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On the occasion of World Habitat Day 2009 celebrated by the UN-Habitat with the motto “Planning our urban future”, the International Alliance of Inhabitants (IAI), the world-wide network for housing rights with no frontiers, has issued a critical communiqué launching the World Zero Evictions Days to support resistances and alternatives for participating cities, a concrete foundation for a new Urban Social Pact.
At its heart: the demand for a world-wide moratorium to evictions; and funding for housing and habitat in a “New Green Deal” for at least a billion people. This funding would be based, among others, on the investment of an important part of developmental aid as well as on the annulment of external debt, transformed into a Popular Fund for land and housing.
This is the concrete enactment of the agreements made by all international networks for housing and city rights at the WSF 2009, the next step in the unifying process of building the World Assembly of Inhabitants on 2011.
By the year 2030, an additional 3 billion people, about 40 percent of the world’s population, will need access to housing. This translates into a demand for 96,150 new affordable units every day and 4,000 every hour.
One out of every three city dwellers – nearly a billion people – lives in a slum. Slum indicators include: lack of water, lack of sanitation, overcrowding, non-durable structures and insecure tenure.
Because of poor living conditions, women living in slums are more likely to contract HIV/AIDS than their rural counterparts, and children in slums are more likely to die from water-borne and respiratory illness.
Housing formation generates non-housing related expenditures that help drive the economy.
Investing in housing expands the local tax base. Each year 35.1 million new housing units are needed to house the urban population growth between now and 2030. This does not include replacements of deteriorated and substandard housing stocks.
In 2007, the world’s urban population outnumbered the rural for the first time.
Almost 180,000 people are added to the urban population each day.
95 percent of the world population growth in the next decades will occur in the urban areas of developing countries.
The poor are urbanizing faster than the population as a whole, reflecting a lower than average pace of urban poverty reduction.
Substandard housing, unsafe water and poor sanitation in densely populated cities are responsible for 10 million deaths worldwide every year.
Latin America is the most urbanized region in the world, with 75 percent of its population living in cities. According to the United Nations, 27 percent of these urban residents—more than 117 million people—suffer from precarious housing conditions, living without adequate sanitation, with irregular or no electricity supply and without adequate security.
Raising awareness and advocating for change are the first steps toward transforming systems that perpetuate the global plague of poverty housing. World Habitat Day serves as an important reminder that everyone must unite to ensure that everyone has a safe, decent place to call home. Please advocate for adequate housing on World Habitat Day and throughout the month of October.
Nairobi, Kenya
With an estimated population of more than one million people, Kibera is the largest slum in all of Africa.
© Habitat for Humanity/Steffan Hacker
My Tho, Vietnam
Houses crowd the banks of the Mekong River.
© Habitat for Humanity/Ezra Millstein
Armavir, Armenia
Ellada Manasyan and her three young children live in this deserted and crumbling Soviet-era building.
© Habitat for Humanity/Ezra Millstein
San Salvador, El Salvador
A young boy plays in front of his family’s shack, in the Las Victorias squatter community on the outskirts of San Salvador.
© Habitat for Humanity/Ezra Millstein
Goiania, Brazil
Favela dos Trilhos.
© Habitat for Humanity/Ezra Millstein
Sources: UN-Habitat, Kissick et al 2006
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Visit our World Habitat Day resource page.
The United Nations has designated the first Monday in October each year as World Habitat Day—a day to reflect on the state of our towns and cities, and to remind ourselves and our neighbors that we share a collective responsibility to defend the right to adequate shelter for all.
In Latin America and the Caribbean, 13 national Habitat for Humanity organizations will unite with some 50 other nations in Africa, Asia, North America and Europe in simultaneous celebrations of World Habitat Day. The events will show the world that we are committed to building strong and sustainable urban communities—whatever it takes.
On October 5, please join Habitat for Humanity in support of this global observance as we come together and declare that the lack of decent, affordable housing is unacceptable.
Advocate for change
Raising awareness and advocating for change are the first steps toward transforming systems that perpetuate the global plague of poverty housing. World Habitat Day serves as an important reminder that everyone must unite to ensure that everyone has a safe, decent place to call home.
According to the United Nations, more than 100 million people in the world today are homeless. Millions more face a severe housing problem–living without adequate sanitation, with irregular or no electricity supply and without adequate security.
More than 2 million housing units per year are needed for the next 50 years to solve the present worldwide housing crisis. With our global population expanding, however, at the end of those 50 years, there would still be a need for another 1 billion houses. (UN-HABITAT: 2005)
The U.N. further states that both developed and developing countries, cities and towns are increasingly feeling the effects of climate change, resource depletion, food insecurity, population growth and economic instability.
Rapid rates of urbanization cause serious negative consequences – overcrowding, poverty, slums with many poorly equipped to meet the service demands of ever growing urban populations.
With over half of the world’s population currently living in urban areas the U.N. believes there is no doubt that the “urban agenda” will increasingly become a priority for governments, local authorities and their non-governmental partners everywhere.
Find more international statistics and research about the effects of poverty housing around the world on Habitat for Humanity’s webpage.
Spread the word by blogging about World Habitat Day! Please visit the World Habitat Day Social Media News Release for more information.
What you can do
- Show up! World Habitat Day celebrations are going on in 13 countries throughout the region. Visit our Events page to find out what’s happening near you (esp).
- Speak up! Comment on one of our social networks, or blog about poverty housing issues.
- Educate yourself and your community. Take our E-course, and learn more about housing issues in Latin America. To learn more, browse our educational resources on poverty housing in Latin America and the Caribbean.
- Stay in touch. Sign up for our newsletter and keep up to date on housing news and opportunities to get involved.
- Volunteer. Visit our website to find out how you can get involved in short and long term volunteer opportunities.
- Donate. Habitat’s work is made possible through the generous contributions of those who are passionate about the cause. Make a difference in someone’s life today.
Habitat staffer Mitssy Rovira and an international team of volunteers are blogging from El Minya, Egypt in celebration of World Habitat Day 2009. Read more!
Stay tuned for more information on World Habitat Day and ways that you can educate and inspire your community to support this global observance.
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