Last year, on an average night in the US, more than 550,000 people slept rough.??
A homeless woman in San Francisco. Photograph: Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images
We are at a critical moment. Globally,
housing conditions have never been this fraught. Most governments, national and
local alike, insist on privileging the interests of a few over the needs of the
many.
As a result, homelessness and its
accompanying death toll are on the rise, while the number of?vacant homes?owned by corporate and high net worth
investors continues to grow. Affluent countries stand as some of the worst
examples. Last year, on an average night in the US, more than?550,000 people slept
rough.
One county in?Silicon Valley?saw a 164% increase in deaths of
homeless people between 2011 and 2015, rising from 50 to 135. In Toronto,
Canada?? largest city, the first nine months of 2017 saw?70 homeless deaths, the highest figure on record.
Meanwhile, investor homes sit empty:?London reported 20,000
empty homes?in 2016 and?data from Australia?indicates a whopping 1m vacant
homes. In most cities, unregulated real estate speculation and commodification
is making housing unaffordable even for the middle class, with those providing
essential services,?like nurses and
firefighters, unable to live in the cities where they work.
With no other options, more than?1 billion?people worldwide have resorted to
living in informal settlements, encampments or on the streets without secure
tenure or basic services.
Most disturbing of all is that these
realities seem to be accepted as a fixed feature of our global socioeconomic
order.
But before concluding that the world is
going to hell in a handbasket, let?? recall that just two years ago, the
world?? governments recognised these conditions as unsustainable and responded.
In committing to the?Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs), which are “unequivocally anchored in human rights??
world governments undertook to ensure access to adequate, secure and affordable
housing for all by 2030. By necessity, the SDGs catapult housing to centre
stage.
To meet this ambitious commitment,
governments will have to design housing strategies based on human rights. In
light of the global scale and depth of homelessness and inadequate housing, and
the roots of these problems in the failure of governments to regulate the
financialisation of housing, it is no longer reasonable for governments to
treat these realities as mere policy or programme failures.
Homelessness and inadequate housing are?violations of human
rights?
and demand the appropriate response.
Rights-based housing strategies are not
one-size fits all, but there are some key requirements that can be shaped to
fit national and local contexts. As a starting point, housing strategies must
guarantee that no one is left behind, which, among other things, means they
must commit to ending homelessness by 2030.
This also means housing strategies must
go well beyond the provision of housing. Strategies must have structural change
as their ambition. They must aim to transform societies where economic policies
and housing systems create and sustain inequality and exclusion, into societies
in which housing is a means to ensure security and inclusion.
There are fundamental shifts that
rights-based strategies must effect in order to be successful.
Strategies must transform how
governments, at all levels, interact with those who are homeless and
inadequately housed. Instead of viewing them as needy beneficiaries, objectsof
charity, or, worse, as criminals, they must instead recognise that people who
are homeless also have rights ??and are active citizens who should be involved
in decisions affecting their lives. This would ensure that strategies respond
to people?? own experiences.
Strategies must also transform the
relationship between governments and the financial sector. Because most?governments rely
extensively on the private sector?to meet housing needs, strategies must
ensure that human rights implementation is the overriding goal of all
investment in housing and residential real estate, and that the primacy of
housing?? social function is never a subsidiary or neglected obligation.
One wonders if this is possible when the
commitment to the human rights imperative is being challenged by governments
themselves ??and when, for instance, the UN commissioner for human rights, Zeid
Ra??d al-Hussein, says he?cannot continue in his
job?because
the current geopolitical context is a threat to his integrity and independence.
And the biggest?assault on human
rights?is
coming from Donald Trump, a real estate tycoon whose fortunes have been made
from the rampant commodification of housing.
This does not bode well for the future
of the right to housing or that of the people living in conditions that
challenge human dignity and life itself.
But as we head into a new year, our
choice is to either be complacent and allow our cities to become the
playgrounds of the rich while the rest of us are priced out of our homes; or to
recognise the urgent need for action, and declare 2018 the year of the right to
housing, and every year thereafter, until governments are held accountable,
cities become inclusive, and our housing accessible, secure, and affordable.
I choose the
latter.