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Analysis of two alternative housing policies: rental and collective housing 2013, para. 4
- Paragraph text
- A nearly unanimous belief in individual homeownership marginalized public rental housing; in many countries most of such housing was sold off. Similarly, the process led to radical changes in tenure structure; in many formerly planned economies owner-occupied housing now forms the bulk of the housing stock (for example, 96 per cent in Estonia and 77 per cent in Slovenia and more than 80 per cent in China). Even in countries where massive privatization did not occur, the ideological transfer of responsibility for the provision of housing to the market has been accompanied by the view that individual homeownership is the best tenure option and the centre of all housing policies. Some countries with a long tradition of broad-based social rental housing redefined their systems to promote ownership and "free market" principles. With subsidized accommodation less available, some households that might have otherwise rented were pushed towards homeownership.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Analysis of two alternative housing policies: rental and collective housing 2013, para. 5
- Paragraph text
- In her previous report (A/67/286, paras. 10-13), the Special Rapporteur highlighted how the deregulation, liberalization and globalization of housing finance have had major implications for housing and urban development, eventually leading to the global affordability and housing crisis we are witnessing today. Housing costs are disproportionately affecting the poor and in Europe represent an average of 41 per cent of the income of people at risk of poverty. The affordability crisis is compounded by the erosion, neglect and liberalization of non-market mechanisms for allocating housing resources, such as rental housing (public and private) and different forms of cooperative and collective ownership, among others.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Analysis of two alternative housing policies: rental and collective housing 2013, para. 6
- Paragraph text
- Paradoxically, side by side with the housing affordability and availability crises there is also a phenomenon of millions of empty or under occupied housing units, a clear reflection of the ineffectiveness of the current model. For illustration, there are nearly 1 million empty homes in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, of which 350,000 have been empty for more than six months; in the United States 14.2 million homes have been vacant for more than one year.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Analysis of two alternative housing policies: rental and collective housing 2013, para. 9
- Paragraph text
- However, during the past two decades new mortgage products were designed specifically for borrowers with low incomes or poor credit history who were not eligible for regular mortgage finance, generating sub-prime loans. Although those lending policies were intended to enable access to credit for low-income households, they are extremely discriminatory: the poorer the credit taker, the higher the interest he/she has to pay. High-interest loans led to ever-increasing household indebtedness, economic insecurity, mortgage arrears and repossession rates. Poor households were forced to reduce expenditure on other essential needs, like food or medicines, in order to meet their housing debt.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Analysis of two alternative housing policies: rental and collective housing 2013, para. 14
- Paragraph text
- However, in the absence of land planning and regulations, a large amount of subsidies available in the housing market has led to significant increases in land and housing prices, a general problem of affordability for low-income households and long waiting lists.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Analysis of two alternative housing policies: rental and collective housing 2013, para. 15
- Paragraph text
- Problems have also emerged with regard to the location of housing units, some exacerbating exclusion and segregation. In countries like Chile, subsidized housing developments were built in the urban periphery where land costs were lowest, but which lacked adequate infrastructure, schools, health facilities, transportation and employment opportunities and were characterized by low habitability.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Analysis of two alternative housing policies: rental and collective housing 2013, para. 17
- Paragraph text
- Until the 1980s, slum dwellers and the urban poor had not been a target for financial services. However, in the 1980s private financial investors came to regard the poor as "bankable", and in the past 10 years, a growing number of housing microfinance programmes emerged offering loans to low-income households. Housing microfinance loans are much smaller than mortgages, are typically granted for shorter terms and are used mainly to finance progressive improvements to housing (for example, building sanitary amenities) and expansions to an existing dwelling.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Poverty
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Analysis of two alternative housing policies: rental and collective housing 2013, para. 22
- Paragraph text
- The sections below provide a review of alternative housing policies for the urban poor that have been largely ignored by States in recent years - rental arrangements and collective and tenure - while analysing their compatibility with the promotion of the right to adequate housing of those living in poverty.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Analysis of two alternative housing policies: rental and collective housing 2013, para. 26
