As established in international law and the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, it is necessary to pay attention to the rights and needs of persons with disabilities.

Persons with disabilities are disproportionately represented in the poorest quintile of the population, and face additional challenges due to discriminatory laws and policies, environmental barriers, and lack of support services that would enable the enjoyment of the right to adequate housing on an equal basis with others.

This study reviews the literature on the meaning and impact of the right to adequate housing for persons with disabilities in cities. It uses the foundational framework of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), and demonstrates how the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) provides a new understanding of this complex right.

The authors link the right to adequate housing not only to other international treaties, but also to the diverse groups of individuals who are persons with disabilities and the complexity of the identities involved.

They outline major types of barriers that persons with disabilities encounter (physical inaccessibility, lack of access to transportation services, insecurity of tenure, among others), and identify trends in relation to policy and legal framework and national and sub-national solutions to the realization of the rights of persons with disabilities.

The report takes a human rights-based approach to development of human settlements that offer equal opportunities to persons with disabilities. The report offers three case studies that highlight some good practices and topics worthy of further inquiry.

The study points to many actions States Parties can pursue, and makes some recommendations specifically for UN-Habitat.

In the vast majority of countries land and housing affordability is a critical contemporary challenge. While in different countries and regions the specificities of the challenge vary, the universal truism is that it is becoming increasing difficult for the vast majority of urban residents to obtain and retain adequate and affordable land and housing.

This series canvases the state of affordable land and housing in four regions facing major affordability difficulties: Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia, Africa, and Europe and North America (member countries of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe). Each volume firstly explores the major trends in housing conditions, availability, quality and tenure modalities.

Following this, each volume analyses housing policy responses to address growing affordability problems and the improvement of substandard housing conditions. Lastly, key recommendations for local, national and international policy initiatives that can increase the provision of affordable housing in the respective regions is provided.

This volume investigates the state of affordable land and housing in Europe and North America (countries that comprise the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). It explores the major trends in housing provision, conditions, availability, and quality; analyses housing policy responses and practices; and provides key recommendations for local, national and international policy initiatives that can increase affordable housing supply.

This volume demonstrates that housing affordability is a pervasive and escalating issue in European and North American countries. Rising socio-economic inequalities are gentrifying and dividing cities and making adequate housing unaffordable for low- and many middle-income households. The rental housing stock has been diminished in favour of home-ownership which is invariably more expensive and difficult to secure.

Furthermore, the need for essential maintenance and the high cost of services in post-war multi-storey housing in Eastern European countries is placing additional pressure on housing affordability in these countries.

Countries in the Latin America and Caribbean region were the first in the developing world to go through rapid urbanization. Today, the region is the second most urbanized region in the world. This urbanization process has been accompanied by sharp social contrasts and economic disparities, a buoyant informal housing and land development process and increased local democracy and municipal autonomy, coupled with active social urban movements. This makes the Latin America and Caribbean region a unique landscape in the study of land and housing for the poor. 

This study brings forward the complexity and richness of the housing responses undertaken by national and local governments, as well as NGOs in the region, with the aspiration to inspire other regions where similar trends are arising. Shedding light on critical indicators and the overall housing needs of the region.

This publication provides an authoritative study for housing experts, policy makers, whilst enhancing our knowledge about the ways in which countries of Latin America and the Caribbean address land and housing needs.

In the vast majority of countries land and housing affordability is a critical contemporary challenge. While in different countries and regions the specificities of the challenge vary, the universal truism is that it is becoming increasing difficult for the vast majority of urban residents to obtain and retain adequate and affordable land and housing. This series canvases the state of affordable land and housing in four regions facing major affordability difficulties: Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia, Africa, and Europe and North America (member countries of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe). Each volume firstly explores the major trends in housing conditions, availability, quality and tenure modalities.

Following this, each volume analyses housing policy responses to address growing affordability problems and the improvement of substandard housing conditions. Lastly, key recommendations for local, national and international policy initiatives that can increase the provision of affordable housing in the respective regions is provided.