutto bene\".

00:52:58.209 --> 00:53:05.000
A letter saying:
\"Your contract is about to expire.\"

00:53:05.167 --> 00:53:11.167
\"We would like a renegotiation.
If not, termination.\"

00:53:11.334 --> 00:53:12.918
That\'s it.

00:53:14.667 --> 00:53:19.042
600 euros more, as of next month.

00:53:29.459 --> 00:53:31.999
\"According to the market\"...

00:53:32.125 --> 00:53:34.083
What could they possibly mean?

00:53:34.250 --> 00:53:40.792
Foot traffic? Frequency?
No idea.

00:53:45.000 --> 00:53:47.709
There\'s nothing you can say.
That I can say...

00:53:51.709 --> 00:53:53.584
\"Thank you.\"

00:53:55.375 --> 00:53:57.334
Like a coward.

00:54:00.209 --> 00:54:05.167
The table was bought for here,
tiles were installed...

00:54:06.626 --> 00:54:09.959
These are all investment costs.

00:54:12.167 --> 00:54:15.999
I\'m held prisoner by my own shop.

00:54:16.876 --> 00:54:19.999
And it\'s not just me,
all the other restaurants are affected too.

00:54:33.083 --> 00:54:40.542
Here in Kreuzberg, the rent increase
is higher than in Berlin.

00:54:40.709 --> 00:54:44.000
And the increase in Berlin
is about 20%

00:54:44.167 --> 00:54:48.000
Here, new rental properties
make up about 70% of the market.

00:54:49.250 --> 00:54:52.876
But Kreuzberg is known
for being populated by rebels,

00:54:53.000 --> 00:54:57.709
and we now have
the opportunity to show Germany

00:54:57.876 --> 00:55:00.209
or even the world,
that we can put a stop to this.

00:55:04.459 --> 00:55:10.083
There have been demonstrations,
protest actions and talks.

00:55:10.250 --> 00:55:14.292
And there have
been negotiations with politicians.

00:55:14.459 --> 00:55:18.250
There are initiatives that state:
\"We want to keep these places.

00:55:18.417 --> 00:55:20.542
\"They are meeting places.\"

00:55:20.709 --> 00:55:25.167
It might be a bookshop
or a greengrocer\'s...

00:55:25.334 --> 00:55:31.417
We\'re trying to explore every means
to buy back certain parts of the city.

00:55:32.250 --> 00:55:37.501
We\'ve secured something like
40 buildings in the past two years.

00:55:37.667 --> 00:55:41.834
That means more than 1,000
apartments, which is hardly insignificant.

00:55:43.667 --> 00:55:48.709
It\'s not about starting a revolution
and getting hung up on blame,

00:55:48.876 --> 00:55:52.209
it\'s about
restoring balance to the system.

00:55:58.042 --> 00:56:01.417
How far can you manage
to swim against the current?

00:56:01.584 --> 00:56:08.417
You won\'t succeed.
The fact is that nothing will change.

00:56:08.584 --> 00:56:11.167
People with money want to invest it.

00:56:11.334 --> 00:56:16.709
If you don\'t have money, you\'re screwed!
They force you out, gobble you up.

00:56:16.876 --> 00:56:22.250
Whatever you do is a drop in the ocean.
It\'s over. The train has already left...

00:56:22.417 --> 00:56:26.501
- But you\'re still here.
- Well, I\'ll have to raise my prices.

00:56:26.667 --> 00:56:30.250
I don\'t want to.

00:56:30.417 --> 00:56:36.417
I need to charge more, and hope
people will still buy my baked goods.

00:56:38.667 --> 00:56:44.250
This has nothing to do with gentrification,
I\'m convinced of that.

00:56:44.417 --> 00:56:49.584
We\'re dealing with something different.
That\'s why I\'m glad I don\'t have your job.

00:56:49.751 --> 00:56:53.000
- But I\'m zoning out.
- You\'re a fatalist.

00:56:53.167 --> 00:56:56.250
I can\'t convince you
that fighting would make a difference.

00:56:56.417 --> 00:57:01.292
Me?
You got that all wrong, I am a fighter.

00:57:06.042 --> 00:57:11.167
If I need a computer, I\'m not going to
go to the factory, I need a franchise.

00:57:11.334 --> 00:57:13.709
But do I really need a multinational

00:57:13.876 --> 00:57:15.556
to have a cup of coffee
in my neighborhood?

00:57:20.083 --> 00:57:23.667
When you have a Starbucks, it means
that some of the consumption capacity

00:57:23.834 --> 00:57:28.626
of the neighborhood goes away,
to the corporate.

