Discussing the Values: Retrieving Use Value of Property in Housing Contexts

Abstract

Beyond its exchange value, housing has a high use value, since it is essential to life. Article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights recognizes that housing plays a central role in the right to an adequate standard of living. In Quebec, the protection of the right to housing is often advocated through various sections of the Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms, and the Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse recommends that the right to housing be explicitly included in the right to measures of financial assistance and to social measures susceptible of ensuring an acceptable standard of living, under section 45 of the Charter. For public authorities in Quebec and Canada, individual ownership is the favoured means to provide housing. Since the post-war period, and even more so since the early 1990 s, public policies have encouraged individual ownership