Today we launch the “Model emergency housing legislation”, the result of the joint effort of a wide coalition of global organisations, led by OSF Justice Initiative and with the collaboration of FEANTSA/ Housing Rights Watch.
The advent of COVID-19 made the need to enforce the right to housing more urgent. People were instructed to stay home while many lost the source of income that enabled them to pay for their home. Individuals and families in precarious living situations, or without housing at all, were particularly susceptible to the fast-spreading and often deadly virus. Some states responded by passing emergency relief measures, but others did nothing.
Evictions continued in most parts of the world during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, both in states that did not implement relief measures, and even, to some degree, in those that did. This was largely because relief measures passed by states were incomplete, sometimes forming distinctions that made little objective sense. For instance, many governments moved to limit rental evictions while doing nothing to protect owners of mortgaged housing, or vice versa.
In most states, people in informal and temporary settlements, migrant and refugee housing, people with disabilities, and/or those facing homelessness, were left without any protection. Moreover, some state measures to prevent evictions involved voluntary agreements that were not legally enforceable.
Lastly, most of the measures passed during the first wave of the pandemic were scheduled to end in a matter of months, which provided no security for the second wave of COVID-19 a few months later, or for the economic crisis that was to follow the COVID-19 pandemic.
Recognising the need for a comprehensive approach to protect the right to housing, we formed a steering committee to develop a model housing Act, which you can read here and an accompanying briefing paper.
For more info, please contact: Maria Jose Aldanas