00:57:30.667 --> 00:57:33.876
And then it just becomes
money that finance can use.

00:57:58.834 --> 00:58:03.626
Count four down
from the top left-hand corner.

00:58:03.792 --> 00:58:06.083
- My flat was there.
- Oh, my God...

00:58:06.250 --> 00:58:10.501
I actually bought my flat,
so I own that flat. I\'ve paid my mortgage.

00:58:10.667 --> 00:58:13.125
The problem is, the prices round here...

00:58:13.292 --> 00:58:18.959
for any flat around here,
is extortionate.

00:58:19.083 --> 00:58:23.501
They wanted to give us a little bit
of money and say, \"off you go\".

00:58:23.667 --> 00:58:25.334
But then I\'d have to move out of London,

00:58:25.501 --> 00:58:30.209
so I\'ve decided
to stay with friends.

00:58:32.876 --> 00:58:37.667
Most of the people that lived in that
tower block have still not been homed.

00:58:37.834 --> 00:58:40.250
- Nine months later.
- Nine months later...

00:58:43.709 --> 00:58:46.542
So anyway, to cut a long story short...

00:58:46.709 --> 00:58:48.751
I\'m now in a hostel.

00:58:48.918 --> 00:58:52.042
The place that they could offer me
could be anywhere in the country,

00:58:52.209 --> 00:58:56.125
and if I don\'t accept it.,
I\'d become intentionally homeless.

00:58:56.292 --> 00:58:58.999
- Anywhere in the country?
- Yeah.

00:58:59.125 --> 00:59:02.501
It could be Birmingham,
it could be Manchester, anywhere.

00:59:02.667 --> 00:59:07.417
If you can treat people,
after a tragedy like that,

00:59:07.584 --> 00:59:11.876
the way they\'re treating them now...
What hope does anyone have?

00:59:12.000 --> 00:59:17.209
The UN and also the ECHO,

00:59:17.375 --> 00:59:21.584
what are they doing to implement
sanctions for those in authority?

00:59:21.751 --> 00:59:27.542
So what comfort are you giving to us
that it\'s going to be addressed now?

00:59:39.459 --> 00:59:41.751
There must have been a time
when somehow,

00:59:41.918 --> 00:59:43.999
if you wanted to come to the city,
you had a job in the city,

00:59:44.125 --> 00:59:46.417
you could live in the city.

00:59:52.250 --> 00:59:58.083
We have arrived at a moment where
there is a gaping hole in our system.

01:00:02.042 --> 01:00:05.876
Most of our major international systems

01:00:06.000 --> 01:00:09.667
don\'t take the individual so seriously.

01:00:28.125 --> 01:00:29.626
Hi.

01:00:30.751 --> 01:00:34.542
- How\'s it going? How\'d you sleep?
- Not bad.

01:00:34.709 --> 01:00:36.999
But did you see the email?

01:00:37.125 --> 01:00:41.042
I just forwarded it to you.
From Blackstone.

01:00:41.209 --> 01:00:45.250
- Shall I read it?
- Why, what did they say?

01:00:45.417 --> 01:00:47.542
- They canceled the meeting.
- Oh, shit...

01:00:47.709 --> 01:00:52.250
He says: \"Your email was timely,
I need to cancel our meeting.\"

01:00:52.417 --> 01:00:56.042
And then he says: \"I hope you have
a productive trip to New York.\"

01:00:56.209 --> 01:00:59.959
- Nothing about rescheduling?
- No...

01:01:00.083 --> 01:01:02.834
- It\'s not very nice.
- It\'s hard to...

01:01:02.999 --> 01:01:05.751
They\'re living
in a totally different world than you are.

01:01:05.918 --> 01:01:09.959
But it would have
been an interesting conversation.

01:01:33.250 --> 01:01:35.999
I always picture myself like...

01:01:37.042 --> 01:01:41.834
I\'m 5 foot 2 (157 cm tall),
I\'m from this nowhere place.

01:01:41.999 --> 01:01:46.292
And I\'m trying to make
a huge difference globally.

01:01:47.250 --> 01:01:50.375
I\'m trying to change
an entire conversation...

01:01:51.417 --> 01:01:56.042
that\'s embedded in the way
people live all around the world.

01:01:56.209 --> 01:02:01.584
I look back at that girl from Ottawa,

01:02:01.751 --> 01:02:05.250
sitting in her basement office,
and it\'s like...

01:02:06.042 --> 01:02:08.042
What am I thinking?

01:02:08.209 --> 01:02:11.209
Is this ridiculous?

