UN-Habitat says housing policy should go beyond social housing alone

Housing policy should not be limited to social housing alone, stated Matthijs van Oostrum, a representative of the Global Research and Analytics Division of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), at an event titled "From Policy to Impact: Scaling Up Housing Provision" organized within the framework of the 13th session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13) held in Baku, Report informs.

According to him, national housing policy exists in different forms - on certain platforms, in shared databases: "We also see a large number of housing policies that have very specific thematic or sectoral targets. For example, many of the national housing policies we have identified are actually public housing policies (social housing policies). So in many countries, particularly in Europe, you see that their approach to housing provision from a national perspective is more focused on public housing stock. And I think one of the things that we as Habitat would like to promote is that it is important for those countries to also look at other aspects of housing policy and develop their policies in an integrated (holistic) manner."