Movement Blog for the Campaign to Restore National Housing Rights

By Chris Famighetti
Intern, NESRI Human Right to Housing Program
Taraneh Ghajar Jerven’s recent article in the Christian Science Monitor, “2010 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony: What about Vancouver’s homeless?” highlights the injustices perpetrated in the run-up to the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.(1) Jerven discusses the expensive development costs associated with the 2010 Olympic Games, where the original [...]

Last week Raquel Rolnik, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing, released her report on her visit to the United States. This report will be presented before the United Nations Human Rights Council.
Read it here.
Some excerpts from the report:
The Special Rapporteur wishes to emphasize that low-income housing assistance programmes should receive additional [...]

The End Homelessness Blog on Change.org has listed “The 10 Most Notable Homelessness Stories of 2009.” Included is the UN Housing Mission to the United States. Take a look at the whole list.
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News of the first official visit of the UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing continues to ripple through communities in the United States and even abroad. Even though Special Rapporteur Rolnik has departed, it feels as though her mission continues. Here’s what people have been writing since the last posting:
General
Poor Peoples Economic Human [...]

More domestic media on the housing mission
Friends of Leonard Peltier: Preliminary findings by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing
Narcosphere: Return to Alcatraz: 40 Years of Resistance
Common Man News: New York City homeless population at an all-time high
Talk to St. Ambrose: Housing is a Human Right
Arab American News: U.N. investigator probes U.S. [...]

The Guardian recently published commentary by Sasha Abramsky on the Special Rapporteur on Housing’s visit to the United States.
He writes:
Last week’s United Nations’ findings on America’s homeless crisis couldn’t have been more timely or more depressing. Three years into the post-housing bubble era, special rapporteur Raquel Rolnik detailed a growing crisis in which the poorest [...]

The Guardian: UN investigator accuses US of shameful neglect of homeless
The Guardian: UN meets homeless victims of American property dream
Times-Picayune: U.N. official studies housing shortage
Amsterdam News: UN special rapporteur sounds alarm on housing in America
West Orlando News: UN Official: Millions lack access to Adequate Housing in the US
Louisiana Justice Institute: Preliminary Findings Released by UN [...]

“Millions lack access to affordable and adequate housing in the U.S.”
Read the United Nations press release here or here.
En français: Etats-Unis : Des millions de gens victimes de loyers trop élevés, selon un expert
From the press release:
WASHINGTON D.C. (8 November 2009) – The UN Special Rapporteur on adequate housing, Raquel Rolnik, warned at the end [...]

Reported by Davin Corona, ¡Comunidad Presente!, Los Angeles, CA
Wow… What can I say? I’ve always known that Los Angeles had a housing crisis but what I realized during the United Nations (U.N.) Special Rapporteur’s visit to our City was that we are now in the midst of a housing and economic catastrophe…
Never has there been [...]

Washington D.C. Itinerary
Schedule subject to change
Thursday, November 5th
11:00am Meeting with Gail W. Laster, Deputy Chief Counsel and
Representative Barney Frank, Financial Service Committee
1:30pm Meeting with Valerie Jarrett, White House Office of Public Engagement
Friday, November 6th
10:00am De-briefing with Government officials
2:30pm Meeting with Brookings Institute
Saturday, November 7th
9:00-11:30am Public housing tour and town hall meeting
Friends and Residents of Arthur [...]