01:02:12.042 --> 01:02:14.834
Am I being ridiculous?

01:02:26.042 --> 01:02:28.792
This is armored glass.

01:02:33.667 --> 01:02:40.751
You tell the truth and get killed...
It\'s not as simple as that.

01:02:40.918 --> 01:02:46.542
You tell a true story,
you get an audience...

01:02:46.709 --> 01:02:49.709
And that\'s what makes you dangerous.

01:02:51.334 --> 01:02:55.584
It\'s the price you pay for telling a story.

01:03:00.459 --> 01:03:07.292
I was 26 when it started.
11 years have passed...

01:03:09.083 --> 01:03:12.292
I\'m used to battles.

01:03:23.250 --> 01:03:26.292
Elevators remind me...

01:03:28.501 --> 01:03:30.334
of tombs.

01:03:30.501 --> 01:03:34.209
Confined spaces bother me.

01:03:35.667 --> 01:03:39.626
Imagine that you make
100 million euros

01:03:39.792 --> 01:03:45.292
by trafficking cocaine or migrants.

01:03:46.292 --> 01:03:49.667
What do you do?
You buy restaurants,

01:03:49.834 --> 01:03:54.792
hotels and houses. How do you
justify such huge amounts of money?

01:03:54.959 --> 01:04:01.209
You open a company
in an offshore tax haven.

01:04:02.292 --> 01:04:10.292
You buy things on the cheap
with legal money.

01:04:10.709 --> 01:04:18.042
A restaurant in Rome, a hotel, houses...
Nothing suspicious.

01:04:18.209 --> 01:04:23.751
Then you sell those properties
to your company in a tax haven.

01:04:24.375 --> 01:04:30.042
Your offshore company
brings the assets back

01:04:30.209 --> 01:04:32.501
to Italy, England or Germany.

01:04:32.667 --> 01:04:35.501
This is how you launder and distribute
money all over the world.

01:04:35.667 --> 01:04:39.167
If you want to bring your dirty money
back into your country,

01:04:39.334 --> 01:04:47.334
you simply buy it from yourself,
at a much higher price than you paid.

01:04:48.667 --> 01:04:52.501
This mechanism cannot be attacked.

01:04:57.250 --> 01:05:03.167
Tax havens are where
legal and illegal capitalism meet.

01:05:05.000 --> 01:05:12.667
What do Queen Elizabeth,
the drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero,

01:05:12.834 --> 01:05:17.626
Shakira and Apple have in common?

01:05:17.792 --> 01:05:25.375
They all have a portion of, or almost all,
of their capital in a tax haven.

01:05:29.459 --> 01:05:34.501
Banks do business with cartels and
with those who make money honestly.

01:05:34.667 --> 01:05:39.834
Money from cocaine
and from tax shelters

01:05:39.999 --> 01:05:42.125
comes together in the same place.

01:05:43.501 --> 01:05:45.792
What happens to this money?

01:05:45.959 --> 01:05:49.667
It becomes companies, tourism,

01:05:49.834 --> 01:05:54.125
hotels, shops,
supermarkets, soccer teams...

01:05:55.667 --> 01:05:59.334
art, museums, and politics.

01:05:59.501 --> 01:06:04.334
You can no longer trace its origin.

01:06:05.918 --> 01:06:12.584
The first thing companies
like Amazon, Facebook and Netflix do,

01:06:12.751 --> 01:06:17.000
is look for a way to pay less in taxes.

01:06:17.167 --> 01:06:21.209
How is it possible
in a country like Italy,

01:06:21.375 --> 01:06:25.959
that an honest worker pays 60%,

01:06:26.083 --> 01:06:31.584
while a multi-billion-dollar company
only pays 4% in taxes.

01:06:38.918 --> 01:06:42.584
Two drivers are coming with the cars.

01:06:42.751 --> 01:06:45.584
Can I take the stairs?

01:06:45.751 --> 01:06:47.959
I\'m going now.

01:06:53.876 --> 01:06:56.709
Companies don\'t want
inexpensive real estate,

01:06:56.876 --> 01:07:00.250
they want to pay as much as possible,

01:07:00.417 --> 01:07:02.959
to be able to hide more money.

01:07:07.000 --> 01:07:12.083
Without money from your family,

01:07:12.250 --> 01:07:17.000
the next generation won\'t
be able to own a home.

01:07:38.459 --> 01:07:43.501
It is a totally dysfunctional system.

01:07:45.292 --> 01:07:50.626
In the late 1970s and 1980s,
there developed...

