A/HRC/25/54 C. Improving security of tenure 23. Local authorities should conduct a citywide assessment of existing tenure categories and the degree of security of tenure that each provides. The assessment should ascertain the underlying causes of tenure insecurity, such as inadequate urban planning, exclusionary zoning and building regulations; market forces; the political economy; or cultural and social factors, including discrimination. Authorities should identify settlements and groups throughout the urban and peri-urban area that lack tenure security and other aspects of the right to adequate housing, including homeless populations. They should also identify areas subject to gentrification and sudden raises in rents and housing prices that could produce future tenure insecurity. 24. The assessments should be made public in an accessible format, including to settlement residents for discussion and verification. They should inform the preparation of citywide strategies for securing tenure for the different situations, with strong participation of residents. 25. In the absence of affordable housing options the urban poor increasingly find selfhelp tenure solutions in urban and peri-urban areas. Programmes like the Thai Baan Mankong National Collective Housing Programme in Thailand, for example,31 can recognize and upgrade settlements on a citywide scale. Strategies should address the situation of settlements on both public and private land, with a presumption in favour of in situ tenure solutions, unless residents prefer another option. 26. States are obliged to make use of the maximum available resources in order to realize human rights. Public land is an essential resource available to the State to fulfil the right to adequate housing. As such, unless exceptional circumstances exist, the tenure arrangements of households and communities residing on State land, with no other adequate housing option, should be legally secured in situ.32 27. States should also facilitate in situ tenure solutions, wherever possible, for those people residing on privately owned property where the inhabitants have no other adequate housing option. Options for securing tenure for inhabitants, either on an individual or collective basis, include: (a) The recognition of adverse possession rights; (b) Rental of the property by the owner at affordable rates and with legal tenancy protections; (c) Sale of the property with State support where necessary; (d) Sale of the property to the State, or expropriation of the property as a last resort, for the purposes of granting use, rental or other secure tenure rights to the inhabitants; (e) Land sharing that allocates sufficient land to the owner and to the inhabitants; (f) Expropriation of the property with payment of compensation and subsequent granting of use, rental or other secure tenure rights to the inhabitants. This option should be considered only as a last resort when other measures have been unsuccessful, given the high fiscal cost to the State. 31 32 Questionnaire response from Thailand. See Centre on Housing Rights Evictions, Human Rights and Slum Upgrading (2005). Available from http://sheltercentre.org/sites/default/files/ COHRE_HumanRightsAndSlumUpgrading.pdf. 11