The 15 Most
Homeless Cities In The World
Reagan M. 03.03.15 The Poorest
Homelessness
is far from a developing country’s problem. In Europe alone, there are 3
million people on the streets. In Australia and Canada, hundreds of thousands
of people are homeless. Of course, the problem is much worse in poorer
countries. There are over 9.5 million homeless people in Columbia and 24.4
million in Nigeria. In total, the United Nations Commission
on Human Rights estimates that the world has 100 million homeless people.
How
do people end up on the streets? Job losses, foreclosures, unemployment, and
lack of affordable housing all play a part. Social factors can also be part of
the problem; domestic violence, lack of a supportive family, drug abuse,
alcoholism and mental illnesses all contribute to homelessness.
Finding
a solution to the homelessness problem has been hard for many cities, states
and countries. The current New York mayor has a notoriously tough time reducing
the number of ‘cluster sites’ in his city. Some cities, like Moscow,
have no programs in place to fight the problem despite the numbers of homeless
people growing steadily. Other cities such as Phoenix and San Francisco have
put measures in place to reduce homelessness, such as newspapers which are
given to the homeless population to sell and earn a living.
Some
cities are struggling much more than others, and some are overwhelmed by levels
of poverty. These fifteen cities have bigger homeless populations than anywhere
else in the world.
15. Athens, Greece
Via neoskosmos.com
Homelessness
in Greece has significantly increased to 20,000 homeless people in recent
years. About 50% of the homeless population roams the streets of Athens. A
high rate of homelessness in this, the home of Aristotle and Plato, is largely
down to the aggressive recession that hit Greece during the Global
Financial Crisis.
The
recession hit the country hard, reducing its gross domestic product by as much
as 25% and causing unemployment rates to soar to 27%. Many people have also
lost their lucrative jobs. According to the Athens city hall, most of these
people suffer from depression, with 60% resorting to drugs and
alcohol.
14. Phoenix, Arizona, United States
Via i.azcentral.com
By
the end of 2014, there were 11,314 homeless people in Phoenix Arizona. The
Phoenix Rescue Mission suggests that the main reasons people end up
homeless are foreclosures, job losses and evictions.
Social
situations such as drug and alcohol addiction, mental conditions, and domestic
violence also force people onto the streets.
Of the
city’s homeless, 43% are reported to have mental conditions while 21%
attest to abusing drugs. Almost half of first-time homeless people say that job
losses and foreclosures are the main reasons for their homelessness. The state
of Arizona has established the Arizona Commission for Homelessness and Housing,
and the Arizona Coalition to End Homelessness, to address the issue through
education, advocacy and special projects.
13. San Francisco, Northern California, United
States
Via hdnux.com
The
Coalition on Homelessness reported that 10,373 people were housed in emergency
shelters in San Francisco in 2013. This homeless advocacy association aims at
reducing this number over the next few years. It was formed in 1987 and created
an ingenious way to end homelessness: Printing and distributing a magazine,
which they called the Street Sheet, to the homeless to sell.
Today,
they print 17,000 copies of this newspaper, which is actually the longest constantly
running newspaper of its kind in North America. In 1990, the organization also
developed the Community Housing Partnership that has since set up over 1,000
permanent housing units for the homeless people in San Francisco.
12. Washington, D.C., United States
Via philip.greenspun.com
Despite
being the capital of the most powerful nation on earth, Washington, D.C.
harbors many homeless people. D.C., formally the District of Columbia, faces
crippling homelessness with over 57,000 people on the streets.
Of
these, 13,000 reside on the streets of Washington. These individuals are
so deep in abject poverty that they cannot meet basic needs such as buying food
or clothes. Five in every 10 homeless adults reported a $0 income while 30%
tested positive for chronic health problems.
This
number is higher in the female population given that 80% are living with HIV
and chronic diseases. What’s more disheartening is that their access to crucial
medical care is significantly reduced.
11. Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Via s3.amazonaws.com
Boston
is the third major city in the US with the highest number of homeless people.
It also has the highest number of people living in emergency shelters – 16,540,
to be precise.
According
to surveys, up to 25% of the homeless have jobs, but these jobs do not pay
enough to fund a roof over their heads.
The
director of the Emergency Shelter Commission for the Boston Public Health
Commission states that the city has one of the highest family homelessness
rates due to the high costs associated with housing in Boston.
However, Boston has very few homeless people wandering the streets: It has
a strict ‘right to shelter’ law that requires the state to find a place for
qualified families living rough to live.
