Charting a way forward for community-led housing

CoHabitat Network annual meeting highlights solutions to the global housing crisis.

News, 22 October 2024
Group of people sitting on chairs while speakers are presenting using PowerPoint.

CoHabitat meeting partcipants in Geneva (Photo: urbaMonde)

Community-led housing can and must be used as policy tool for addressing the global housing crisis, IIED and partners highlighted at the annual meeting of the CoHabitat Network.

The CoHabitat Network is made up of nearly 30 civil society organisations working in the field of community-led housing – a housing model in which residents and communities have central roles in the development and management of the places they live.

The network’s meeting, held in Geneva in early October, was attended by more than 80 people from across the world, including representatives of IIED. It was an opportunity for participants to present existing community-led housing solutions in different contexts, discuss the challenges of implementing and scaling up these initiatives, and develop joint advocacy strategies.

In a session co-organised by IIED and World Habitat, contributors shared experiences of community-led housing in Brazil, Zambia, Nepal, Malawi, Switzerland and Slovenia. These contributions were drawn from a research and advocacy project on community-led housing – part of IIED’s portfolio of work on housing justice.

The experiences featured during the session demonstrated the benefits of community-led housing beyond just the housing aspect. These included:  

  • Increased democratic participation 
  • Improved social cohesion in the communities 
  • The construction of other forms of infrastructure such as schools and health facilities, and 
  • The financial, social and political inclusion of marginalised groups. 

Participants also explored the ways in which community-led housing represents the role of housing as an ‘infrastructure of care’, as well as a model for society that values people and planet over profit.

Urgent and creative solutions 

“From promoting legal recognition of community land trusts in Rio de Janeiro, to reconstructing housing after floods in Nepal, to establishing revolving funds in Malawi, community-led housing is providing urgent and creative solutions to people’s housing needs across the world. We heard many of these stories highlighted at the meeting,” said Paula Sevilla-Núñez, housing justice researcher at IIED.

The meeting also saw participants grappling with the different enablers and blockers to advancing community-led housing. They agreed that community-led housing requires an enabling environment in three key areas:

  1. Organisation and partnerships: community-led housing initiatives require sustained mobilisation of community members, must overcome prejudice against collective forms of habitat production, and can only work where different sectors and social movements collaborate.
     
  2. Policy and frameworks: being ‘community led’ does not mean that community-led housing happens without public support – the legal recognition of community-led forms of housing production, the provision of technical assistance and capacity building, and the use of participatory decision-making processes within public policy are crucial for effective implementation.
     
  3. Finance, land and resources: access to land and the necessary financial resources – in collaboration with public, private and community actors – is the greatest challenge for community-led housing. Policies, programmes and funding arrangements offering flexible, long-term financing and resources should be provided to communities that organise to build housing.

Alexandre Apsan Frediani, principal researcher in IIED’s Human Settlements research group, said: “The CoHabitat meeting provided a valuable opportunity for network members, including IIED, to share ideas on overcoming the barriers to community-led housing. We were also able to grow our collective understanding of how international coalitions and networks can highlight community-led housing in global agendas.

“By joining local experiences with global advocacy, partners in the network will continue to collaborate to advance a worldwide movement of community-led solutions to our global housing crisis.”

The CoHabitat Network brings together community-led housing organisations and allies from across the world. Members promote innovative solutions, learn from each other and strengthen a global call for the right to adequate housing for all.

Contact

Paula Sevilla-Núñez ([email protected]), researcher (housing justice) in IIED's Human Settlements research group