Policies on access to housing

Access to housing is one of the sectoral policies that need to be integrated with the social protection system to fulfil the population’s economic, social and cultural rights. The goals of a social protection system include defining unsatisfied demand for housing and ensuring the population at large has different ways of satisfying it. This objective is based on Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which proclaims that “everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services”; and Article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which recognizes that “everyone has the right to an adequate standard of living for themselves and their families, including adequate food, clothing and housing, and to the continuous improvement of living conditions” (Cecchini and Martínez, 2011, pp. 216-218). Housing therefore plays a key role in any social protection system, by allowing household members to live in an environment that enables them to develop their capacities and become less poverty-prone.

Related Subject(s): Economic and Social Development