A/67/286 I. Introduction 1. When the acute misery of the urban poor began to be revealed by social reformers in Europe and North America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Governments began to provide housing assistance to individuals and households and to supply housing directly. 1 By the middle of the twentieth century many developing countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia had experienced rapid urbanization of the rural poor. The absence of urban and housing policies to enable this new urban population to access urbanized land led to the creation of self-built informal settlements, characterized by precarious dwellings and a severe lack of basic services and infrastructure (see A/HRC/10/7). During the same period, the situation was different in most formerly planned economies, where the State was responsible for providing all citizens with adequate housing and the model of centrally planned construction of State rental housing was applied. 2 2. In the late 1970s a dramatic shift occurred in housing policies, starting with North America and Europe, followed later by developing countries in Latin America, Asia, Africa and by formerly planned economies. This shift, supported by predominant economic doctrine, called for the transfer of activities from State control to the private sector and for unrestricted free markets and free trade. This view soon gained hegemony, shaping the policies of States, international financial institutions and development agencies. The effects of this approach on housing policies across the globe have been dramatic and well documented (ibid.). 3. A growing consensus was formed, according to which Governments should renounce their role as suppliers of affordable housing and become facilitators, supporting market demand rather than directly providing outcomes: “Governments should be encouraged to adopt policies that enable housing markets to work … and avoid distorting housing markets.” 3 This new role implies creating conditions, institutions and regulations aimed at supporting housing finance systems to promote homeownership under the neoliberal dogma of reliance on private property and market forces. 4 4. Developed and developing countries have thus been steadily moving away from traditional supply-side assistance to demand-side policies. As a result, support for households to take on credit debt, the financial sector and the private housing market became the primary mechanisms for allocating housing solutions. Foreign __________________ 1 2 3 4 12-45918 For example, in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, about 5.5 million social dwellings were constructed between the end of the Second World War and 1981. M. Harloe, The People’s Home: Social Rented Housing in Europe and America (Hoboken, New Jersey, Wiley-Blackwell, 1995); D. Fée, “Le logement social en Angleterre: trente ans de déclin”, Informations Sociales, No. 159 (March 2010), p. 82. József Hegedüs, Stephen E. Mayo and Iván Tosics, “Transition of the Housing Sector in the East Central European Countries”, Review of Urban & Regional Development Studies, vol. 8, No. 2 (July 1996), p. 101; Economic Commission for Europe (ECE), Housing Finance Systems for Countries in Transition: Principles and Examples (New York and Geneva, 2005); Mark Stephens, “Locating Chinese Urban Housing Policy in an International Context”, Urban Studies, vol. 47, No. 14 (December 2010), pp. 2965 and 2971. World Bank, Housing: Enabling Markets to Work, World Bank Policy Paper (Washington, D.C., 1993), p. 6. J. Doherty and others, The Changing Role of the State: Welfare Delivery in the Neoliberal Era (Brussels, European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless (FEANTSA), 2005). 3