The world is experiencing a global housing crisis

• Worldwide, some 827.6 million people live in urban slums.¹
• By 2020, it is estimated the world slum population will reach almost 1 billion.²
• About 50 percent of the world's population now live in urban areas.¹
• Lack of clean water and sanitation claim the lives of more than 1.8 million young children every year.³

In the United States, 48.5 million people are living in poverty

Minimum wage is not keeping up with the rising cost of living and many workers struggle to afford decent housing.⁴

Decent, stable housing provides more than just a roof over someone’s head

• Stability for families and children.
• Sense of dignity and pride.
• Health, physical safety and security.
• Increase of educational and job prospects.

The transformational ability of good housing

• Clean, warm housing is essential for prevention and care of diseases of poverty like HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, diarrhea, and malaria.⁵
• Children under 5 in Malawi living in Habitat for Humanity houses have 44 percent less malaria, respiratory or gastrointestinal diseases compared to children living in traditional houses.⁶

Housing must become a priority

• The percentage of people without access to decent, stable housing is rising.
• Increasing the housing supply across the globe is essential.
• Adequate housing is vitally important to the health of the world’s economies, communities and populations.
• If we are to succeed in the fight against poverty, we must support the expansion of housing both as policy and as practice.

Learn how Habitat is making a difference

• Program Milestones 2012
• Program Milestones 2011
• Habitat for Humanity International’s annual reports

Additional resources on poverty housing

• Habitat's Advocacy Research and Resources

Sources

• ¹UN-Habitat, State of the World's Cities 2010/2011, March, 2010.
• ²United Nations General Assembly, report of the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living and on the right to non-discrimination, August, 2012. 
• ³UNIFCEF, Progress for Children: A report card on water and sanitation, September, 2006 
• ⁴National Low Income Housing Coalition, Out of Reach 2013, March 2013
• ⁵Kissick,op. cit.
• ⁶Christopher G. Wolff, et al.,The Effect of Improved Housing on Illness in Children under Five Years Old in Northern Malawi: Cross-Sectional Study, BMJ vol. 322, 2001