A safe home as a defence against poverty: UN cites 2.8bn facing housing problems

The UN marked the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty on October 17 with the focus “Safe Homes for All”. More than 2.8 billion people worldwide face some form of inadequate housing, it says. That is not a count of homeless people: it includes overcrowded, unsafe, unaffordable and insecure housing.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres linked affordable housing to work, education, health and social protection. A family spending most of its income on rent may cut back on treatment or schooling. Losing a home, in turn, makes steady work harder to maintain. Housing instability and poverty can reinforce each other.

What should be measured?

The number of newly built apartments alone is insufficient. Housing cost relative to income, safe water, heating, transport access and protection against sudden loss of a home also matter. The UN calls for people experiencing poverty to be involved in designing solutions.

For Kazakhstan, this opens a discussion about rental affordability, dormitories and housing quality across regions as well as construction totals. The global 2.8 billion figure cannot be assigned to Kazakhstan without separate national data.

Source: https://www.un.org/en/node/102932.