​Community-led housing

Globally, there has been an increasing trend in how land and housing is financed– with strong market pressure to put profit before the right to adequate shelter. Displacement and poor living conditions are a growing risk or a reality for far too many people around the world.

Currently most countries only offer a range of housing models – mostly centred around home ownership and rental – that are not always affordable to low-income groups, alongside varying levels of public housing which often struggles to meet demand.

Additionally, the climate emergency is displacing communities living in fragile eco-systems at an alarming rate, as their areas and lives change to new global weather patterns. Millions are already migrating in search of new homes, and this number is only likely to grow.

However, many communities are coming together to create housing models that overcome these threats and provide a secure place to live. Residents and their allies have learnt about community-led housing experiences from across the world and are now tailoring them to their own countries and regions.

At World Habitat we believe we need more innovative community-led housing models to make long-term, affordable, and sustainable housing available for low-income groups, and at the same time guarantee security of tenure. We promote solutions that have the potential to influence policy and practice, to ensure greater social, economic, and environmental resilience.

Our Community-led housing (CLH) work focusses on proving that CLH can be developed, and responds to housing challenges, in three specific areas:

• informal settlements
• former refugee camps
• heavily owner-occupied housing markets of Central and South-Eastern Europe.

To fulfil this, we’re collaborating with three CLH projects:

• Favela Community Land Trust project in Brazil with Catalytic Communities
• Community-led development with the Bihari community of refugees in Bangladesh with the Council of Minorities
• Pioneering cooperative housing development in Central and Southeastern Europe with MOBA Housing SCE and its members

We also develop international networks to support projects in exchanging skills and knowledge around CLH through the:

• CoHabitat Network and its members
• production of key resources and events by the Centre for Community Land Trust (CLT) Innovation such as ‘On Common Ground: International Perspectives on the Community Land Trust’ and the first editions for the International CLT Festival and World CLT Day.

Through our CLH work, we aim to improve access to land, finance and knowledge, and the policy environment.