Brazilian scientist: Housing policy must ensure safe living and livelihoods

Housing policy should first and foremost provide people with safe living conditions and life security, stated José Sette Whitaker Ferreira, Dean of the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism at the University of São Paulo, Brazil, at an event titled "In Search of Best Solutions for Sustainable Housing and Resilient Cities: Voices of Cities" organized within the framework of the 13th session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13) held in Baku, Report informs.

According to him, housing should not be evaluated solely as an economic matter: "Housing is a fundamental right that protects a person, providing them with the opportunity to work, receive education, access healthcare services, and age with dignity. Prioritizing economic interests in housing policy has led to a number of problems."

Recalling that in the 1970s, Brazil's National Housing Bank built 4 million apartments, he noted that those projects primarily served the interests of construction companies: "As a result, while housing was provided for the middle class, the poorest population was left out, and the housing shortage increased even further. In the 2000s, 1.8 million apartments were provided to the poor population virtually free of charge, and this approach brought housing to the forefront as a public investment. Housing policy should not be limited solely to the construction of new buildings. More than 60% of the housing shortage in Brazil is related to people spending more than 30% of their income on housing costs."

The professor emphasized that improving informal settlements in cities and investing in housing and urban infrastructure should be one of the key priorities for the future: "This is not just a housing issue, but also a matter of eliminating social exclusion. Social exclusion is one of the most serious problems in Brazil and in the countries of the Global South."