The present report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, and on the right to nondiscrimination in this context, is submitted pursuant to Human Rights Council resolutions 15/8 and 25/17.
Homelessness is a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response. It is occurring in all socioeconomic contexts — in developed, emerging and developing economies, in prosperity as well as in austerity. It is a diverse phenomenon, affecting different groups of people in different ways but with common features. It is symptomatic of the failure of governments to address growing inequalities in income, wealth and access to land and property and to effectively respond to the challenges of migration and urbanization. Homelessness occurs when housing is treated as a commodity rather than as a human right.
In the present report, the Special Rapporteur considers how homelessness is experienced as a human rights violation and how it can be effectively challenged and eliminated if addressed within a human rights framework. She urges that the elimination of homelessness be affirmed as a cross-cutting human rights priority in socioeconomic policy, planning and development.