Dina Oetterli, ledamot i förbundsstyrelsen, skriver krönika på bostadspolitik.se och efterfrågar en politik som sätter människan i fokus.
Imagine you are in primary school in a deprived area of Stockholm. It may be hard to imagine, but let's try. Your parents are foreign-born and the most common questions you and the rest of the class ask substitutes are 1. "Where are you from?" and 2. "What languages do you speak?". No one in the class has parents from Sweden. So no one. You think that "the city" feels foreign and far away, even though it is only 20 minutes away by tube. A couple of your classmates wear the same clothes every day. Some classmates haven't been to school for weeks and school staff haven't had time to report concerns. There is too much going on. Teachers deal with emotions and parents. Teachers are mentors both in and out of school, heroes. Yes, heroes they are. Those who are able to continue working.
It's Monday and a new week. Apparently your new math teacher is Dina Oetterli
It's Monday and a new week. Apparently your new math teacher's name is Dina Oetterli. You think "the new teacher's surname sounds a bit unusual, maybe she's foreign like the rest of us in the class... exciting... but still hard to change teachers again". It's no wonder you feel this way, because I was the eighth math teacher in the class within two years.
You have just decided to focus on school. Your big sister sat you down recently and said "You need to focus on school, focus on grades! It's the only way to go!". You think that now is the time. You're in seventh grade and there are only two years left where you can fight for good grades, get into a good high school and hopefully change your environment. You don't want to think about it, but the criminal gangs are lurking around the corner.
New pupils join the class all the time. Maybe every two months or so. Then newly arrived and often deeply traumatized children are moved from language introduction classes to regular classes. To your class. Since newly arrived children have no waiting time for either independent school or housing, they end up in your municipal school, which has to bear an increasingly heavy responsibility. At the same time, you have not received any new math books because there is a purchase ban at the school. The municipality cannot afford to buy books for the pupils. In addition, it turns out that the grades from the final exam of the last math course have disappeared, the results were not included in the handover to your new math teacher.
I have to tell the students that their achievements disappeared, got lost, just like that
My stomach turns. I have to tell the pupils that their achievements have disappeared, been lost, just like that. That all the hard work and the rare fighting spirit has been in vain. You're about to find out, and your math teacher is about to give up and be replaced again.
I wish I could say that this story was not true, but it is. It is true. I only lasted five weeks as a secondary school teacher in a deprived area. After five weeks, I was so devastated, so sad, so defeated. I could not continue. I couldn't stand for the work I had to do. All the students who were at risk of failing. Who had given up and didn't even want to apply for high school.
Yes, because everything is connected. Housing is a crucial part of the social contract
Why am I writing about this on a housing policy website? Well, because everything is connected. Housing is a crucial part of the social contract. Having a safe place to call home is a prerequisite for everything else in life to work. In vulnerable areas, criminal gangs run rampant. New arrivals are increasingly being placed in vulnerable areas. It is in deprived areas that school results are low or... lost. In deprived areas, million-dollar programs are bought up, renovated and rents are raised. It is in deprived areas that those who struggle might as well give up. Now we also seem to have a majority in Parliament who want to evict children. Yes, children! And others who live with someone who commits a crime. It's not fucking wise. Personally, I think it's time to first recognize what a betrayal the social system has been over the past two decades and that it's time to invest in and celebrate those who are fighting from scratch.
Reintroduce government investment subsidies and introduce low-cost government construction loans
I am calling for policies that force independent schools to accept new arrivals, that force all municipalities to allocate land according to housing construction needs and a policy that really invests in welfare. That is, economic policies that spend more money on welfare than is needed to maintain the level of welfare we have today. Anything else must not be called an "investment". Housing is of course part of welfare. Government investment subsidies should be reintroduced and government subsidized construction loans should be introduced. Housing is constitutionally protected, clearly formulated in Article 25 of the Human Rights Act and is part of the UN's global sustainability goals in Agenda 2030. Housing is our right and the politicians' damned obligation to provide.
I am calling for policies that put people, you, at the center. Policies that enable every struggling child to reach their full potential. I want policies that create a society where we take care of each other. Policies that care and do not punish. Policies that focus on the Constitution, human rights and citizens.
Let's hope that the politicians in charge get the food market in order and that it is not handled as the housing issue has been handled since the mid-90s
Right now, politicians are standing by while food prices soar. Food is also a human right. Let's hope that the politicians in charge get the food market in order and that it is not handled like the housing issue has been handled since the mid-90s. Because the question is what is more difficult; to be homeless and full, or to have a home and go hungry, or to have neither a home nor the money to eat? Because if the politicians have their way, we will soon have many children who are both hungry and homeless.
Dina Oetterli
Ledamot i förbundsstyrelsen jagvillhabostad.nu
The column was published on bostadspolitik.se 2023-03-16 and is available here.
