Search Tips
sorted by
30 shown of 95 entities
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. 57
- Paragraph text
- In some instances, courts have played an important role in holding financial institutions liable for predatory and discriminatory lending practices, albeit without reference to international human rights obligations. In a recent case, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in the United States ruled in favour of a lawsuit brought by the city of Miami against Bank of America and Wells Fargo for discriminatory predatory lending practices linked to the mortgage crisis. The Constitutional Court of South Africa recently considered a case involving a fraudulent scheme by investors and a finance company leading to hundreds of homeowners suffering losses of homes and savings. The Court rejected a claim by banks that would place responsibility on the homeowner for repayment of an unpaid debt due to the bank, holding that there is an obligation on the part of well-resourced powerful banking groups to check on the legality of what their clients are buying before lending money and earning interest on it.
- 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
- 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. 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. 69
- Paragraph text
- In response to the mortgage crisis in Spain, the autonomous regions of Andalusia and Catalonia introduced progressive laws explicitly affirming the social function of housing and facilitating temporary expropriation of vacant housing. Catalonian legislation also prohibited foreclosures and evictions that would result in homelessness. Both of those regional initiatives were struck down by the Constitutional Court as encroaching on the jurisdiction of the national Government and opposing the general economic interests of the country. In response, at least in the case of Catalonia, the legislation was reintroduced with amendments and was passed by the Catalonian parliament.
- 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
- 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
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. 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. 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
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 45b
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- [The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has identified some indicators of whether a State has satisfied a standard of reasonableness, including:] Whether resource allocation is in accordance with international human rights 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)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 45d
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- [The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has identified some indicators of whether a State has satisfied a standard of reasonableness, including:] Whether the precarious situation of disadvantaged and marginalized individuals or groups has been addressed;
- 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
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 45f
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- [The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has identified some indicators of whether a State has satisfied a standard of reasonableness, including:] Whether decision-making is transparent and participatory.
- 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
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 24
- Paragraph text
- Such laws are often framed under the guise of public health and safety but, in reality, the aim is to "beautify" an area for the promotion of tourism and business or to increase property values. Examples are countless: in Zimbabwe, an operation to "sweep out the rubbish" through demolitions of shanty towns in 2005 left up to 1.5 million people homeless in the middle of the winter. In June 2014, the Mayor of Honolulu introduced new measures to crack down on homelessness because tourists want to see "their paradise, not homeless people sleeping". In Medellín, Colombia, during the World Urban Forum, the homeless population was transported outside of the city. In Australia, "move on" laws permit authorities to "disperse" homeless people "where a person's mere presence could cause anxiety to another person or interfere with another's 'reasonable enjoyment' of the space".
- 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)
- Environment
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 72
- Paragraph text
- For this reason, the Special Rapporteur underlines the critical importance of qualitative evidence, including, for example, oral testimony, photographs or videos. A human rights-based measurement of homelessness should focus on prevention and on addressing underlying causes, and qualitative information capturing actual experiences often reveals more about how to prevent or solve it than numbers alone. It is also vital to understand the trajectories into and out of homelessness, with longitudinal analysis of how people become homeless, how long they are homeless and how they escape from it to supplement point-in-time counts.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 20
- Paragraph text
- Strategies to address homelessness are, ironically, often tainted with prejudice and stigmatization. For example, in August 2015, the office of the Mayor of New York introduced a mobile telephone application called Map the Homeless that allowed users to take snapshots of homeless people and report them to the police. Social media hashtag labels included #AggressivePanhandling and #Violent.
- 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
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 81
- Paragraph text
- There are diverse models for ensuring participation of stakeholders in strategies to address homelessness. Brazil, for example, has created a participatory model for social policy that relies on policy councils of stakeholders. In Munich, Germany, special units for the prevention of homelessness have provided support in preventing evictions or repossessions. In Europe, FEANTSA has organized and advanced rights claims on behalf of homeless people in a wide range of legal and political forums.
- 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
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 91f
- Paragraph text
- [In line with the present conclusions, the Special Rapporteur offers the following recommendations to States:] Homeless people must be recognized as a protected group in all relevant domestic anti-discrimination and hate-crime laws, including where relevant in national Constitutions, national and subnational human rights legislation and in city charters;
- 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
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 92b
- Paragraph text
- [The Special Rapporteur offers the following recommendations to other actors:] Humanitarian assistance must not be conditional on place of residence prior to conflict or natural disaster. Property titles or other documents that are often not available to people who are homeless should not be a barrier to receiving emergency and longer-term humanitarian assistance;
- 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
- Humanitarian
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 84
- Paragraph text
- Since ensuring the enjoyment of human rights is a firm legal responsibility of all levels of government, policymakers can be compelled to incorporate human rights into their laws, policies and programmes, such as: consulting with homeless people throughout the policy development and implementation process; incorporating measureable goals and timelines into strategies; including monitoring and review mechanisms to ensure successful outcomes; and providing homeless people with a mechanism through which to claim their rights and with access to remedies. These are essential requirements for there to be meaningful inclusion of homeless people in the human family, restoring to them dignity, respect and protection under the rule of law.