01:07:50.792 --> 01:07:54.292
I\'m calling it an ideology, a religion,

01:07:54.459 --> 01:07:58.959
that markets solve all problems.

01:07:59.083 --> 01:08:02.167
There\'ll be big winners,
there\'ll be big losers.

01:08:02.334 --> 01:08:06.417
In the name of equality, should the
winnings be redistributed to the losers

01:08:06.584 --> 01:08:09.667
so that everybody
ends up where he started?

01:08:09.834 --> 01:08:12.042
That would take
all the fun out of the game.

01:08:12.209 --> 01:08:14.999
The high priest was Milton Friedman.

01:08:15.999 --> 01:08:19.209
The big experiment
was Chile under Pinochet.

01:08:19.375 --> 01:08:23.792
It took a dictator
to really implement these ideas.

01:08:25.459 --> 01:08:30.125
They thought that if we privatized,
stripped away regulations,

01:08:30.292 --> 01:08:33.751
and lowered taxes,
growth would go up.

01:08:33.918 --> 01:08:36.542
Everybody would get more.

01:08:36.709 --> 01:08:39.667
Some people
would get a lot more, at the top,

01:08:39.834 --> 01:08:43.417
but putting aside envy,

01:08:43.584 --> 01:08:48.459
everybody would
get a bigger piece of the pie.

01:08:50.459 --> 01:08:54.250
It ignored the many instances

01:08:54.417 --> 01:08:56.792
where markets do not work well.

01:09:01.834 --> 01:09:05.459
What produced this tremendous
improvement in technology?

01:09:05.626 --> 01:09:09.959
It was self-interest,
or if you prefer, greed...

01:09:10.083 --> 01:09:15.042
Milton Friedman gave them
an economic argument

01:09:15.209 --> 01:09:20.417
for why they should be
unconcerned about morality.

01:09:23.042 --> 01:09:27.000
Well, after a third of a century
of this experiment,

01:09:27.167 --> 01:09:29.125
we now know that it\'s wrong...

01:09:30.667 --> 01:09:36.167
that you can make money
by destroying the world.

01:09:36.334 --> 01:09:38.999
And there\'s something wrong with that.

01:09:45.042 --> 01:09:47.999
When I think
how will finance come down...

01:09:48.125 --> 01:09:50.167
It\'s bringing itself down.

01:09:50.334 --> 01:09:56.083
It has extracted so much value,
that it\'s stuck now.

01:09:56.250 --> 01:09:58.626
It\'s beginning to go
on the other side of the curve,

01:09:58.792 --> 01:10:01.083
it\'s beginning to decline.

01:10:01.250 --> 01:10:04.709
The amount of value,
the capacity to invent more assets,

01:10:04.876 --> 01:10:08.626
we see sort of a stasis a bit.
So it will bring itself down.

01:10:08.792 --> 01:10:12.459
It will come back, potentially roaring,

01:10:12.626 --> 01:10:15.792
but right now,
it\'s a bit of stasis.

01:10:35.876 --> 01:10:42.125
\"We need a worldwide,
multi-sectoral movement.

01:10:42.292 --> 01:10:44.052
\"We need to change
how the world thinks about

01:10:44.209 --> 01:10:47.375
\"and interacts with housing and home.

01:10:47.542 --> 01:10:52.792
\"The Shift sees housing
as a human right, not a commodity.\"

01:10:52.959 --> 01:10:56.250
We\'re going to do bullets, like: bam!

01:10:57.250 --> 01:11:01.959
If we\'re going to defend
cities as we know them,

01:11:02.083 --> 01:11:04.959
I can\'t do it alone.

01:11:05.667 --> 01:11:09.834
I decided to create
a new movement called \"The Shift\",

01:11:09.999 --> 01:11:12.834
so that we can come up with ideas

01:11:12.999 --> 01:11:17.167
of how to protect our cities.

01:11:17.999 --> 01:11:21.792
It\'s not an NGO movement,
it\'s not a movement of just cities,

01:11:21.959 --> 01:11:26.999
it\'s a movement, hopefully,
of all stakeholders.

01:11:27.125 --> 01:11:30.999
You know, it\'s fitting to be
launching The Shift here in Barcelona,

01:11:31.125 --> 01:11:33.876
where the effects of financialization
have taken hold.

01:11:34.000 --> 01:11:36.000
And where there\'s
a mayor like Ada Colau.

01:11:36.167 --> 01:11:38.417
I hired a young woman, Julie,

01:11:38.584 --> 01:11:43.501
who had a background
in International Human-Rights Law.