- Paragraph text
- Rental arrangements provide a range of options to low-income households in terms of location, improved mobility (particularly related to employment opportunities) and flexibility in terms of dwelling type (smaller or shared units that are not available in other tenure forms). Rental tenure enables low-income households to avoid house price risks, indebtedness and exposure to falling capital values and carries a lower transaction cost than homeownership. Rental housing also provides a regular additional source of income for low-income small landlords, which can serve as a safety net against precarious employment or as a form of pension after retirement and old age. This is particularly important in the case of low-income settlements. However, construction of extensions for renting purposes is often discouraged by planning regulations and stringent building standards.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Analysis of two alternative housing policies: rental and collective housing 2013, para. 35
- Paragraph text
- Critics of rent control and regulation claim that such measures produce inefficiencies, distort market values, reduce the housing supply and encourage corruption and low housing maintenance. Rent regulation has also been criticized for not targeting low-income households since controlled rents and protected tenancies usually favour those who have lived in rental housing for years over potential new tenants, and there is no mechanism to ensure that those benefitting from rent control are the low-income households.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Analysis of two alternative housing policies: rental and collective housing 2013, para. 37
- Paragraph text
- Such examples demonstrate that it is possible to design rent regulation and tenancy protection mechanisms that do not distort or discourage the private rental market but actually encourage it. A well-regulated rental market can promote the goals of protecting tenants, particularly low income, and encouraging rental housing simultaneously. On the other hand, the elimination of rent controls and the easing of eviction procedures, has rarely led to more investment in the rental market but has actually skewed the market in the direction of homeownership.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Analysis of two alternative housing policies: rental and collective housing 2013, para. 41
- Paragraph text
- Most informal landlords let property that lacks a building license, do not issue written contracts, do not abide by rental and tax legislations and requirements, and in most cases are unaware(as are their tenants) of the existing relevant legislation.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Analysis of two alternative housing policies: rental and collective housing 2013, para. 42
- Paragraph text
- The informal rental sector is a crucial component of the housing sector in developing countries and is also increasing today in many European cities, filling a gap created by the current housing policies that do not adequately address the housing needs of low-income households. Unfortunately, slum upgrading programmes have largely ignored the impact on tenants and have sometimes even failed to notice that most target settlements even contain tenants. In some cases, the upgrading programmes even prohibit owners from letting upgraded properties. Such situations are incompatible with the obligation of States to promote the right to adequate housing, inter alia, by facilitating the "self-help" efforts of disadvantaged groups. However, there are a few reliable programmes that include direct subsidies and cheap loans to owners who need to repair their properties and to owners who wish to extend their property to accommodate additional tenants.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Analysis of two alternative housing policies: rental and collective housing 2013, para. 43
- Paragraph text
- While increasing access to homeownership for low-income households through credit has proved to lead to overindebtedness and housing crises, rental housing has the potential to promote a range of more affordable options, while reducing financial risk and enabling better mobility.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Movement
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Analysis of two alternative housing policies: rental and collective housing 2013, para. 53
- Paragraph text
- The collective structure also promotes affordability and security of tenure by enabling group loans or savings or, in some cases, assistance funds for temporary defaults by members. The collective organization and management of common areas and housing maintenance is also crucial to promoting affordability for low-income households. In the Scandinavian model, homeowners will typically fund 75-80 per cent of the cost of a housing development, while the rest is covered by a loan taken by the daughter cooperative. Cooperative homeowners also benefit from a 30 per cent tax reduction on interest expenditures on either cooperative shares or properties. Tenants may be evicted by the cooperative board only in a limited number of circumstances. In the case of community funds, interest rates on loans are usually relatively low and loan periods are often long, up to 25 years.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Analysis of two alternative housing policies: rental and collective housing 2013, para. 64
- Paragraph text
