World Habitat Day: Adequate Housing for All

Summary

• Housing may exist, but it may be overcrowded, unaffordable, unsafe, without clean water or sanitation, vulnerable to floods and extreme heat, or built on land from which residents can be displaced at any time.
• We should also ask how many families obtained secure tenure; how many informal settlements gained clean water and sanitation; how much affordable rental housing became available; how many women acquired secure housing or land rights; how many neighbourhoods became accessible to persons with disabilities; and how many vulnerable communities were protected from floods, heat and forced displacement.
• As the UN Secretary-General observed for this year’s World Habitat Day, adequate housing forms a foundation for dignity, security and opportunity, while investment in housing and upgrading informal settlements can simultaneously reduce poverty, inequality and climate vulnerability.

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