QUIZZESON THERICHEST.COM
10. Sao Paulo, Brazil
Via static.panoramio.com
A
2011 government census shows that there are in excess of 15,000 homeless people
in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Sao Paulo is the most populous city in Brazil, as well as
in the Americas.
Life
on these streets as a homeless person is excruciating. Approximately 50% of the
homeless people in Sao Paulo are housed in emergency camps, but the other half,
the one that gets it hard, sleeps on the streets. They are forced to face
notoriously harsh treatment from Brazilian authorities.
9. Budapest, Hungary
Via dankoutca.files.wordpress.com
It’s
technically illegal to be homeless in Hungary. The parliament of Hungary
introduced this law to forcefully move an increasing number of
homeless people into shelters.
Budapest
has 10,000 homeless people, and the 6,000 people that roam the streets can now
be charged and possibly face jail time. The law shocked human rights groups,
since unemployment and debt rates are sharply increasing. There are 20,000 more
homeless people throughout Hungary.
8. Buenos Aires, Argentina
Via upload.wikimedia.org
Buenos
Aires has an estimated 15,000 homeless people. Sadly, 30% are children and 13%
are elderly. The city provides shelters for the destitute, but it can only
shelter a maximum of 1,700 people. The number of those without a roof over
their heads is growing, and their chances of gaining employment are dwindling.
Reasons as to why people end up homeless in Argentina are vague.
One
volunteer says that a person becomes homeless when he or she loses connection
with his or her family. Apart from this, he says that most down-and-out people
owe numerous debts and have drug and substance abuse problems. Once on the
streets, it becomes difficult for them to obtain identity documents because of
the lack of a permanent address.
7. Mumbai, India
Via photos.davidaloca.com
Mumbai
has a population of almost 12.5 million. Over half of these residents live in
one of the many thousands of slums in Mumbai.
25,000
of these people are broke and on the streets. Lack of affordable housing, job
losses, attrition of family support, inadequate income, substance abuse,
disability and domestic violence are the leading causes of homelessness in
Mumbai.
Surveys
also show that drug abuse and alcoholism are high among the dispossessed and
harassment by property owners leads to homelessness. India as a whole also
experiences high poverty rates. According to the United Nations, 150,000,000
children below the age of 18 are living on the streets with 60,000,000 of them
being under the age of six.
6. Jakarta, Indonesia
Via everydayhistory101.files.wordpress.com
Indonesia
has higher Twitter activity than any other city in the world. Most residents
here also have two phones each. Despite all these advancements, Jakarta is also
home to over 28,000 people living rough.
The
homelessness phenomenon began with the reign of the tyrant General Suharto.
Suharto instituted policies that oppressed the locals. His administration would
grab land that was privately held under the pretence of development. However,
the land was only used to enrich the government.
This,
in turn, pushed many people into the streets. The number has continued to grow
over the years. In 2013, killer floods shattered the homes of over 100,000
people, adding that number to the total homeless people in the city.
5. Mexico City, Mexico
Via media3.washingtonpost.com
Mexico
City is home to over 30,000 homeless people. A disturbing 50% are children, and
poverty is the main reason so many children do not have a roof over their
heads.
One
major effect of poverty is family breakdown and physical abuse. Many children
prefer to run away from their homes for fear that arguments between their
parents will become violent. Some leave at this point while others leave after
a physical abuse incident.
Overall,
the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) approximates that more than 25% of
Mexico’s under-18s live in utter poverty.
4. Moscow, Russia
Via englishrussia.com
3.4%
of the population in Russia is homeless. Tens of thousands of the homeless
population is in Moscow. Researchers place the number of homeless people in
Russia at 1.5 – 3 million. Homelessness in this country has been the norm since
World War II.
Yuri,
who has spent over 15 years on the streets, says he lost his house at the age
of 29. Upon his father’s death, Yuri’s sister sold their house and threw him
out. Today, he lives with other homeless people at a train station and has $15
a day to survive.
3. Los Angeles, California, United States
Via latimesphoto.files.wordpress.com
The
streets of Los Angeles are home to over 57,000 destitute people.
The
majority are male and single, and half of these homeless people are
African American – despite the fact that the black population only accounts for
9% of L.A.’s total population.
31%
of L.A.’s homeless abuse drugs while 18% are disabled physically. Their average
age is 40, although the women tend to be younger. 25% are also reported to have
a mental illness. On any given night, the city has over 12,934 homeless people
seeking refuge in a homeless shelter, or in a motel using emergency vouchers.