- Although not all types of collective organizations are accessible to the poorest segments of society, there are numerous advantages to such a form of tenure, including: (a) the use of community leverage to compete with existing housing market forces; (b) cooperative and collective forms of tenure are inextricably linked to enhanced democratic participation, better access to information, and community-led governance; (c) both cooperatives and community funds provide their members with financial strength (through community loans or savings that enable low-income households better access to housing finance); (d) as opposed to the individual finance schemes detailed above, community organizations also have the ability to control land and housing affordability by controlling land prices (community land trusts), providing increased economic resilience (through financial support to households that temporary encounter financial difficulties (Federation of Mutual Aid Housing Cooperatives), protecting low-income households from the housing market volatility and by limiting economic displacement and gentrification.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Centrality of the right to adequate housing for the development and implementation of the New Urban Agenda to be adopted at Habitat III in October 2016 2015, para. 39
- Paragraph text
- Housing status, such as being homeless or a "squatter" or a resident of an informal settlement, has become more than a marker of deprivation in cities. It has become a social identity that is often the basis for stigmatization and discrimination, limiting opportunities and creating further obstacles to inclusion and equality.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Centrality of the right to adequate housing for the development and implementation of the New Urban Agenda to be adopted at Habitat III in October 2016 2015, para. 50
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- To attend to the needs of diverse groups and ensure accountability, it is important that housing safety issues be addressed within a human rights framework. At a minimum, according to international human rights obligations, cities must ensure that there are safe places for people to reside when their homes become dangerous. Basic services like sanitation and water must be available in a manner that poses no risk to safety (see A/HRC/21/42, paras. 39 and 40) and housing design must be responsive to the needs of particular vulnerable groups, as articulated by those groups.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Centrality of the right to adequate housing for the development and implementation of the New Urban Agenda to be adopted at Habitat III in October 2016 2015, para. 59
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- When visiting residents of informal settlements, one is invariably struck by the human capacity to create vibrant communities with dignity and beauty despite the gross lack of almost everything. This capacity can be better harnessed; residents of informal settlements usually can identify the structural causes of their conditions, and they know well their needs and the barriers to meeting their needs. Frequently, they have a vision for their future and the future of their communities and can develop effective and targeted solutions. Engaging residents to participate in realizing their right to adequate housing is consistent with a human rights framework. For this to happen, local and national governments must be willing to recognize these communities as legitimate participants in urban democracy and as drivers of their own well-being.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Centrality of the right to adequate housing for the development and implementation of the New Urban Agenda to be adopted at Habitat III in October 2016 2015, para. 64
- Paragraph text
- Inadequate housing, homelessness and the informal settlements in cities must be addressed not only as a failure of housing and upgrading programmes but primarily as a failure of existing laws to ensure human rights. Residents of informal settlements lack both housing structures and basic legal protections, such as security of tenure, health and safety protections and entitlements to services. They are deprived not only of housing but of the protections afforded by the rule of law, which in turn makes them vulnerable to further deprivations.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Centrality of the right to adequate housing for the development and implementation of the New Urban Agenda to be adopted at Habitat III in October 2016 2015, para. 76j (i)
- Paragraph text
- [The Special Rapporteur recommends that the urban rights agenda should:] The implementation of an urban rights agenda must include the following baseline human rights requirements: (i) A commitment to realize the right to adequate housing with clear goals and timelines for: a. Reducing and ultimately eliminating homelessness; b. Ensuring security of tenure and prevention of all forced evictions; c. Providing the full protection of law for residents of informal settlements; d. Ensuring access to adequate housing for all, including for residents of informal settlements;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 4
- Paragraph text
- In "hedge cities", prime destinations for global capital seeking safe havens for investments, housing prices have increased to levels that most residents cannot afford, creating huge increases in wealth for property owners in prime locations while excluding moderate- and low-income households from access to homeownership or rentals due to unaffordability. Those households are pushed to peri-urban areas with scant employment and services.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 6
- Paragraph text
