The impact of housing finance policies on the right to adequate housing of those living in poverty 2012, para. 45
Paragraph- Paragraph text
- Originally designed to target the poorest and most disadvantaged, capital-grant programmes have had difficulties reaching low-income households, mainly owing to the inability of low-income families to assemble significant down payments or to meet the monthly payments of market-rate loans. In some cases, the subsidy was set so low as to prevent, a priori, the possibility of purchasing a housing unit without additional substantial credit or savings. Even when able to meet the credit or savings requirement, many of the new owners could not afford to maintain the accommodation or pay the charges for their water and electricity, and were forced to sell their homes. Capital grants can use means testing to determine eligibility; however, targeting mechanisms have proven very complex and costly, as they require accurate and updated information on income and household consumption, which is often in poor supply in developing countries owing to, inter alia, high levels of informal employment. Because reliable income and asset data are rare, some countries rely on proxy measures of income to determine eligibility and benefit levels, such as the ownership of a car or the volume of electricity consumed by a household. However, even the best proxy systems can suffer from substantial exclusion and inclusion errors.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Means of adoption
- N.A.
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Year
- 2012
- Paragraph type
- Other
- Reference
- SR Housing, Report to the UNGA (2012), A/67/286, para. 45.
- Paragraph number
- 45
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