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Cities for Adequate Housing
Group 2
DeclarationCitiesOrganisationsPeopleHow to join#MakeTheShiftBlog Download the
declaration
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Introduction 01More powers to better regulate the real estate market 02More
funds to improve our public housing stocks 03More tools to co-produce
public-private community-driven alternative housing 04An urban planning that
combines adequate housing with quality, inclusive and sustainable neighbourhoods
05A municipalist cooperation in residential strategies


CITIESFOR ADEQUATEHOUSING

Municipalist Declaration of Local Governments for the Right to Housing and the
Right to the City






CITIES FOR ADEQUATE HOUSING


MUNICIPALIST DECLARATION OF LOCAL GOVERNMENTS FOR THE RIGHT TO HOUSING AND THE
RIGHT TO THE CITY


NEW YORK, 16TH JULY 2018.

Building on the milestones of the New Urban Agenda of Habitat III (Quito, 2016)
and the momentum of “The Shift”, a global initiative on the right to housing,
the signatory cities below take part in this High-Level Political Forum of the
United Nations to follow up on Sustainable Development Goal 11 (SDG11: “Make
cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable” by
2030), with the support of UCLG (United Cities and Local Governments), the
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Leilani Farha, UN Special
Rapporteur on the right to housing.

We, the local governments, are the public officials who are most sensitive to
the everyday needs of our citizens. In the contemporary world, lack of national
and state funding, market deregulation, growing power of global corporations,
and increasing competition for scarce real estate often become a burden on our
neighbourhoods, causing serious distortions in their social fabric, and putting
the goal of ensuring equitable, inclusive, and just cities at risk. We, the
local governments strongly believe that all people should have actual access to
“adequate housing”, understood by the United Nations as the one that has the
correct “affordability”, “legal security of tenure”, “habitability”,
“availability of services, materials, facilities and
infrastructure”“accessibility”, “location” and “cultural adequacy”.
Nevertheless, real estate speculation, high cost housing, inadequate regulation,
socio-spatial segregation, insecurity of tenure, substandard housing,
homelessness, urban sprawl or informal urban enlargements without requisite
facilities or infrastructure, are growing phenomena that threaten the equity and
sustainability of our cities. Given this situation, local governments cannot
stay on the sidelines, and need to take a central role. For all these reasons,
we call for the following actions.


01 MORE POWERS TO BETTER REGULATE THE REAL ESTATE MARKET


WE DEMAND MORE LEGAL AND FISCAL POWERS TO REGULATE THE REAL ESTATE MARKET IN
ORDER TO FIGHT AGAINST SPECULATION AND GUARANTEE THE SOCIAL FUNCTION OF THE
CITY.

We, the local governments require regulatory and enforcement tools to protect
our neighbourhoods from speculation. Furthermore, we need the tools to protect
the use of housing as homes for people living in the cities we represent. We
also require instruments to regulate the housing rental market, protecting
tenants from speculative bubbles and giving them the right to greater security
of tenure. Likewise, we demand mechanisms to implement value capture from real
estate operations for the common good, both in new developments and in urban
renewal. Finally, we need powers to fight substandard or vacant housing.


02 MORE FUNDS TO IMPROVE OUR PUBLIC HOUSING STOCKS


WE DEMAND MORE RESOURCES AND COMMIT INCREASED INVESTMENT TO STRENGTHEN THE
PUBLIC HOUSING RENTAL STOCK IN ALL OF OUR NEIGHBOURHOODS.

We, the local governments demand more resources and investment to strengthen our
public housing stock. We must promote unique solutions that respond
proportionally to the seriousness of the housing emergency and promote
innovative, fairer, sustainable, more agile and economically efficient
alternatives. Public housing should contribute to achieving cities where all
persons have equal access to affordable housing. This should include its use,
alongside adequately-funded public services and welfare systems, to prevent
homelessness and to ensure no one needs to sleep rough. Furthermore, we must
guarantee a balanced distribution of affordable housing in the city, in order to
promote fair housing, combat socio-spatial segregation, and alleviate the
tension between centres and peripheries.


03 MORE TOOLS TO CO-PRODUCE PUBLIC-PRIVATE COMMUNITY-DRIVEN ALTERNATIVE HOUSING


WE ARE COMMITTED TO BOOSTING MIXED RESIDENTIAL SOLUTIONS, WHICH ARE NEITHER
SOLELY GOVERNMENT-DRIVEN NOR PURELY BASED ON COMMERCIAL GAIN.

We, the local governments need to be able to count on the strength and talent
from our cities’ productive and social fabric to co-produce mixed solutions,
instead of exclusively focusing on public or business-led schemes. We must
prioritize subsidies and tax exemptions for the creation of affordable housing.
In addition, we aim to explore, amongst others, various options adapted to each
city’s situation such as the cooperative or the community land trust housing
models and create public-private operators to invest capital in the creation and
preservation of affordable rental housing. Likewise, we must collaborate with
non-governmental organisations and foster the participation, self-management and
empowerment of residents, supporting good practices such as collaborative design
or assisted self-construction.


04 AN URBAN PLANNING THAT COMBINES ADEQUATE HOUSING WITH QUALITY, INCLUSIVE AND
SUSTAINABLE NEIGHBOURHOODS


WE ARE COMMITTED TO PLANNING MIXED, COMPACT AND POLYCENTRIC CITIES WHERE HOUSING
BENEFITS FROM A BALANCED CONTEXT AND CONTRIBUTES TO THE SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND
ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY OF THE URBAN FABRIC.

We, the local governments must promote the compactness of urban fabrics to
combat urban sprawl. We need urban planning practices that avoid the dependence
on the private vehicle and return to the model of accessible, walkable and
bikable cities that are provided with efficient public transport networks. We
must boost existing urban fabrics and promote mixed uses in all of our
neighbourhoods. We must promote fair housing and integrated neighbourhoods. We
should also provide alternatives to the expansion of new informal settlements by
focusing on the causes that lead to them and not on their victims.


05 A MUNICIPALIST COOPERATION IN RESIDENTIAL STRATEGIES


WE WANT TO ENHANCE COOPERATION AND SOLIDARITY WITHIN CITY NETWORKS THAT DEFEND
AFFORDABLE HOUSING AND EQUITABLE, JUST, AND INCLUSIVE CITIES BY BOOSTING
LONG-TERM STRATEGIES ON A METROPOLITAN SCALE.

We, the local governments are committed towards cooperation and the exchange of
knowledge and practice in urban and residential policies. We also propose
joining forces to call for more resources and powers from both national and
international supra-municipal bodies. We need the principle of subsidiarity to
be applied to housing and urban policies of city and central governments.
Furthermore, we call upon the cities to form a joint front when negotiating with
global actors or digital platforms. In addition, we commit ourselves towards
practising metropolitan solidarity so as to overcome competitive localisms,
centre-peripheral tensions and territorial imbalances. Finally, we commit
ourselves to reaching city agreements that transcend governmental terms of
office and guarantee the coherence and continuity of long-term strategies.


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