Several attendees at a Maryland street festival said they would support government seizure of their homes for public benefit.
Matt Volk, a Maryland resident interviewed at the rainy Sunday Takoma Park Street Festival, said he broadly backed the idea. “Yeah, I mean broadly,” he said. “It’s highly situational, but I definitely think that there’s a lot of privately owned land and property that would be better put to use for public use, for resources and housing and things like that for people who are in need of things like that.”
Karen Irwin, another festival-goer wearing a shirt that read “Auntifa: Making White men uncomfortable since 1975,” went further in her enthusiasm. “I mean, if we were all doing it, I’d be so game,” she said. “Do you know what I mean? And who’s coming to me? Is this a decision I’m making through democratic means? Then yes, yes, I would be so game. If I voted for it, sure.” She pressed additional questions about historical context: “You want to be able to keep your property. From what time are we talking? From what in the history of this country? Is it just right now, from right now moving forward, whatever it is you have?” she asked. “Or, you know, 100 years ago, when someone else had it. But the government might have taken it away for whatever reason.”
Jaw Blake, also a Maryland resident, offered more conditional support. “I don’t know that I would necessarily love it, but I mean, if it was something that was beneficial I’d at least consider it,” he said. “Nobody wants what they have to be taken away from them, but there is something we said about like you can set up things so that they’re available for everybody.”
Not all interviewees embraced the concept. Jenny Sniderman pushed back on surrendering property without compensation. “Of course I don’t want to give up my private property,” she said. “Are they going to reimburse me fairly? That would be helpful in making my choice.”
Steve Ney rejected home seizure entirely but endorsed a different interventionist housing policy, citing New York City’s recent rent stabilization measure. “I think the idea of rent stabilization, for example, is an excellent idea where you limit the rate of increase in rent in order to help people stay in their homes,” he said. That July vote by the city’s Rent Guidelines Board, enacted under socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani, froze rent increases for one- and two-year leases on rent-stabilized apartments and has since drawn legal challenges from property owners.
Nina Gilden Seavy, a self-identified historian at the festival, dismissed the redistribution premise outright. “I think that’s a ridiculous idea. I mean, that’s, it’s a fool’s errand,” she said. “The idea that somehow we’re gonna be better off if the government is in charge of allocating all resources that sounds not in any way desirable.”
The interviews took place in Takoma Park, a liberal enclave just outside Washington, DC, where homes and businesses display LGBT pride paraphernalia and Black Lives Matter decorations. The street festival conversations came as a March Fox News poll found 38% of Americans viewed moving toward socialism as positive, with very liberal voters and Democrats under 45 each at 66% support.