01:11:43.667 --> 01:11:46.542
I knew that she could really
handle the demands

01:11:46.709 --> 01:11:49.459
of being an assistant to a Rapporteur.

01:11:52.667 --> 01:11:54.292
Cut-and-paste these and move them up.

01:11:54.459 --> 01:11:58.375
\"One third of deaths worldwide are linked
to poverty and inadequate housing.\"

01:11:58.542 --> 01:12:00.250
- It\'s good.
- Yeah.

01:12:02.042 --> 01:12:07.459
Cities are becoming
the playground for the rich,

01:12:07.626 --> 01:12:12.626
and excluding middle-,
low-income and poor households,

01:12:12.792 --> 01:12:15.834
pushing them out of cities.

01:12:15.999 --> 01:12:21.042
We need a worldwide movement
to reclaim and realize

01:12:21.209 --> 01:12:24.417
the fundamental right to housing.

01:12:24.584 --> 01:12:29.667
The principal factors in pushing
people out of Barcelona

01:12:29.834 --> 01:12:32.459
are housing speculation, gentrification,

01:12:32.626 --> 01:12:38.959
and big capital, which like vultures
hover over our city

01:12:39.083 --> 01:12:43.918
to seize maximum benefits
at the cost of basic needs.

01:12:45.250 --> 01:12:51.042
I\'ve been looking at Blackstone,
the largest private equity firm.

01:12:51.209 --> 01:12:54.999
They have more power than the State.

01:12:55.125 --> 01:12:58.751
You know exactly, you\'re crying.

01:13:00.876 --> 01:13:06.042
So how are you... You need the support
of the state, the national, behind you,

01:13:06.209 --> 01:13:11.167
If you\'re going to try to move in
and influence Blackstone.

01:13:11.334 --> 01:13:16.250
- Sometimes we win.
- Give me an example.

01:13:16.417 --> 01:13:20.584
- What an example of when you\'ve won?
- Sometimes we win time.

01:13:20.751 --> 01:13:24.792
At least for a year,
and that\'s very important.

01:13:24.959 --> 01:13:28.083
- Stop them from doing what?
- Renovation works.

01:13:28.250 --> 01:13:32.834
- The fact is, by all the buildings...
- They renovate them.

01:13:32.999 --> 01:13:36.417
When we have some of these
hedge funds trying to speculate,

01:13:36.584 --> 01:13:40.042
and they want to buy the building,
we buy it first.

01:13:40.209 --> 01:13:43.584
But we do it because we have money...

01:13:43.751 --> 01:13:45.459
That can be expensive.

01:13:45.626 --> 01:13:49.876
I\'m interested to know how the investors,

01:13:50.000 --> 01:13:56.792
\"vulture funds\", the hedge funds,
Airbnb, are reacting to what you\'re doing.

01:13:56.959 --> 01:14:03.792
Airbnb had a strong reaction,
they were very aggressive.

01:14:03.959 --> 01:14:09.542
They can\'t stand being regulated.

01:14:09.709 --> 01:14:14.709
Some groups acting
like authentic mafias right now.

01:14:16.709 --> 01:14:22.042
I spoke to Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London.

01:14:22.209 --> 01:14:26.834
Their main issue is housing speculation.

01:14:26.999 --> 01:14:33.584
We exchange strategies to get stronger.
Big cities all face similar problems.

01:14:33.751 --> 01:14:41.250
We want productive, fair,
and sustainable investments in our city.

01:14:41.417 --> 01:14:45.334
It\'s a David and Goliath situation.

01:14:45.501 --> 01:14:49.209
It\'s a tough fight.
Some nights, we don\'t sleep.

01:14:49.375 --> 01:14:52.792
Expectations are very high,
people\'s lives are at stake.

01:15:19.083 --> 01:15:23.292
It was really incredible
to see you and Ada there.

01:15:24.667 --> 01:15:29.667
You don\'t get that often,
seeing two women with children and...

01:15:29.834 --> 01:15:32.709
To have that moment too, where you
can talk about your kids,

01:15:32.876 --> 01:15:35.584
And it\'s like,
talk about changing the world

01:15:35.751 --> 01:15:40.542
from one breath to another,
it\'s not something you see.

01:15:41.250 --> 01:15:47.042
- It feels like it was so tiny.
- Before we got here.

01:15:47.209 --> 01:15:49.918
And now it\'s like...

01:15:51.417 --> 01:15:54.792
The Mayor of Barcelona
is maybe going to pitch this

01:15:54.959 --> 01:15:58.167
to the Mayor of New York,
the Mayor of London...

