A/HRC/31/54 to city peripheries and deprived of economic opportunities and social networks, a process that has been labelled “socio-spatial stigmatization”.12 27. Widespread and severe discrimination and stigmatization on the ground of homelessness has rarely been addressed effectively by national human rights institutions or subjected to effective judicial or administrative remedies, and only rarely recognized in domestic legislation as a prohibited form of discrimination. IV. Interconnected causes of homelessness 28. Homelessness is caused by the interplay between individual circumstances and broader systemic factors. A human rights response to homelessness addresses both. It understands that homelessness may be linked to individual dynamics such as psychosocial disabilities, unexpected job loss, addictions or complex choices to become street– connected, and that a major cause of homelessness is the failure of governments to respond to unique individual circumstances with compassion and respect for individual dignity. A human rights approach must also, however, address the overarching structural and institutional causes of homelessness — the cumulative effect of domestic policies, programmes and legislation, as well as international financial and development agreements that contribute to and create homelessness. In her consultations, the Special Rapporteur found that inequality and the conditions that breed it are the most consistently identified causes of homelessness. 29. Rapid global urbanization has resulted in an astonishing accumulation of wealth for a few, accompanied by increasing poverty for many. Reliance on private market housing supply to respond to urbanization needs has meant that new housing supply has targeted mostly the rich, creating inflated real estate values, speculation and significant deficits of affordable housing. People who move to cities often have no choice but to live in informal settlements where millions suffer, in varying degrees, from poor sanitation, lack of access to clean water, overcrowding and makeshift structures. Instead of ensuring access for people in need of housing, land regulations, planning and zoning have rendered informal settlements “illegal”, favoured commercial development over housing and failed to respect the social function of land as a public good. The legacy of colonialism in some countries has embedded inequality in land and property. 30. The precariousness of informality and the prevalence of development-based evictions continue to be major structural causes of homelessness. Informal neighbourhoods are wiped out and replaced with high-end tourist attractions, shopping malls or entertainment districts. Land contamination and mismanagement compound these effects. Evictions without adequate resettlement, as is common, invariably lead to homelessness. 13 31. Worldwide, there is evidence of a consistent pattern: governments have abandoned their critical role in ensuring social protection, including affordable housing, have cut or privatized social benefits and have deferred to the private market, allowing private actors and elites with access to power and money to control key areas of decision-making.14 As a result, real estate and speculative capital have guided land use and urban development. 12 13 14 8 See Urban Policies and the Right to the City in India, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (New Delhi, 2011), pp. 63-75. Available from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0021/002146/214602e.pdf. See, for example, the case of the Badia community in Lagos, Nigeria (case NGA 1/2015). An urgent appeal by the Special Rapporteur will be made available at the thirty-first session of the Human Rights Council. Response to questionnaire from the Danish Institute for Human Rights.