2. New York City, New York, United States
Via analyticfocus.com
There
are 60,352 people without a roof under their heads in the Big Apple.
This
number includes 25,640 children. 22,386 are adults and over 12,326 are single.
These numbers have continued to rise steadily regardless of the campaign
promises by the new mayor Bill de Blasio.
De
Blasio’s plan was to shelter homeless families away from the usual cluster
sites. Although Bill’s administration is trying to move them into permanent
houses, it is proving hard to fight the stubborn cluster site problem. In fact,
he has been forced to increase these sites from 2,918 to 3,143. He plans to remove
4,000 people from cluster sites this year.
1. Manila, Philippines
via o.canada.com
Manila,
Philippines has the highest homelessness rate in the world. The United Nations
Commission on Human Rights reports that this city has 70,000 dispossessed people
on its streets. The commission also reports that the entire country has a
distressing 1,200,000 children living on the streets. These children are faced
with numerous problems including the abuse of drugs such as marijuana, shabu
and cough syrups, health problems due to the deplorable conditions in which
they live in, child prostitution by pedophiles and foreign sex tourists, and
the risk of contracting HIV/AIDS. Recently, when the pope was visiting the
country, numerous street children were rounded up and locked in cages.
Authorities supported the inhumane act arguing that it was done to prevent
gangs of beggars from approaching the pope.
List of country by homeless populations
According to estimates, 100 million people worldwide are literally homeless. They have no shelter: they sleep on pavements, in doorways, in parks or under bridges. Or they sleep in public buildings like railway or bus stations, or in night shelters set up to provide homeless people with a bed.
The estimated number of homeless increases to 1,000 million people if we include those in housing that is "very insecure or temporary, often of poor quality - for instance, squatters who have found accommodation by illegally occupying someone else's home or land and are under constant threat of eviction; those living in refugee camps whose home has been destroyed; and those living in temporary shelters (like the 250,000 pavement dwellers in Bombay)". This is according to a 1996 report by the UN Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat).
The numbers would surpass 1,000 million if we include "all people who lack an adequate home with secure tenure (ie, as owner-occupiers or tenants protected from sudden or arbitrary eviction) and the most basic facilities such as water of adequate quality piped into the home, provision for sanitation and drainage".
The problem isn't limited to the developing world. In the European Union countries, an estimated 2.5 million people are homeless over the course of the year. In the US, estimates are that at least 700,000 people are homeless on any given night - living in public places or in emergency shelters. At some time during the year, some 2 million Americans are homeless.
Inadequate housing takes a variety of forms world-wide, including: cages (Hong Kong); buses and shipping containers (Israel and the occupied territories); pavements (India and Bangladesh); cellars, staircases, containers and rooftops (Europe); streets (children throughout Asia, Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe); and cardboard boxes (United States).
Causes
The causes of inadequate housing would not seem to include lack of international agreements on the subject. In addition to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, there are literally dozens of other treaties, declarations, conventions, and covenants, signed by all UN states, that proclaim housing as a fundamental human right. Over 40 national constitutions also include the right to housing.
So why is homelessness so pervasive? The causes are varied. At the most basic economic level, homelessness is caused by poverty and unemployment. The poor simply cannot afford adequate shelter. With estimates of the number of absolute poor (those who cannot meet their most basic needs) reaching 1,200 million people worldwide - which is about equal to estimates of the homeless - poverty and homelessness are linked almost by definition. Beyond basic economics, there are political causes as well. "As countries develop, land values go up, and as they do, the people that have access to money and capital buy that land, generally in the best places," according to Scott Leckie, Director of the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) in Geneva. "The middle and lower income groups are forced to the periphery of the city. That's why slums pop up around every single Third World city.
"Big money and gigantic vested interests are involved, whose interests are that the value of the property or land continues to increase year after year. This is a great thing if you have property. But if you don't, it's quite difficult to access affordable housing."
Because the poor often do not carry much political weight, a government may not feel the political pressure to improve its housing and anti-poverty policies. "If the government was elected because giant landowners and big corporate bosses wanted things a certain way, obviously the government is not going to spend considerable energy in trying to eradicate poverty." And government involvement is essential to the improvement of housing conditions because a purely private-sector, market-based approach does not work, Leckie says. "The legal housing market in every country in the world, no matter how rich or poor, fails to provide the necessary housing supply for the poorest 40 per cent of the population. The market simply does not provide for the lower income groups."
