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 [...]

First slideshow by Nicholas Dahmann.

Coalition for Economic Survival members participate with allies in a town hall meeting on November second with Raquel Rolnik, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing.

UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing visits and is welcomed by Coalition for Economic Survival tenants at their at-risk HUD subsidized [...]

Megan Cottrell wrote about UN Special Rapporteur’s trip through Chicago’s public housing at the Chicago Now blog.
Here is a video Ms. Cottrell shot at the Cabrini row houses.

Cabrini’s transformation from Megan Cottrell on Vimeo.

UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing Official Visit to Los Angeles

Los Angeles is facing a significant crisis in homelessness, Section 8 and public housing, and foreclosures resulting from predatory lending. Additionally, Los Angeles has the distinction of being the nation’s homelessness capital. The UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing will investigate the following issues:
[...]

UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing Visits Pine Ridge Reservation
Pine Ridge Oglala Lakota (Sioux) Indian Reservation is located across Bennett, Jackson, and Shannon Counties in the southwest corner of South Dakota. Residents of Pine Ridge face serious problems of poverty, short life expectancies, and extremely poor public housing conditions. The UN Special [...]

UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing Official Visits New Orleans

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita displaced over 2,000,000 people in the gulf coast region. Government policies aimed at private sector development have prevented the return of a quarter of the New Orleans population and contributed to a significant rise in homelessness, double the [...]

Chicago Public Radio: United Nations Housing Specialist Tours Cabrini Green
Medill Reports, Chicago, Northwestern University: UN investigates whether Chicago housing violates human rights

DeBorah White, resident of the Iberville in New Orleans, Louisiana.

There is a significant housing crisis in Chicago facing poor and low-income communities. Public housing developments that were once famous for being centers of crime, drugs, and gang violence, such as Cabrini Green on the Near North Side, have since been razed and residents are still awaiting the construction of affordable replacement units. These displaced [...]