Shelter for all

If you visit any major city on any continent, you will notice people living on the sidewalks, with only a few belongings and even a pet or two. The street is their home. They do not have a place to call home.

In other words, they are homeless people. Exposed to the elements, bereft of work, mired in absolute poverty and often suffering from hunger, the homeless are a group of people we do not talk about much.

If you go to a city in a developing country, you will experience another phenomenon – slums.

Thousands of people live in these slum communities in ramshackle contraptions which are sorry excuses for houses, without even the most basic facilities such as proper sanitation and potable water. These people have shelter, but only in name.

Homelessness and sub-standard housing are two of the biggest problems facing the world. With most areas undergoing rapid transformation and urbanisation, there is an acute need to provide housing facilities for all who deserve it. In fact, the world’s urban population is expected to double in the next 20 to 25 years, which means an additional 2.5 billion people living in cities. The international community has taken serious note of this situation, as evidenced by the proclamation of a separate World Habitat Day (WHD).

This declaration was made in December 1985, when the United Nations General Assembly declared the first Monday in October to be World Habitat Day in recognition of the basic need for adequate shelter.

This year, World Habitat Day is on Oct. 1. The facts are truly staggering: About 1.6 billion people live in substandard housing around the world while millions more are entirely homeless. If no serious action is taken, the number of slum dwellers worldwide will increase over the next 30 years to two billion.

While developing countries have achieved the Millennium Development Goal target of significantly improving the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers 10 years in advance of the 2020 deadline, absolute numbers continue to grow. Nearly a quarter of urban residents – more than 850 million people – live in slums or informal settlements. The purpose of World Habitat Day is to call attention to this desperate need for adequate, decent housing for everyone. WHD is thus an opportunity to raise our collective voices to change the systems, policies and attitudes that perpetuate poverty housing.

Affordable

This year's theme for WHD is “Changing Cities, Building Opportunities”. The message is that affordable housing for everyone in the cities benefits the community as a whole. The changes that cities undergo should be considered as an opportunity, not an obstacle. If you read the theme carefully, you will be able to decipher two meanings. One is that the building boom is an opportunity to address the housing problem and the second is that opportunities can be built or created for all who desire better housing. This is a commendable approach to a vexed problem.

According to UN-HABITAT, "the United Nations chose the theme Changing Cities, Building Opportunities because cities are the engines of growth. It is in the cities that many realise their dreams of a better life. Even if this is not achieved, still many more leave the rural areas and flock to the cities for no other reason than the promise of a better future and prosperity. This they achieve by either getting jobs or by starting businesses which at one point not only provide for the owners but even other employees thus creating jobs”.

This year’s Rio +20 conference on sustainable development also recognized the importance of cities to economically, socially and environmentally sustainable societies. It stressed the importance of global partnerships in implementing the Habitat Agenda and highlighted the key role of municipal governments in setting a vision for sustainable cities, from planning new urban areas to revitalising older cities and neighbourhoods.

It is heartening to note that Sri Lankan authorities have undertaken several initiatives to address the housing issue especially in cities in tandem with the World Habitat Day. The Construction Engineering Services Housing and Common Amenities Ministry has allocated funds to develop urban habitats with low facilities in the Colombo City under the Janasevana Swashakthi program.

Moreover, the Government is planning a massive urban redevelopment program in Colombo that will see the construction of several high-rise housing complexes for slum dwellers. In the initial stage, the high rises will have 1,300 housing units. Several housing schemes will be built in the suburbs of Colombo too for the benefit of slum dwellers.

In the meantime, Rs 32 million has been allocated this year to enhance facilities such as sanitation in urban habitats with minimal facilities in Colombo city.

Infrastructure

Housing per se is not the only problem facing cities and urban areas. Residents need public transport, recreation, sanitation, health, drinking water and water for other purposes, energy and infrastructure facilities to make their lives better. This is why there should be a holistic approach to the housing problem. Authorities can consider and integrate all these factors when they build housing facilities from the ground up for under-served communities.UN Secretary General Ban ki Moon has in fact called for such thinking in his message for the World Habitat Day 2012. “Better planned and better functioning cities can help guide us to the future we want: cities where everyone has adequate shelter, water, sanitation, health and other basic services; cities with good education and job prospects; cities with energy-efficient buildings and public transport systems; cities where all feel they belong.”

But governments cannot do this alone. The people must necessarily be involved in transforming their cities. This is the basis of

UN-HABITAT’s ‘I am a City Changer’ global campaign which calls for individual and organisational efforts to change cities. It can be anything from cycling to work to turning off city lights exactly at dawn. It is people who make cities the vibrant entities that they are and it is up to them to make them even better places to live.