By Pablo Yanes Rizo

Former research coordinator of the ECLAC-Mexico Subregional Headquarters

Few hesitate to recognize that the traditional mechanisms of social inclusion of youth populations are in a deep crisis. Neither the school nor the market are responding to their demands, aspirations and life projects. It is in this sense that we speak of a crisis for the future of youth. It is no longer about looking in the long term, but about surviving and getting through the day to day. The expectations anchored in the social mobility instruments of the wage society show increasing signs of exhaustion. School as a prelude to entry into the formal labor market and employment as a gateway to social security are seriously questioned by a regime of accumulation (neoliberalism, in brief) that has had the world of work and the world as adjustment variables. of public services. This is why today we have the enormous paradox of having the youth populations with the most years of schooling in history and, at the same time, the highest unemployment rates precisely in these highly educated populations. Another paradox, although the State has fulfilled its function better (providing educational services) than the market (generating sufficient and quality jobs). Thus the links between education and employment and between employment and social security have been broken. Even more, among youth populations there is a combination of high unemployment, on the one hand, and high job insecurity, on the other. Youth populations are living, therefore, in a world of palpable insecurities and diluted certainties that have serious effects on the capacity for collective action and to build long-term views. Building floors of security, confidence and autonomy for youth seems to be a route of the new social policies that these populations demand and require and that, without disdaining the importance of education and employment, cannot be only the effort to reconstruct the institutions of the wage society. The conceptual framework of policies for youth populations, I propose, must move from the axis of inclusion to the axis of emancipation. That is, beyond accessing education and integrating into the world of employment, what is required is to build the conditions to have freer, more autonomous people with the ability to design their life projects. Part of this new look must include the right to a guaranteed income as a right of citizenship (basic income or universal citizen income) and bring to the conversation one of the rights least considered in the design of policies for youth: the right to housing . Youth housing is the elephant in the room. It is time to make the problem visible and define ways to overcome it. Under the assumption of emancipation, housing plays a central role in the aspirations of youth. It is usual to assume that the reference framework of policies for youth includes education, employment, culture, sports, recreation, sexual and reproductive health, mainly. It is time to include the right to housing for youth populations. To date, the right to housing is recognized in the fourth article of the Constitution, but from a family perspective (“Every family has the right to enjoy decent and decent housing”). It would be appropriate to discuss whether the right to housing belongs to the family or belongs to individuals. It is striking that in all the other rights included in this constitutional article (identity, health protection, water, a healthy environment, food) it is stated “every person has the right”, the only exception is housing. . I clarify that when referring to the right to adequate housing it does not necessarily imply the right to own housing, it can be rented or another type as long as it is affordable. But it is becoming less and less so for young people who indefinitely postpone leaving the family unit and continue living with their parents well into their adult lives. A policy to promote the autonomy and independence of young people has one of its most important components in the emancipation of the family unit. However, rising housing prices, job instability and low salaries make this increasingly difficult. The intermediate solution that many young people find is to share a home, sharing the cost of the rent (roomies), and even then it is difficult and they have to allocate a very significant part of their income to pay the rent. If we want to make the search for emancipation the axis of youth policies, we must bring the housing problem into the debate. And do it as soon as possible to design policies and programs that make it accessible and affordable. Urgent.