Bringing Home the Right to Housing to Advance Urban Sustainability

Download or read book Bringing Home the Right to Housing to Advance Urban Sustainability written by Lisa T. Alexander and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The human right to housing, although not a formal American federal or constitutional right, provides an important legal and normative framework that can help American cities and states better balance the needs of owners and non-owners in local housing and development struggles. If American cities and states want to create sustainable urban communities that will flourish for generations, they will need the human right to housing as one legal tool in their sustainability toolkit. If we understand the term urban sustainability to include not just the sustainability of the land, air, water, and spaces that humans occupy, but also the sustainability of the inhabitants and positive social relationships in urban spaces, then the human right to housing must become a part of cities' urban sustainability arsenal.The right to housing is an international human right, enshrined in the constitutions of several countries and in the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (“The Covenant”). While the United States has signed the Covenant, Congress has not ratified it. Thus, the right to housing does not have the force of law in the United States. Yet, if ratified by Congress, the right to housing could provide America with a normative rubric to better balance private property rights and non-owners' housing needs. Even in the absence of federal legal adoption, cities and states can use the right to housing to help resolve housing and property challenges at the local level.