Every human has the right to decent housing

What?

Every human has the right to decent housing. Yet almost two billion people across the world risk not having access to decent housing in the near future. The challenges that this bring will be felt the hardest by city governments as rapid urbanisation is expected to result in a world where two thirds of all people on earth will be an urban dweller by mid-century.  

In 2020, IFHP will create a new and practical policy ‘toolbox’ helping cities to navigate the everchanging landscape of housing politics and secure affordable housing for all its citizens. It will help make the strategic urban planning efforts of local governments simpler and have more predictable outcomes

How?

The project is made possible by a grant from Realdania. Because of this, a number of Danish municipalities with varying conditions and challenges are included in the collaboration. In addition, an advisory group of municipalities and various interest-groups have been assembled with which IFHP will regularly confer to assure the legitimacy of the toolbox as well as its practical usefulness.

The goal of the project is going to be achieved by identifying available policy measures and estimate the effects they might have on housing affordability.

The goal of the project is divided into three steps.

Step 1. Identifying policy instruments
In this part of the project the policy tools identified were further divided into three categories: Policy tools who are available to municipalities, tools who are expected to become available soon, and policy tools that are not available but that the various interest groups in the project wished were available.

Step 2. Asses the economic impact of policy instruments
In this part of the project, IFHP has been making predictions of the possible effect of a given policy tool in a given place and how it will affect the affordability of housing there.
When this step is complete, IFHP uses the knowledge attained in these first two steps and creates a more complete product for the municipalities.

Step 3. Create a guiding tool for municipalities
This tool will be made available to our city-members through an easy to use interface where city officials can trial-run various policy tools and then receive predictions on their effect.

The toolbox is being develop with the intend of being used by local governments around the world but is initially being developed in Danish context with Copenhagen as the initial case.

We will be posting about the project and our ongoing results on our website and social media. Otherwise, sign up for our newsletter here and let us keep you up to speed. If you feel like being a part of our global network of urban professionals join IFHP.

Every human has the right to decent housing. Yet, almost two billion people across the world risk not having access to decent housing in the near future. The challenges that this bring will be felt the hardest by city governments  as rapid urbanisation is expected to result in a world where two thirds of all people on earth will be an urban dweller by mid-century.  With the project Affordable Housing for All supported by Realdania, IFHP has decided to dedicate its efforts to the cause of affordable housing. A project to make cities better for people.