A home is much more than bricks and mortar

By Michael Giles

March 9, 2026

It really is incredible how many expressions exist that reference the idea of “home.” From “there’s no place like home” to “home is where the heart is,” the concept of “home” is ingrained within the human psyche.

It’s fascinating to conceive that the home evolved from caves to wooden structures dating back 476,000 years in the area of Kalambo Falls on the Tanzanian/Zambian border. Early human structures date back 30,000 to 10,000 years BC. More permanent villages emerged in the10,000-to-8,000-BC period.

Speak to anthropologists and they’ll tell you that homes are the principle locations where human beings came to understand the importance of social norms and societal integration.

The anthropologist, Claude Lévi-Strauss, refers to “house societies,” which sees homes as the place where family descent is secured and protected, and power and wealth grow within the concept of broader societal integration.

Another anthropological concept sees the home as an ongoing process that provides comfort, safety and a sense of belonging. In essence, it shrouds the occupants in a cloud of normalcy.

I once wrote a speech for an elected official that included a line reading (paraphrasing), “The home is the foundational block upon which all other success in life emerges, including the ability to attend school or work successfully, be part of a community from recreation to societal interaction to the most basic of human needs, including shelter, personal safety and family bonding.”

In essence, it is hard to succeed in life without a safe, comfortable and predictable place to call home.

The late former British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, once stated, “We shape our homes and then our homes shape us.” 

All of which brings us to the challenges facing millions of people in this country and beyond, particularly those who are young. 

For most of human history, the notion that one day most people could afford to own a home was foundational to their view of themselves within society and community. 

With the exception of cyclical financially challenging times, such as the Great Depression, the concept of home ownership was not some alien notion ascribed to the few. In the post-industrial world following the devastating realities of the Victorian era, all were eventually taught that if you worked hard, managed your resources well and behaved responsibly there was no reason you could not own your little part of the world. 

There are few among us who would argue that times have changed. For the first time in generations, a huge swath of people simply cannot conceive of a path to securing for themselves a home they can afford and maintain over a period of time. 

Increasingly, young people in particular are abandoning the dream of homeownership. They face an economic reality that ascribes for them a seemingly endless period of living in the basement of their parent’s or sharing accommodation with multiple acquaintances. 

This is not just a narrative about a vision of inadequate living arrangements. It is a reality that, if not addressed, will create vast and enduring societal impacts, none of which any of us should want to envision. 

I return to the beginning of this article and reiterate that a safe, comfortable and stable home is the basis upon which all other success in life is ultimately predicated upon. Lose this and we lose societal cohesion, the foundational institution of the family unit, productivity, wealth creation and growth and more nebulously the very societal linkage that supports strong cities, nations and the world itself. 

This may sound a little dramatic, but it is the truth. All of us, and in particular those who govern, need to realize that this housing crisis goes way beyond the ability to build, purchase and occupy a building; it speaks to the foundational nature of what a home really is - and it’s definitely way beyond bricks and mortar.