The Devil’s Room

We should always turn on the “No Vacancy” sign when this guest comes calling.

Affordable housing may not be enshrined as an inalienable right in the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution of the United States, but most folks know everyone needs a home: a safe place to go with a light in the window.

There’s no place like home, and it takes a lot to make a house a home. One of a home’s most important functions is to provide “a place for our stuff,” as the late comedian George Carlin once observed. “That’s all your house is: a place to keep your stuff,” he said. “If you didn’t have so much stuff, you wouldn’t need a house. … A house is just a pile of stuff with a cover on it.”

Some people need McMansions with three-car garages for all their stuff. The mega-rich need mega homes that look like the campus of a community college. Perhaps you’ve caught some social media reels about the homes of the rich and famous — people like Bill Gates, Tiger Woods, Peyton Manning, Pierce ...