Add to the mix the international pressure exerted by institutions like the IMF and the World Bank. According to Leckie: "A country may have a decent housing policy, but also a huge debt. The World Bank and IMF come in with so much money and power, and basically say: 'You can either be a part of the world's economy, and play by the rules we establish, and cut these expenditures, or you can be ostracized and isolated from the world economy.' You can imagine the pressure brought to bear even on a reasonable government."
Solutions
There are viable solutions to many of these problems, and in some countries, more than others, the solutions are being implemented, at least on the local level. Daniel Biau, Executive Co-ordinator of Habitat in Nairobi, Kenya, says that to deal with the completely homeless population, governments should intervene directly: "Absolute homelessness is a bit like absolute poverty. It's a question of survival. You have to provide a safety net. These people are so poor they must be assisted directly." But for "relative homelessness, or relative poverty, you have to provide a framework, provide incentives," he says.
Many of the "relative homeless" are among the 1,000 million people who live in slums or shanty-towns. Almost all slums are technically illegal settlements, meaning that the people do not have clear title to the land, or that they have squatted on the land outright. Because there is an insufficient supply of legal housing available, people create their own housing solutions. They build slums near the city, which means near employment possibilities.
In fact, says Scott Leckie: "The overwhelming majority of new housing built in the world today is built by the people themselves, by the people who live in those houses, and by the communities in which they live." This trend should be encouraged by governments, Leckie believes. The solution to slums is not to evict people, or to eradicate the dwellings, he says, but to create conditions so that people can improve their own dwellings, with the assistance of the community. "One of the best ways to do that is by giving slum-dwellers security of tenure, so they know they are protected against arbitrary, unfair, or illegal eviction. If people know that, even if they only make a couple of hundred dollars a year, which many people do, they'll spend money improving their house that they wouldn't otherwise do if they were afraid of being evicted. If governments acted in partnership with people in this way, many good things could happen."
Biau agrees that improving slum conditions should be a key focus of governmental policy. "In developing countries, the first step for any housing policy should be to improve existing informal settlements [slums or shanty towns]," he says. "This includes the provision of security of tenure, and the provision of basic infrastructure, including water, sanitation and electricity." Another important component of housing policy, says Biau, should be the provision of financial incentives to small, private investors to encourage the development of cheap rental housing. "Governments should be enablers of development rather than controllers," says Sara Wakeham, Africa specialist at Habitat. "All of this informal development is happening anyway. We want local governments to support this development, rather than restrict and control it, and so encourage more and better-quality housing."
International assistance
International development aid to developing countries is on the decrease worldwide. And even within that shrinking pie, the amount of aid directed to the housing sector is only 2 to 3 per cent of total assistance. According to Daniel Biau: "Housing is such an expensive item that Western countries cannot pay for housing provision as part of their aid. They can pay for technical assistance, but they are a bit reluctant to provide it. Western governments consider housing a domestic priority, not a priority for international assistance. They prefer to focus on agriculture, for instance."
This approach is short-sighted, Biau believes. "International agencies have not yet understood that the 21st century will be the century of cities. Poverty and homelessness will more and more be concentrated there, and the international community has to do more to help developing countries."
Success stories
European Union countries are considered to have among the most socially advanced housing policies in the world. Among developing nations, countries such as Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Indonesia, Senegal, Singapore, and Tunisia are praised for their efforts. In Brazil, for example, cities such as Fortaleza, Recife, Porto Allegre, Santo Andre, and several others are considered to have quite effective housing programs. And in post-apartheid South Africa, much progress has been made in making housing policies more favorable to the poor.
Much of the progress comes at the local level. "The places where you see success stories are the places where there are very strong community organizations present, a very high degree of participation in the community, and where the government has acted as a facilitating rather than a repressive force," says Scott Leckie. "Most of the success stories are small-scale, community by community, neighborhood by neighborhood, but they get replicated in other places once people find out about them."
Biau agrees: "The ideal situation would be to have a strong municipality defining the city-wide policies, and for each squatter settlement or slum to have a few CBOs (community-based organizations) and NGOs [Non-Governmental Organizations] co-ordinating the implementation of these policies. I believe that the key partnerships in the future will be between local authorities and CBOs and NGOs, at the city level."
