Opinion

Haiti’s Long Road

On the eve of the third anniversary of the earthquake that devastated Haiti in January 2010, the country remains in a fragile state. Billions of dollars in aid and lofty promises to “build back better” have brought it only so far. A recent article by Deborah Sontag of The Times showed, in disheartening detail, the distance between hope and reality.

‘Squatters are not home stealers’

On 26 September, Alex Haigh became the first person to be jailed under section 144 of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act. His crime was one of which countless thousands of people could now be guilty: squatting. A 21-year-old from Plymouth, Haigh was arrested for living in a house in Pimlico that had been empty for over a year. He had come to London seeking work as a bricklayer; now he has a criminal record.
When section 144, which makes it an offence to squat in a residential building in England and Wales, came into effect at the beginning of September, many people agreed with it, including 52% of Guardian readers in an online poll. But is squatting really a menace or a burden to society? Might it even be beneficial? And when we talk about squatting, what do we really mean anyway?

Why land is at the centre of all scandals in India

Recent estimates indicate that the size of India’s shadow economy may vary from 25% to 50% of the country’s annual gross domestic product (GDP). Among the 176 nations ranked in Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index (2012), India stood at 94, which was a lot worse than Brazil and China. India’s property sector is possibly the worst offender. Barun Mitra, the founder and director of the Delhi-based Liberty Institute, has calculated that all the land transactions, including those related to natural resources like mining, generate $20bn (£12.54bn) to $40bn of illegal money each year.

When Low-Income Tenants Face Eviction

In “Tipping the Scales in Housing Court” (Op-Ed, Nov. 30), Matthew Desmond makes a compelling case for assisting low-income tenants facing eviction by providing them with lawyers. It’s sound social policy and a strong showing of decent morality. The issue of evictions is embedded within the context of a broader goal: ensuring and increasing housing stability.

Almodóvar: The Disaster of Evictions

In the past two weeks, two Spaniards who were facing eviction from their houses committed suicide. More than 350,000 people in Spain have lost their homes since the onset of the economic crisis in 2008. These tragic deaths have attracted public attention and a group called “Stop Evictions” has organized protests to block families from being evicted.

How the Coastline Became a Place to Put the Poor

In retrospect, after the storm, it looked like a perverse stroke of urban planning. Many of New York City’s most vulnerable people had been housed in its most vulnerable places: public housing projects along the water, in areas like the Rockaways, Coney Island, Red Hook and Alphabet City.
How is it possible that the same winding, 538-mile coastline that has recently been colonized by condominium developers chasing wealthy New Yorkers, themselves chasing waterfront views, had been, for decades, a catch basin for many of the city’s poorest residents? The answer is a combination of accident, grand vision and political expedience.

Disaster Planning from an International Grassroots Perspective

December 04, 2012 By Elizabeth Zeldin, Program Director As we continue to focus on the effects of Superstorm Sandy on the New York area, it is important to acknowledge that the hurricane also devastated communities in the Caribbean, where millions of homes have sustained significant damage. I recently spoke with Jamaica-based grassroots leader Carmen Griffiths to […]

The Affordable Housing Crisis in the US

December 04, 2012 New York Times Editorial The precious few federal programs that provide rental assistance to the nation’s poorest and most vulnerable families are already underfinanced. These programs provide decent housing for about only a quarter of the low-income families who qualify for them. And with nearly nine million households teetering on the verge of […]

Human Rights Defenders and Land Ownership in Uganda

November 29, 2012 by JAMIE HITCHEN Northern Uganda is rising from the debris of a long conflict involving the rebel Lord’s Resistance Movement. Many challenges remain especially on land issues. But human rights defenders are trying to help. Lira Town, situated some 350km from Kampala to the north, is an area deeply affected by the […]

Hurricane Sandy’s Rising Costs

November 27, 2012 The New York Times Editorial Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s latest request for federal aid to help New York recover from Hurricane Sandy presents a shattering picture of what a giant storm can do to a dense metropolitan area. The total price tag, he said, would be more than $42 billion: $33 billion to repair […]