Defining Housing Rights

While the majority of the world’s population lives in some form of dwelling, roughly one-half of the world’s population does not enjoy the full spectrum of entitlements necessary for housing to be considered adequate. According to international human rights law, in order for housing to be adequate it must provide more than just four walls and a roof over one’s head; it must, at a minimum, include the following elements:

Security of Tenure. Security of tenure is the cornerstone of the right to adequate housing. Secure tenure protects people against arbitrary forced eviction, harassment and other threats. Most informal settlements and communities lack legal security of tenure. Hundreds of millions of people do not currently live in homes with adequate secure tenure protection. Security of tenure is a key issue for all dwellers, particularly women. This is particularly so for women experiencing domestic violence who may have to flee their homes to save their lives and for women who do not have title to their homes or lands and thus can be easily removed, especially upon marriage dissolution or death of a spouse.

Availability of Services, Materials, Facilities and Infrastructure. Adequate housing requires access to potable drinking water, energy for cooking, heating and lighting, sanitation and washing facilities, food storage, refuse disposal, site drainage and emergency services. When one or more of these attributes of adequate housing are not available, the right to adequate housing is not fully in place.

Affordability. The housing affordability principle stipulates simply that the amount a person or family pays for their housing must not be so high that it threatens or compromises the attainment and satisfaction of other basic needs. Affordability is an acute problem throughout the world and a major reason why so many people cannot access affordable formal housing, and are forced as a result to live in informal settlements. The lack of affordable housing is also a major problem in affluent countries where individuals and families living in poverty find it increasingly difficult to find affordable adequate housing. In many developed countries, when rental housing is unaffordable, tenants’ security of tenure is threatened as they can often be legally evicted for non-payment of rent.

Habitability. For housing to be considered adequate, it must be habitable. Inhabitants must be ensured adequate space and protection against the cold, damp, heat, rain, wind or other threats to health or structural hazards.

Accessibility. Housing must be accessible to everyone. Disadvantaged groups such as the elderly, the physically and mentally disabled, HIV-positive individuals, victims of natural disasters, children and other groups should be ensured some degree of priority consideration in housing. Both housing law and policy must ensure their housing needs are met. In many parts of the world, laws and policies do little to address the housing needs of the most disadvantaged but instead focus on already advantaged social groups. Additionally, in rental and housing markets, discrimination against disadvantaged groups is common and poses a significant barrier to housing access.

Location. For housing to be adequate it must be situated so as to allow access to employment options, health care services, schools, childcare centres and other social facilities. It must not be located in polluted areas. When communities are evicted to forced eviction section from their homes they are often relocated to remote locations lacking facilities or in polluted areas, near garbage dumps or other sources of pollution.

Culturally Adequate. The right to adequate housing includes a right to reside in housing that is considered culturally adequate. This means that housing programmes and policies must take fully into account the cultural attributes of housing which allow for the expression of cultural identity and recognise the cultural diversity of the world’s population. - COHRE