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Housing should be a human right by law, say Welsh housing bodies
Housing bodies in Wales have called for housing to be recognised as a human right in law.
In a report published today, the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) Cymru, Shelter Cymru and housing equality charity Tai Pawb said the move would ensure that housing policy focuses on those most in need and help solve issues such as a lack of accessible homes and homelessness.
The United Nations’ Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights treaty – of which the UK is a signatory – guarantees the right to adequate housing.
Other countries, such as Finland, have made the right to housing a constitutional principle.
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Matt Dicks, director of CIH Cymru, said: “This is an opportunity to re-energise and repurpose the original commitment to providing that most fundamental of human rights – a safe place we can call home – by adopting a rights-based approach to housing and fully incorporating the ‘right to adequate housing’ into Welsh law.
“We can look to international examples, including in Canada, South America, the US and Finland, where the right to housing has been enshrined, in various ways, into the delivery of public services, together with recent developments in Scotland, and use them as a platform for advancing the rights agenda in Wales.”
John Puzey, director of Shelter Cymru, said: “A right to a home, enshrined in Welsh law, would require all public services to have proper regard to a person’s human rights and would positively change many of those decisions that drive people into homelessness.
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“Such a right would also increase a citizen’s ability to challenge poor decisions that led to them becoming homeless in the first place.”
Alicja Zalesinska, director of Tai Pawb, said: “We need a vision and a legal framework that would help us shift the paradigm of the way housing is understood – namely as being central to the dignity of every person, where people in need are rights holders, not charity recipients.”
The report was written by Dr Simon Hoffman, an associate professor in legal studies at Swansea University, and was launched at an event today sponsored by John Griffiths, chair of the Welsh Assembly’s Equalities, Local Government and Communities Committee.