But the political will must be present to accomplish these goals. "If there is the will in any city or country, there is a way to improve the situation," says Biau. "And the way can be easily defined." Biau says the media have an important role to play in convincing policy-makers to act more responsibly. And ultimately the people themselves have the ability to generate the needed political will. Throughout Latin America, for example, people have organized themselves, invaded land, and pressured governments to act for many years. In the Philippines, some 100,000 CBOs and NGOs are working toward the improvement of housing and living conditions in the slums.
"A popular-based approach, involving all relevant factors, most importantly the people themselves, is the basis of the solution," says Scott Leckie. "More and more people are beginning to realize that, and more and more people are becoming involved in these types of movements. In conjunction with greater recognition of housing as a human rights issue, more and more human rights and legal groups have become involved as well. Those two forces together are pushing things in a good direction."
List of country by homeless populations
A roof is not enough A look at homelessness worldwideby Monte Leach
According to Scott Leckie, Director of the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions in Geneva, homelessness persists on a vast scale in both rich and poor countries because of economic and political disregard for the human rights of the poor.According to estimates, 100 million people worldwide are literally homeless. They have no shelter: they sleep on pavements, in doorways, in parks or under bridges. Or they sleep in public buildings like railway or bus stations, or in night shelters set up to provide homeless people with a bed.
The estimated number of homeless increases to 1,000 million people if we include those in housing that is "very insecure or temporary, often of poor quality - for instance, squatters who have found accommodation by illegally occupying someone else's home or land and are under constant threat of eviction; those living in refugee camps whose home has been destroyed; and those living in temporary shelters (like the 250,000 pavement dwellers in Bombay)". This is according to a 1996 report by the UN Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat).
| At the most basic economic level, homelessness is caused by poverty and unemployment. The poor simply cannot afford adequate shelter. |
The problem isn't limited to the developing world. In the European Union countries, an estimated 2.5 million people are homeless over the course of the year. In the US, estimates are that at least 700,000 people are homeless on any given night - living in public places or in emergency shelters. At some time during the year, some 2 million Americans are homeless.
Inadequate housing takes a variety of forms world-wide, including: cages (Hong Kong); buses and shipping containers (Israel and the occupied territories); pavements (India and Bangladesh); cellars, staircases, containers and rooftops (Europe); streets (children throughout Asia, Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe); and cardboard boxes (United States).
Causes
The causes of inadequate housing would not seem to include lack of international agreements on the subject. In addition to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, there are literally dozens of other treaties, declarations, conventions, and covenants, signed by all UN states, that proclaim housing as a fundamental human right. Over 40 national constitutions also include the right to housing.
So why is homelessness so pervasive? The causes are varied. At the most basic economic level, homelessness is caused by poverty and unemployment. The poor simply cannot afford adequate shelter. With estimates of the number of absolute poor (those who cannot meet their most basic needs) reaching 1,200 million people worldwide - which is about equal to estimates of the homeless - poverty and homelessness are linked almost by definition. Beyond basic economics, there are political causes as well. "As countries develop, land values go up, and as they do, the people that have access to money and capital buy that land, generally in the best places," according to Scott Leckie, Director of the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) in Geneva. "The middle and lower income groups are forced to the periphery of the city. That's why slums pop up around every single Third World city.
"Big money and gigantic vested interests are involved, whose interests are that the value of the property or land continues to increase year after year. This is a great thing if you have property. But if you don't, it's quite difficult to access affordable housing."
Because the poor often do not carry much political weight, a government may not feel the political pressure to improve its housing and anti-poverty policies. "If the government was elected because giant landowners and big corporate bosses wanted things a certain way, obviously the government is not going to spend considerable energy in trying to eradicate poverty." And government involvement is essential to the improvement of housing conditions because a purely private-sector, market-based approach does not work, Leckie says. "The legal housing market in every country in the world, no matter how rich or poor, fails to provide the necessary housing supply for the poorest 40 per cent of the population. The market simply does not provide for the lower income groups."
Add to the mix the international pressure exerted by institutions like the IMF and the World Bank. According to Leckie: "A country may have a decent housing policy, but also a huge debt. The World Bank and IMF come in with so much money and power, and basically say: 'You can either be a part of the world's economy, and play by the rules we establish, and cut these expenditures, or you can be ostracized and isolated from the world economy.' You can imagine the pressure brought to bear even on a reasonable government."
