Tamara Gausi:To round up the year, each Equal Times editor picks the stories that have stayed in their heart and mind, long after publication.Read the full article
“Maybe it’s not the right to the city that we need. […] the city represents a form of accumulation that feeds on the extraction of everything around it: the favelas, the occupations and the countryside.”Read the full article
Estimates put Ghana’s housing deficit at about 1.8 million units. This translates to about six million people out of a population of approximately 33 million in need of housing. However, these figures do not account for the quality of available [...]Read the full article
Real estate developers are flocking to some of Miami’s poorest neighbourhoods, located farther from the coast and better protected from flooding and coastal erosion. Faced with rising housing prices and cost of living, many longtime residents are being forced to [...]Read the full article
A decision by Nigeria’s government to close the camps housing hundreds of thousands of refugees uprooted by the Boko Haram conflict has cost lives, increased human trafficking and labour exploitation in the area, and will make it harder for NGOs to provide humanitarian [...]Read the full article
After labelling their neighbourhood a ‘slum,’ the government evicted its residents to make way for luxury housing developments in the so-called ‘Maspero Triangle’, located two kilometres from Tahrir Square in the Boulaq district. These new flats are aimed at more affluent [...]Read the full article
In 2019, the Abbé Pierre Foundation, which fights against bad housing and exclusion, estimated the number of homeless children in France at 30,000. Since then, local charities have noted an increase in the number of homeless children throughout the country, particularly due to the arrival of new [...]Read the full article
In Mayotte, France’s 101st department, the state is stepping up its housing demolitions. The goal is to eliminate unsanitary housing. But its action has had serious consequences for thousands of people who have been driven out of their homes without anywhere else to [...]Read the full article
Rental intermediation allows the state, or an approved association, to guarantee private landlords that the rent will be paid on one hand, and to offer tenants affordable rent on the other.Read the full article
On the 10th anniversary of Spain’s citizen, anti-austerity movement 15M, the Spanish writer and activist Fernández-Savater takes stock of the Indignados.Read the full article
Before the coronavirus arrived in Belgium, around 600 families were being evicted from their homes every year. The impact of the health crisis has made the universal right to decent housing a virtual chimera, particularly for the most [...]Read the full article
Last year, the Italian NGO Avvocato di Strada helped around 4,000 homeless people access vital legal services, the most crucial of which was help to register for a virtual address.Read the full article
“We’ve always said everyone is just one paycheck away from an eviction. In March people saw that the thing the crazy housing people have been saying is true.”Read the full article
A reformed UN architecture and a renewed commitment to cooperation is needed to tackle the immense challenges facing both people and planet.Read the full article
The old fishing quarter of El Cabanyal offers a prime example of firm resistance against the local council’s urban development ambitions. “Every house was defended by the grandparents, the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren who grew up in them. It was that rootedness that kept the [...]Read the full article
“Venice’s economy has turned into a monoculture, and the pandemic has left it without anything. We must seize this opportunity to change.”Read the full article
Since the COVID-19 outbreak began, people everywhere have been spending a lot more time in their homes, thinking about how and where they want to live. In the Netherlands, this retrospection is having a positive impact on the burgeoning tiny house [...]Read the full article
The small Balkan country was hit hard by an earthquake in November 2019. With reconstruction due to start, the victims are growing impatient. Will the authorities succeed in rebuilding trust by putting an end to corruption and the lack of regulations in the construction [...]Read the full article
One (accidental and positive) effect of the economic crisis has been that it has led to new intergenerational relations. Young and old help and support each other in the framework of intergenerational living programmes.Read the full article
Theo Morrissey:“Rather than vying for space in the middle of a saturated election campaign, the Irish election suggests that trade unions can affect political change by putting in the hard slog ahead of time to lay the foundations.”Read the full article
Housing in Vienna costs significantly less than in other European capitals. This is partly due to the fact that close to half of Vienna’s housing stock consists of public housing, a 20th century political legacy of the Social Democratic [...]Read the full article
All over the world, coastal areas are losing ground. While the latest IPCC report recommends strengthening protection systems, other strategies are emerging, such as the removal of infrastructure and housing, and are highlighting the social inequalities in the distribution of [...]Read the full article
Istanbul’s speedy, unchecked development predates the Justice and Development Party (AKP) by decades. But 15 years of the party’s administration has pushed the city to its absolute limits.Read the full article
The only European country where homelessness is on decline, Finland has pioneered an approach to housing that asserts everyone has the right to a roof over their head.Read the full article
“Sustainable security and safety are always only ever achieved by good urban design, with involvement from the community and stakeholders.”Read the full article
It has been two years since 72 people lost their lives following a fire at Grenfell Tower in London, but survivors and families of the bereaved still have very few answers.Read the full article
As the final tremors of war subside, the time has come to rebuild a country in ruins, to allow for the return of its population. But what kind of reconstruction model has been chosen?Read the full article
While some undocumented migrant farm workers in Andalucía are paid the minimum legal daily wage of €41.20, many others survive on as little as €20.Read the full article
In addition to the demands of local residents and IDPs, the price of property in Maiduguri has been inflated by the presence of international humanitarian and federal government agencies.Read the full article
From Cape Town to London and the UN, people are galvanising for a shift to see housing a human right, not a commodity sought for profit.Read the full article
Emily Kawano :Rather than making a virtue out of the pursuit of calculated self-interest, profit maximisation and competition, this economy nurtures our capacity for solidarity, cooperation, reciprocity, mutual aid, altruism, caring, sharing, compassion and [...]Read the full article
Long known as “Chocolate City”, on account of its majority-Black population, Washington DC is fast growing whiter, with rapid gentrification dislodging African-American residents and culture.Read the full article