01:15:59.834 --> 01:16:03.876
So, the question is...
The big question, Julie.

01:16:04.000 --> 01:16:08.042
- Are you up for it?
- I\'m up for it.

01:16:11.417 --> 01:16:13.667
- Okay...
- Cheers!

01:16:29.459 --> 01:16:31.834
The starting point that I had

01:16:31.999 --> 01:16:37.459
was these big private
equity firms like Blackstone...

01:16:37.626 --> 01:16:42.125
It has taken me
some time to ask the question:

01:16:42.292 --> 01:16:45.667
Where are they getting their money from?

01:16:48.042 --> 01:16:51.417
Pension funds have
a huge amount of money.

01:16:51.584 --> 01:16:56.125
They need to grow
in order to make sure

01:16:56.292 --> 01:17:00.042
that the people
who pay into the pension fund

01:17:00.209 --> 01:17:05.042
have something to live on
at the end of their working lives.

01:17:05.209 --> 01:17:07.959
My mission to South Korea
was planned well before

01:17:08.083 --> 01:17:10.459
I had this piece of information:

01:17:10.626 --> 01:17:12.626
Some of the largest pension funds
are right here.

01:17:12.792 --> 01:17:14.584
The National Pension Service

01:17:14.751 --> 01:17:17.834
is the third-largest
pension fund in the world.

01:17:17.999 --> 01:17:20.375
It was one of the poorest countries,

01:17:20.542 --> 01:17:25.834
and now it\'s the 11th-largest
economy in the world.

01:17:25.999 --> 01:17:28.751
In 50 years, that\'s pretty impressive!

01:17:28.918 --> 01:17:32.792
But, of course, to make that happen,
in a 50-year period,

01:17:32.959 --> 01:17:39.334
required a kind of brutalism
of massive development.

01:17:55.667 --> 01:18:00.083
There were 340 houses here.

01:18:01.042 --> 01:18:06.167
In 2008, the thugs started coming.

01:18:08.250 --> 01:18:12.876
The thugs were hired
by the construction company.

01:18:13.000 --> 01:18:17.709
The police came with the thugs
to watch their backs.

01:18:20.667 --> 01:18:27.999
They came over that hill,
with hammers.

01:18:29.042 --> 01:18:33.083
The villagers were inside.
The thugs destroyed the walls and got in.

01:18:33.250 --> 01:18:39.834
Lots of women were beaten,
including my wife.

01:18:42.459 --> 01:18:45.584
They kicked her in the stomach.

01:18:46.250 --> 01:18:49.959
When she passed out,
they kept on kicking her.

01:19:01.042 --> 01:19:04.250
No one seems to know

01:19:04.417 --> 01:19:07.918
that that\'s where
their pension money is going.

01:19:08.042 --> 01:19:10.876
No one seems to really care.

01:19:11.000 --> 01:19:14.792
That\'s how we
will be able to move forward,

01:19:14.959 --> 01:19:18.125
just through some simple conversations.

01:19:18.292 --> 01:19:23.167
I did speak with representatives
from the National Pension Service,

01:19:23.334 --> 01:19:26.334
and they were
pretty matter-of-fact at first

01:19:26.501 --> 01:19:30.250
about what their job is, and I get it:

01:19:30.417 --> 01:19:33.167
Their job is
to grow money for pensioners.

01:19:33.334 --> 01:19:36.751
We give our money to asset managers.

01:19:36.918 --> 01:19:40.167
They then decide where it gets invested.

01:19:40.334 --> 01:19:42.999
So, distancing themselves from it.

01:19:43.125 --> 01:19:46.834
So it doesn\'t really matter
where the pension money\'s going,

01:19:46.999 --> 01:19:48.209
as long as it\'s a good return.

01:19:50.042 --> 01:19:53.501
National and city governments
in South Korea

01:19:53.667 --> 01:19:57.584
need to make some major shifts

01:19:57.751 --> 01:20:02.459
before they will be in full compliance
with their human rights obligations.

01:20:02.626 --> 01:20:09.459
Human Rights law is very specific
about those types of projects.

01:20:09.626 --> 01:20:14.834
First of all: Forced eviction,
under international human rights,

01:20:14.999 --> 01:20:18.626
is considered
a gross violation of human rights.

01:20:18.792 --> 01:20:21.501
People die in forced evictions.

01:20:21.667 --> 01:20:26.626
People\'s lives are basically ruined.
It\'s not to be taken lightly.

01:20:39.042 --> 01:20:42.792
Core issues,
like climate change, housing,

01:20:42.959 --> 01:20:48.334
they ought to be embedded into the
fiduciary frameworks of pension funds.

