Towards a Popular Fund for the right to land and housing

Today more than one billion people in the world do not have access to adequate housing due to the unequal distribution of resources, to armed conflicts and to the precariousness of land tenancy. Before 2030 this number will have doubled despite the commitment of all the governments of the planet to improve the living conditions of 100 million inadequately housed people before the year 2020. This objective which is part of the UN Millennium Development Goals (see MDG Goal 7, target 11), has been formulated without considering that the challenge is more than improving housing conditions of a part of the inadequately housed, it must also include socio-economic policies to diminish poverty and homelessness, which is now estimated to be 1700 million people in 2020 (source: UN-Habitat).
Facing this situation the International Alliance of Inhabitants (IAI) inaugurated the “Zero evictions!” campaign during the World Social Forum in Mumbai (January 2004) inciting new initiatives in Nairobi, the Dominican Republic, Peru, France, and Italy among others.