Across the world, people are being priced out of housing at every level, even as housing has become the most valuable asset on Earth. The session explores how the housing crisis is a result of deliberate political and legal choices that enabled the financialization and hyper-commodification of housing in North America. In this Lunch and Learn, we will: - Discuss the difference between policy and law; - Examine key U.S. laws that have explicitly contributed to today’s hyper-commodification of housing; - Discuss why legal analysis (including historical) matters for advocacy; and - Explore the pathways that remain for community-level advocates in a challenging political climate. This presentation draws on a paper written during Julia’s LL.M at Columbia Law School which analyzed the legal and political systems that shaped the financialization of housing in New York City, and adapts those finding for a broader federal audience.