Solutions
There are viable solutions to many of these problems, and in some countries, more than others, the solutions are being implemented, at least on the local level. Daniel Biau, Executive Co-ordinator of Habitat in Nairobi, Kenya, says that to deal with the completely homeless population, governments should intervene directly: "Absolute homelessness is a bit like absolute poverty. It's a question of survival. You have to provide a safety net. These people are so poor they must be assisted directly." But for "relative homelessness, or relative poverty, you have to provide a framework, provide incentives," he says.
Many of the "relative homeless" are among the 1,000 million people who live in slums or shanty-towns. Almost all slums are technically illegal settlements, meaning that the people do not have clear title to the land, or that they have squatted on the land outright. Because there is an insufficient supply of legal housing available, people create their own housing solutions. They build slums near the city, which means near employment possibilities.
In fact, says Scott Leckie: "The overwhelming majority of new housing built in the world today is built by the people themselves, by the people who live in those houses, and by the communities in which they live." This trend should be encouraged by governments, Leckie believes. The solution to slums is not to evict people, or to eradicate the dwellings, he says, but to create conditions so that people can improve their own dwellings, with the assistance of the community. "One of the best ways to do that is by giving slum-dwellers security of tenure, so they know they are protected against arbitrary, unfair, or illegal eviction. If people know that, even if they only make a couple of hundred dollars a year, which many people do, they'll spend money improving their house that they wouldn't otherwise do if they were afraid of being evicted. If governments acted in partnership with people in this way, many good things could happen."
Biau agrees that improving slum conditions should be a key focus of governmental policy. "In developing countries, the first step for any housing policy should be to improve existing informal settlements [slums or shanty towns]," he says. "This includes the provision of security of tenure, and the provision of basic infrastructure, including water, sanitation and electricity." Another important component of housing policy, says Biau, should be the provision of financial incentives to small, private investors to encourage the development of cheap rental housing. "Governments should be enablers of development rather than controllers," says Sara Wakeham, Africa specialist at Habitat. "All of this informal development is happening anyway. We want local governments to support this development, rather than restrict and control it, and so encourage more and better-quality housing."
International assistance
International development aid to developing countries is on the decrease worldwide. And even within that shrinking pie, the amount of aid directed to the housing sector is only 2 to 3 per cent of total assistance. According to Daniel Biau: "Housing is such an expensive item that Western countries cannot pay for housing provision as part of their aid. They can pay for technical assistance, but they are a bit reluctant to provide it. Western governments consider housing a domestic priority, not a priority for international assistance. They prefer to focus on agriculture, for instance."
This approach is short-sighted, Biau believes. "International agencies have not yet understood that the 21st century will be the century of cities. Poverty and homelessness will more and more be concentrated there, and the international community has to do more to help developing countries."
Success stories
European Union countries are considered to have among the most socially advanced housing policies in the world. Among developing nations, countries such as Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Indonesia, Senegal, Singapore, and Tunisia are praised for their efforts. In Brazil, for example, cities such as Fortaleza, Recife, Porto Allegre, Santo Andre, and several others are considered to have quite effective housing programs. And in post-apartheid South Africa, much progress has been made in making housing policies more favorable to the poor.
Much of the progress comes at the local level. "The places where you see success stories are the places where there are very strong community organizations present, a very high degree of participation in the community, and where the government has acted as a facilitating rather than a repressive force," says Scott Leckie. "Most of the success stories are small-scale, community by community, neighborhood by neighborhood, but they get replicated in other places once people find out about them."
Biau agrees: "The ideal situation would be to have a strong municipality defining the city-wide policies, and for each squatter settlement or slum to have a few CBOs (community-based organizations) and NGOs [Non-Governmental Organizations] co-ordinating the implementation of these policies. I believe that the key partnerships in the future will be between local authorities and CBOs and NGOs, at the city level."
But the political will must be present to accomplish these goals. "If there is the will in any city or country, there is a way to improve the situation," says Biau. "And the way can be easily defined." Biau says the media have an important role to play in convincing policy-makers to act more responsibly. And ultimately the people themselves have the ability to generate the needed political will. Throughout Latin America, for example, people have organized themselves, invaded land, and pressured governments to act for many years. In the Philippines, some 100,000 CBOs and NGOs are working toward the improvement of housing and living conditions in the slums.
"A popular-based approach, involving all relevant factors, most importantly the people themselves, is the basis of the solution," says Scott Leckie. "More and more people are beginning to realize that, and more and more people are becoming involved in these types of movements. In conjunction with greater recognition of housing as a human rights issue, more and more human rights and legal groups have become involved as well. Those two forces together are pushing things in a good direction."
21
JUN
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