Mutual‑aid shelters as pressure valves

When formal housing and welfare systems fail, mutual‑aid shelters scale to provide emergency beds, food and advocacy, operating on donations and volunteer labour. Those grassroots operations both relieve immediate harm and create political pressure by making visible persistent system failures. — If mutual‑aid shelters become the default frontline provider, they reshape accountability (who delivers care), fiscal politics (what governments must fund), and urban governance (permitting, public‑private coordination).