LRF housing week 6

Housing is a Human Right

Safe, stable, affordable housing was first recognized as a human right in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and has since been reaffirmed in many international treaties, resolutions, and declarations.

Housing is critical to many other facets of life, including physical and mental health, quality of life, access to education, economic outcomes among many others.

However, simply naming housing as a human right may not necessarily accomplish desired outcomes. Given the small number of regions and nations that have enacted housing as a human right, there is not a strong set of evidence demonstrating that this approach is the key to solving issues of housing affordability and availability. Examples from across the globe show the complexity of addressing housing crises, even when housing is declared a human right. (Ex: Scotland, South Africa and France)

Scotland has incorporated this commitment into its legislation and budget in multiple ways, including homelessness prevention legislation and means-tested benefits that help meet housing costs. Between 1987 and 2003, Scotland passed a series of acts that framed housing as a right, which made local governments responsible for the provision of housing for people unintentionally experiencing homelessness within 90 days and which allows people to sue if their right to housing is not respected. Yet, despite the focus on human rights, Scotland has continued to struggle with housing access in the wake of recent economic downturns.

In 2007 France adopted the Droit au Logement Opposable, which prioritizes vulnerable groups for social housing and provides them with the ability to take legal action if they have not received accommodation. Yet, DALO has been unable to meet its goals due, in part, to lack of adequate resources and lack of awareness.

South Africa’s constitution was amended to guarantee the right to adequate housing, yet seventeen years later, this has not met its goals.

Framing housing as a human right may be an important first step to solving housing challenges, but the evidence base suggests that simply naming housing as a human right in isolation is likely insufficient to achieve affordable and accessible housing for all. Rather, this framing must be paired with adequate funding, timelines for progress, and pathways to compel compliance.

Confluence of 5 factors:
(i) Financialization of Housing:
a) the phenomenon occurs when housing is treated as a commodity—a vehicle for wealth and investment—rather than a social good.
b) With roots in the 2008 financial crisis, the impact of the shift from housing as a place to build a home to housing as an investment has been devastating. This includes millions of evictions as a result of foreclosures in countries most affected by the Global Economic Crisis.
c) The process of financialization increasingly divorces housing from its purpose as shelter by using it to generate profits in financial markets

Challenges in regulating housing sector:
Regulating the housing sector while treating housing as a right involves several significant challenges:
(i) Governments must find ways to fund affordable housing initiatives, which can strain public budgets, especially in times of economic downturns. Is the Government’s will for affordable housing be sustainable and congruent with the budget available?
(ii) Ensuring adequate housing for all, particularly in growing urban areas, requires careful planning to balance housing supply with demand. This can be complicated by factors like land scarcity, zoning regulations, and the need for infrastructure development. Whether adequate legislations can be made which can withstand the pressure from the influential ‘Blackstones’?
(iii) Regulations such as rent controls, while intended to make housing more affordable, can sometimes lead to unintended consequences like reduced incentives for landlords to maintain or improve properties, or for developers to build new housing, potentially worsening housing shortages.