The United Nations declared housing to be a human right (http://www.hrea.org/index.php?base_id=149 ) in 1948 in its Universal Declaration of Human Rights (http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/). In recent years, the U.N. has begun to follow through on this declaration, so as to make certain that its member nations are in compliance. The position of Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing (http://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/housing/index.htm) was created by the United Nations as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, and on the right to non-discrimination in this context.  

 

In 2000, Miloon Kothari of India ( http://www.un.org/Pubs/chronicle/2006/issue1/0106p44.html ) became the first U.N. special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing, serving from 2000 to 2008. In May of 2008, Mr. Kothari was replaced by Raquel Rolnik of Brazil. During the administration of George W. Bush, numerous attempts were made to arrange a visit by Miloon Kothari to the United States, as a visit must be cleared with the U.S. State Department in order to be official. In the waining months of the Bush administration that wish was finally granted to Mr. Kothari's successor.

 

The visit by Raquel Rolnik to the United States was organized by the National Law center on Homelessness and Poverty (http://www.nlchp.org/) and the National Economic & Social Rights Initiative (http://www.nesri.org/) in conjunction with various local homeless and housing advocates from the seven U.S. cities that the rapporteur was scheduled to visit. Those cities include: New York; Chicago; L.A.; New Orleans; Wilkes-Barre, PA; the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation of South Dakota and Washington, DC.While in each of the first 6 cities, Ms. Rolnik visited housing complexes and homeless shelters. She spoke with the residents as well as with local government officials. While in Washington, DC, she added a visit to the U.S. Government to her itinerary. On November 8th, her final day in the country, the Special Rapporteur delivered a keynote speech during a Right to Housing seminar which was held at Georgetown Law School, right across the street from the CCNV Shelter (http://www.theccnv.org/about.htm) which she had visited earlier in the day.

 

Ms. Rolnik explained her reasoning for deciding to tour the United States:

 

"People ask me 'Why did you decide to come to the United States to assess the housing situation here when there are so many under-developed third-world countries where people are so much worse off?' They don't understand why I'd choose to come to the wealthiest nation in the world. I tell them that it is because the United States with its investment banks like the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and the World Bank sets the pace for development around the world. This country is exporting its financial model to all parts of the world -- a model that caters to rich developers, not the poor people, not the little people. Therefore, if you change the way that the United States does business, then you change the world. It's bound to have a ripple effect. Besides that, there are people living in deplorable conditions right here in this nation -- the richest country in the world."

 

During the first day of this two-day seminar, homeless and housing advocates from cities that the rapporteur didn't visit were afforded the opportunity to voice their concerns to her. They along with people from the seven cities that were visited had quite a lengthy laundry list of complaints. They spoke of:

 

 -- landlords who fail to adequately maintain apartment complexes,

 -- the lack of affordable housing,

 -- how a federal housing initiative called H.O.P.E. VI actually decreased the amount of affordable housing, as opposed to increasing it (http://www.nhi.org/online/issues/138/chicago.html),

 -- how that being homeless worsens the health of the chronically ill, 

 -- laws and cops that target the homeless and

 -- policies that further victimize women who are the victims of domestic violence.....

 

.....just to name a few. 

 

[While some of the above points are self-explanatory, I'll flesh out some of the more interesting points that are not self-explanatory:

 

The H.O.P.E. VI Initiative, begun during the Clinton administration, was supposed to replace old, dilapidated housing projects. However, housing projects were torn down at a faster rate than new ones were being built, resulting in a net loss of housing units and proving to be counterproductive. (See link above.)

 

Those with chronic illnesses need to be housed in order to get a handle of their condition. One of those who testified to the rapporteur mentioned a woman who'd been living with AIDS who died right in front of a DC homeless shelter that she couldn't get into. She was filmed by a videographer just three days before her death. The video in which she is the last person interviewed can be seen at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWbPsuT58HI (I actually knew the woman who died and was the one who contacted the media as I stood near her corpse while awaiting the medical examiner's arrival.) 

 

There are laws and cops that target the homeless. For instance, some cities have made it illegal to feed the homeless in city parks. In some cities it is illegal to panhandle (ask for change) and just as illegal to give to someone asking for change. Such laws target the homeless and limit the ability of the poorest of the poor to acquire the basic necessities of life.

 

Furthermore, cops will sometimes target the homeless by patrolling the parts of town where the homeless sleep outdoors for the sole purpose of arresting them as they take care of their human needs. In many cases these people have absolutely no alternative to the streets, as shelters may be full to capacity. The story was told of police who would regularly park their cruisers in a certain alley every morning because they knew that homeless people slept nearby, woke up around 6 AM and would need to relieve themselves. There was no public restroom within a reasonable walking distance that was open at that time of day and people would often use the alley as a substitute. These police made it a point to arrest these homeless people as they used the alley to relieve themselves, while having no restroom to go to.

 

Policies that further victimize victims of domestic violence were brought to the attention of the rapporteur. One such policy which is often set forth by landlords states that any tenant who calls the cops to their apartment complex three times must then be evicted. The story was told of a woman who had a violent ex-boyfriend. She'd taken out a restraining order against him. He'd violated twice and she'd called the cops twice. He knew that she couldn't call them a third time or she'd risk losing her place. So, he was able to continue harassing her.

 

It was also interesting to hear some of the thoughts that went into organizing the visit. Originally, the plan was to have the rapporteur visit five cities. Then it was determined that those five cities didn't adequately represent the full range of housing concerns in the nation; so, the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation of South Dakota and Wilkes-barre, PA were added.

 

Tiffany gardner of NESRI also explained that her organization intentionally avoided large, well-established and well-known homeless and housing organizations in favor of smaller, more down-to-Earth ones. They wanted to hear from those who are pounding the pavement -- those who are involved in the day-to-day struggles firsthand. They wanted to deal with those who are on the front lines like Robert Robinson of Picture the Homeless (http://www.picturethehomeless.org/) in New York City and Max Rameau of Take Back the Land (http://takebacktheland.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=47&Itemid=54) in Miami, Florida. Various people showed videos from their respective cities of stories from the struggle for housing (http://housingisahumanright.org/). They included neighbors helping to surround the house of someone who police are attempting to evict in Miami and people organizing in New York city so as to identify and occupy vacant properties.  

 

The rapporteur explained how she will afford the homeless and those who are in inadequate housing a new way of recourse and redress of grievances, as the right to adequate, affordable housing is a work in progress: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/housing/complaints.htm . She will remain in constant contact with homeless and housing advocates and when she receives complaints pertaining to the housing situation in any U.S. jurisdiction, she will contact the State Dept. with her recommendations. Furthermore, Special Rapporteur Rolnik will write a report on her U.S. visit and will present it to the general assembly in March 2010. This should help to exert some international pressure on the U.S. Government to play an active role in improving housing conditions within its borders.

 

Ms. Rolnik's visit is seen as the official beginning of the RIGHT TO HOUSING MOVEMENT in the U.S. It is only the beginning of the end of the housing crisis in this country. And so, I finish this article as I began it by strongly encouraging you to throw yourself into this movement entirely and wholeheartedly if you haven't already. My hope is to help build a decentralized, spontaneous movement around the "Right to Housing". We've only just begun.....

 

Other pertinent links:

 

U.S. Right to Housing Movement Blog: http://restorehousingrights.org/

My other blog on homelessness: www.ericsheptock.com

A dire situation: http://www.un.org/News/briefings/docs/2005/kotharibrf050511.doc.htm