- In many countries in the global South, where the majority of households are unlikely to have access to formal credit, the impact of financialization is experienced differently, but with a common theme - the subversion of housing and land as social goods in favour of their value as commodities for the accumulation of wealth, resulting in widespread evictions and displacement. Informal settlements are frequently replaced by luxury residential and high-end commercial real estate.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Movement
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 7
- Paragraph text
- While much has been written about the financialization of housing, it has not often been considered from the standpoint of human rights. Decision-making and assessment of policies relating to housing and finance are devoid of reference to housing as a human right. Issues related to business and human rights have received some attention in recent years. However, the housing and real estate sector - the largest business sector with many of the most serious impacts on human rights - appears to have been mostly ignored.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 23
- Paragraph text
- States have continued to focus on attracting capital and wealthy investors with reduced taxes and other benefits. Countries like Cyprus, Greece, Portugal and Spain, where harsh austerity measures have been implemented, have enacted policies to entice foreign investors into their domestic markets. One such measure, colloquially known as the "golden visa", allows foreign investors to receive permanent residence or even citizenship in exchange for a minimum amount of investment in property: €500,000 in Spain and Portugal, €300,000 in Cyprus and €250,000 in Greece. Australia has a similar programme for individual foreign investors who purchase $A 5 million in real estate through a real estate investment trust to qualify for an Australian significant investor visa. Programmes of that nature can contribute to housing affordability problems for local residents without providing any evidence of substantial benefits for the broader population.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 30
- Paragraph text
- A significant portion of investor-owned homes are simply left empty. In Melbourne, Australia, for example, 82,000 or one fifth of investor-owned units lie empty. In the affluent boroughs of Chelsea and Kensington in the city of London, prime locations for wealthy foreign investors, the number of vacant units increased by 40 per cent between 2013 and 2014. In such markets, the value of housing is no longer based on its social use. The housing is as valuable whether it is vacant or occupied, lived in or devoid of life. Homes sit empty while homeless populations burgeon.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 33
- Paragraph text
- Many residential rental properties are now owned by bondholders or holders of public stock with no direct connection to properties. It is difficult to know who is accountable for human rights when the owner of housing is a multibillion dollar fund, bondholders, public stockholders or a nameless corporate shell. Tenants living in housing owned by absentee corporate landlords have complained of sharp increases in rent, inadequate maintenance and conditions as a result of substandard renovations that have been undertaken quickly to flip the home into rentals, and an inability to hold anyone accountable for those conditions.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 37
- Paragraph text
- Financialized housing markets create and thrive on gentrification and the appropriation of public value for private wealth. Improved services, schools or parks in an impoverished neighbourhood attract investment, which then drives residents out. The transformation of an old railway line in West Chelsea in Manhattan into a public walkway and park has attracted wealthy investors to a mixed income neighbourhood, radically transforming it with luxury housing units costing in the multimillions, and displacing longer term residents. In Vancouver, the opening of new public transport facilities in Burnaby, one of the few remaining areas of affordable rental housing, has quickly led to the development of expensive condominium towers, displacing residents who have not only lived there for decades, but also invested in developing their community.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 45
- Paragraph text
- Informal settlements in Southern cities are regularly demolished for luxury housing and commercial development such as shopping malls and other high-end services intended for those with expendable incomes. In Lagos, Nigeria, for example, 30,000 residents of the Otodo Gbame community were forcibly removed after their waterfront homes were set alight, allegedly related to luxury developments. Many were left homeless. Elsewhere, when informal settlements are upgraded with infrastructure development and the granting of formal title and credit, they become subject to speculation and rising costs that force existing residents, particularly informal renters, out of the community. The real estate market in Mumbai, India, is now actively engaged in promoting speculative investment in informal settlements, where upgraded housing is attracting real estate speculation and price increases.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 56
- Paragraph text
- Domestic adjudication in the area of housing and finance has also tended to protect investors and has been oriented towards enforcing the contractual relationship between lenders and creditors, both with individual households and with States, without considering imbalances in power or the implications for human rights of the means used for enforcing repayment. The right to adequate housing has rarely been referenced in the adjudication of foreclosures and subsequent evictions, although it is clearly at issue.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Year
- 2017
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