Jan. 9, 2025
As planners across the country address the nation's growing housing crisis, communities from Minneapolis to Austin are beginning to embrace the wisdom of a pro-development agenda. But while we've started to make progress addressing the root causes, and new housing construction numbers are edging up, there is still a long way to go to make up for decades of chronic under-building. Though estimates vary, experts agree we need a lot more housing, somewhere in the ballpark of four to seven million additional units, to meet demand.
Paradoxically, a surprisingly high amount of "new construction" is built on the site of existing homes, simply replacing older stock. According to a 2022 report from the National Association of Home Builders, over nine percent of new homes built the previous year resulted from teardowns. (In the Pacific region, that number is over 20 percent, despite having some of the strongest pro-housing movements at the local and state levels.)
To some extent, these figures may represent the natural cycles of creative destruction played out at the local level, as aging housing stock gives way to updated construction. Rather than fix older homes with sinking foundations, leaky roofs, outdated floor plans, poor insulation, and a variety of other ills, it may simply make economic sense to start over. But the process represents a dramatic form of neighborhood change: when modest, de facto affordable "workforce housing" is knocked down and replaced with upscale models pitched to richer buyers, this teardown-oriented construction can exacerbate patterns of gentrification and displacement.
Mountains, a 2023 film by first-time director Monica Sorelle, shines a light on the very human dimensions of the development, displacement, and loss experienced when a neighborhood is transformed, one house at a time. Set in Miami's Little Haiti — a historic, vibrant community full of small squares and humble bungalows built over a century ago and home to generations of Haitian and other Caribbean immigrants since the 1970s — the film follows the everyday struggles of Xavier (Atibon Nazaire). The soft-spoken, middle-aged Haitian immigrant works demolition on a construction crew, where steady employment means contributing to the destruction of his own neighborhood.
Xavier is a loving but tired husband, a caring but critical father, a responsible homeowner, a reliable worker, a faithful friend, and a frustrated dreamer. He tolerates the frequent indignities that come with being a Black immigrant working for those who make more money. But he is content to be moving toward his own definition of the American Dream for his small family. We see the cramped house he calls home, chock-full of color, life, flavorful food, and love thanks to his wife Esperance (Sheila Anozier), who works two jobs to supplement their income. We meet his son, Junior (Chris Renois) — a college dropout with dreams of his own — and see the intergenerational tension between the two. All the while, their neighborhood is slowly changing with each teardown. A family of neighbors is lost, to be replaced by a very different group of residents.
Sorelle grew up in North Miami and experienced these processes firsthand. She clearly understands the complexity planners and activists face in confronting the dynamics of neighborhood change. Her directorial style is one of a hopeful realist, shying away from a simplistic, black-and-white analysis and resting with the gray in-between emotions felt by all the characters.
Through the subtle and slow tracking and some wonderful wordless acting (despite a few clunkier moments bordering on stereotype when showing the "gentrifiers"), Mountains renders a rich portrait of community change in an ethnic immigrant neighborhood. The film doesn't give simple solutions to these complicated issues, some of which planners, neighbors, and a new generation of community organizers will likely have to contend with while navigating the tradeoffs between growth, development, stability, and community.
Mountains is streaming on Prime Video and Apple TV+. It has won jury and audience awards at several film festivals, including a Special Jury Mention at Tribeca.
If you liked Mountains, you may also enjoy . . .
99 Homes (2014)
This box-office sleeper is a tense interpersonal drama directed by Ramin Bahrani (Man Push Cart, Chop Shop). It explores the seamy underside of the predatory real estate business, as a newly unemployed and recently unhoused Florida construction worker takes a job as an eviction enforcer. The film ponders the ways in which one man's success depends on the misery of others in the amoral world of foreclosure capitalism.
99 Homes is available to stream on The Roku Channel, Plex, and Tubi.
The Big Short (2015)
Based on Michael Lewis's best-selling book, Adam McKay's film adaptation employs an innovative blend of nonfiction, drama, and comedy — including cameo performances by celebrities and economic policy experts — to explain the complex web of factors that led to the growth of subprime mortgages and the subsequent 2007 housing crash.
The Big Short is available to stream on Paramount+ and Pluto TV.
70 Acres in Chicago: Cabrini Green (2014)
Ronit Bezalel's in-depth documentary features a teardown on a grander scale: the demolition of Chicago's Cabrini Green housing complex, which was once home to over 15,000 people, primarily Black. The site's towers were demolished between 1995 and 2011 to make way for new development. The film shows the tension of urban renewal, putting on display the anger, grief, loss, and struggles of the families who called this place home.
70 Acres in Chicago: Cabrini Green is available to stream online.
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