01:20:58.667 --> 01:21:04.417
Pension funds are representing
people who are going to retire.

01:21:09.250 --> 01:21:13.125
And you have to ask,
how would they feel about this?

01:21:16.250 --> 01:21:21.417
Would they feel comfortable
with owning shares in a company...

01:21:23.209 --> 01:21:25.542
that is that immoral?

01:21:59.918 --> 01:22:03.209
I\'d lived there 38 years.

01:22:03.375 --> 01:22:08.918
Paid my rent for 38 years and they\'re
supposed to upkeep the building.

01:22:09.042 --> 01:22:12.083
But the management company

01:22:12.250 --> 01:22:16.417
had readily admitted
there\'s been nothing done for 40 years.

01:22:16.584 --> 01:22:19.459
So where\'s all that money
I\'ve already spent?

01:22:19.626 --> 01:22:22.542
Now the new company
wants me to give them more money.

01:22:22.709 --> 01:22:27.209
The unit that I live in, in one year
has gone up about 325 dollars.

01:22:27.375 --> 01:22:33.542
It\'s a familiar story, it\'s the same
situation we were dealing with.

01:22:33.709 --> 01:22:38.000
They just wouldn\'t do repairs,
they try to make your living environment

01:22:38.167 --> 01:22:42.792
as toxic as possible,
but you have the moral high ground.

01:22:42.959 --> 01:22:47.667
So talk to the media.
This is how we won the rent strike.

01:22:47.834 --> 01:22:52.876
You\'re in the first month of the rent
strike and we went into month four.

01:22:53.000 --> 01:22:56.876
So it\'s a bit of a haul,
but it\'s worth all your time and effort.

01:22:57.000 --> 01:23:00.125
Through some research,
we\'ve discovered

01:23:00.292 --> 01:23:03.709
that the previous landlords
who had the building,

01:23:03.876 --> 01:23:05.751
this new company
came in and bought them out.

01:23:05.918 --> 01:23:08.375
And this property management company

01:23:08.542 --> 01:23:11.375
has investment companies
that have certain shares.

01:23:11.542 --> 01:23:17.167
And one of them turns out to be
a government pension fund holder.

01:23:17.334 --> 01:23:20.959
So imagine, you have
George here on a pension,

01:23:21.083 --> 01:23:24.999
and they are taking care of money
for pension holders, right?

01:23:25.125 --> 01:23:27.751
Wait \'til they find out
that somebody who\'s on a pension

01:23:27.918 --> 01:23:31.751
is being extorted,
and they\'re pushing him out!

01:23:31.918 --> 01:23:34.918
Why are you pushing
working-class people out of your home?

01:23:35.042 --> 01:23:39.375
That\'s a question you have to ask
these pension-fund holders, right?

01:24:02.876 --> 01:24:07.209
The one thing that we are weak on

01:24:07.375 --> 01:24:11.334
that has been
brought up to me a couple of times,

01:24:11.501 --> 01:24:15.876
is that this is rhetoric,
it\'s political grandstanding...

01:24:16.000 --> 01:24:19.709
- But I see value in rhetoric these days.
- I do too.

01:24:19.876 --> 01:24:21.626
I think the battle is rhetoric.

01:24:21.792 --> 01:24:26.667
When people hear their government
say that this is a human right,

01:24:26.834 --> 01:24:29.667
it empowers the citizens.

01:24:29.834 --> 01:24:32.083
That\'s not rhetoric.

01:24:32.250 --> 01:24:35.209
Are they only staying tonight?

01:24:35.375 --> 01:24:38.667
I get back Tuesday night,
but kind of late.

01:24:38.834 --> 01:24:40.667
What else has been going on?

01:24:40.834 --> 01:24:43.501
We\'re doing The Shift meeting.

01:24:43.667 --> 01:24:45.918
The mayors are going to be there...

01:24:46.042 --> 01:24:47.999
Cool. It\'s pretty cool,

01:24:48.125 --> 01:24:51.959
I feel slightly, you know...

01:24:52.083 --> 01:24:53.375
Things can go sideways.

01:24:53.542 --> 01:24:56.834
Overwhelmed?
No, I don\'t feel...

01:24:58.250 --> 01:25:00.709
Stressed?

01:25:05.459 --> 01:25:11.000
- Hi, I\'m Leilani, the Special Rapporteur.
- I\'m from the Mayor\'s team.

01:25:17.334 --> 01:25:21.501
- Good to see you - again.
- Yes. It\'s good to see you.