- 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
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 78
- Paragraph text
- In many countries, national human rights institutions are able to investigate allegations of human rights violations related to homelessness and make recommendations to relevant authorities to design public policy and to remedy those violations. For the first time, the Human Rights Commission of Mexico City held a public hearing with groups of homeless people, then issued a report that focused on their human rights situation, including discrimination, criminalization and other human rights issues.
- 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
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 30
- Paragraph text
- The precariousness of informality and the prevalence of development-based evictions continue to be major structural causes of homelessness. Informal neighbourhoods are wiped out and replaced with high-end tourist attractions, shopping malls or entertainment districts. Land contamination and mismanagement compound these effects. Evictions without adequate resettlement, as is common, invariably lead to homelessness.
- 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
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 62
- Paragraph text
- In many countries, social movements are incorporating legal strategies into broader political strategies to challenge homelessness and affirm the right to adequate housing. Abahlali baseMjondolo, the South African shack-dwellers' movement, and other organizations in South Africa have developed approaches to social mobilization linked to legal strategies to claim rights, without losing sight of the fundamentally political nature of the struggle for adequate housing.
- 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
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 92a
- Paragraph text
- [The Special Rapporteur offers the following recommendations to other actors:] The media, including journalists, editorial boards, producers and owners, must ensure that homeless people are never depicted in a discriminatory or hateful manner. Oversight and regulation in this regard is needed;
- 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
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 80
- Paragraph text
- Homeless people have begun to reassert their identity through human rights claims through both social movements and legal action. In South Africa, the shack-dwellers' movement, Abahlali, has emerged as a vibrant social movement, claiming the right to housing through both legal and political means. In Uganda, the Uganda Network on Law, Ethics and HIV/AIDS provides free legal representation for homeless widows dispossessed of their homes and properties as a result of discriminatory property and inheritance laws. In the Simon Community in northern Belfast, homeless people, with the assistance of the organization Participation and the Practice of Rights, launched the Homelessness Action Charter to promote the human rights of homeless people. In Canada, homeless people and supportive organizations challenged as unconstitutional national and subnational governments' failure to effectively address homelessness, while simultaneously lobbying for legislation to create a national homelessness and housing strategy. In the United States, homeless peoples' organizations have systematically and successfully challenged laws and policies that criminalize homelessness and have lobbied for federal, State and municipal housing strategies. In El Salvador, local community members formed a national commission for residents to advocate for housing rights alongside other civil society organizations.
- 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
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 91h
- Paragraph text
- [In line with the present conclusions, the Special Rapporteur offers the following recommendations to States:] Homeless people must be ensured access to hearings and effective remedies for violations of their rights, including as a result of the failure of States to take reasonable measures within the maximum available resources to eliminate homelessness. Class or group actions should be facilitated where possible and effective remedies should be available in multiple forums, including courts, administrative tribunals and national human rights institutions;
- 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
- 2016
Paragraph
Responsibilities of local and other subnational governments in relation to the right to adequate housing 2015, para. 22
- Paragraph text
- Viewed through a human rights lens, from the perspective of those whose right to housing is at stake, those common challenges facing local governments or housing providers can be seen as barriers to the realization of rights. Those who are disproportionately affected by the challenges identified tend to be the most marginalized groups - those whose right to housing is most at risk. It is those groups who suffer most when local governments lack capacity or resources, when there is an absence of local human rights accountability, when local government becomes protectionist and exclusionary, and it is those groups who often confront the most complex web of governmental decision-making and authority, with the least information available to them.
- 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
Responsibilities of local and other subnational governments in relation to the right to adequate housing 2015, para. 23
- Paragraph text
- The situation of residents of informal settlements in many cities around the world illustrates how allocation of responsibilities among different levels of government plays out in peoples' lives. For example, a recent study considers the situation of residents of the Mukuru settlement in Nairobi. They live in windowless shacks on privately held land without sewage or water infrastructure. They have been unable to determine title through local governments and therefore lack security of tenure, rendering them ineligible to apply for basic water, sewers or electricity. With the Kenyan Constitution now recognizing "the right to accessible and adequate housing and to reasonable standards of sanitation", the challenge for local residents is to claim their rights within a complex web of regulatory schemes and decisions applied by an array of governmental actors.
- 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
- 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
- Paragraph text
- 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