01:25:33.501 --> 01:25:36.083
We\'re buying back land.

01:25:36.250 --> 01:25:39.959
The land we now possess
will remain in public ownership.

01:25:41.501 --> 01:25:47.709
Airbnb refused to talk to us.
We issued a fine of 600,000 euros...

01:25:47.876 --> 01:25:52.000
Now Airbnb are talking to us!

01:25:57.209 --> 01:26:01.042
We have come together
with cities, with partners,

01:26:01.209 --> 01:26:05.584
with local government associations
to build a partnership.

01:26:05.751 --> 01:26:10.459
In Berlin, we will no longer
allow public land to be privatized.

01:26:10.626 --> 01:26:12.959
We may even go further than that.

01:26:13.083 --> 01:26:18.918
I\'ve read about things
they do in London or here in New York

01:26:19.042 --> 01:26:21.417
that would be fantastic.

01:26:21.584 --> 01:26:25.999
That\'s why this declaration
is very important.

01:26:26.125 --> 01:26:34.125
It\'s vital that this political message can
bring cities together in their diversity.

01:26:34.375 --> 01:26:39.999
What you around this table do
can have a huge influence.

01:26:40.125 --> 01:26:42.709
It can guide other cities to prevent

01:26:42.876 --> 01:26:47.000
powerful financial actors...
And they are powerful!

01:26:47.167 --> 01:26:51.083
From dismantling
cities as we know them.

01:26:51.250 --> 01:26:55.584
We thought a lot about whether it
was the right time for New York

01:26:55.751 --> 01:26:58.417
to sign on to this declaration,
and we decided it really is.

01:26:58.584 --> 01:27:01.000
These are issues
we are all grappling with.

01:27:01.167 --> 01:27:05.042
We do feel like it\'s a great opportunity
to be learning from each other.

01:27:05.209 --> 01:27:09.459
- We\'re very excited to be part of this.
- Thank you very much.

01:27:19.709 --> 01:27:22.042
I don\'t have any pictures of you.

01:27:22.209 --> 01:27:24.042
Now I do.

01:27:24.209 --> 01:27:27.751
Anyway, we do need to do...
We should do another piece,

01:27:27.918 --> 01:27:30.501
now Jane Dudman
is back from the Guardian.

01:27:30.667 --> 01:27:33.209
I wonder about taking
another \"kick at the can\"...

01:27:34.250 --> 01:27:37.042
- on financialization.
- I think we need to.

01:27:37.209 --> 01:27:40.834
The one take-away they should know

01:27:40.999 --> 01:27:43.959
is that cities
around the world are shifting.

01:27:44.083 --> 01:27:47.083
And publicly doing so...

01:28:09.709 --> 01:28:13.125
Every place I\'ve been,
people are really hospitable.

01:28:13.292 --> 01:28:16.083
In Serbia, you can show up
for lunch with 16 people,

01:28:16.250 --> 01:28:20.209
and they\'re like: \"Here, let\'s have
the 14-year-old rakija Grandpa made!\"

01:28:24.918 --> 01:28:28.125
I have two things for you that I\'m hoping
will help you move forward,

01:28:28.292 --> 01:28:32.542
to ensuring the right to housing
is in the national housing strategy.

01:28:32.709 --> 01:28:35.459
The first one is totally practical:

01:28:35.626 --> 01:28:37.918
Draft legislation.

01:28:39.209 --> 01:28:40.292
Amazing...

01:28:45.250 --> 01:28:48.959
We use the same language...

01:28:49.375 --> 01:28:52.417
to capture something
that has foundationally changed.

01:28:53.918 --> 01:28:57.918
They\'re not intrinsically evil,
but they are intrinsically amoral.

01:28:58.042 --> 01:29:01.834
So amoral that they are, I would say...

01:29:02.000 --> 01:29:03.959
evil!

01:29:08.918 --> 01:29:13.167
I am the agent who\'s helping Kiren find
a place and we saw your place today.

01:29:13.334 --> 01:29:15.417
Oh, my God! Here\'s Kiren.

01:29:15.584 --> 01:29:17.501
I love, love, love this house!

01:29:17.667 --> 01:29:21.292
I love the backyard, I love the place
up top, the beautiful sanctuary.

01:29:21.459 --> 01:29:24.999
The sliding-glass doors,
the big island in the kitchen...

01:29:25.125 --> 01:29:29.167
I need a new home, and I\'m looking
forward to maybe that one being it.

01:29:29.334 --> 01:29:31.334
Have a great day.

01:29:31.501 --> 01:29:32.501
Yay!