Soaring housing costs, climate shocks and conflicts are leaving millions without adequate shelter - but what can be done? As the 13th UN World Urban Forum opens on Sunday in Baku, Azerbaijan, participants will grapple with solutions to a deepening global housing crisis that has apparently decided to make itself everyone's problem.
The conference, organized by UN-Habitat together with Azerbaijan, runs from Sunday 17 May through Friday, 22 May. It will bring together world leaders, mayors, urban planning experts, as well as representatives of governments, the private sector, civil society and international organizations - basically everyone who's ever thought about a building.
The theme is a call to action: Housing the World: Safe and Resilient Cities and Communities. According to the UN, nearly 2.8 billion people today are living in inadequate housing conditions, while more than 300 million have no home at all. With close to 70 per cent of the global population expected to live in cities by 2050, the crisis is only set to intensify - because apparently we're all moving to cities, but nobody remembered to bring enough houses.
In an interview with UN Video, the head of UN-Habitat, Anacláudia Rossbach, described the situation as a “global housing crisis”. “This crisis has long been most severe and structural in the Global South, but now it is also being felt in the Global North as well.” Because nothing says solidarity like everyone getting to share the same housing nightmare.
According to Ms. Rossbach, the rising cost of living has become a major issue, while international crises, including the war in the Middle East and the related risks to global supply chains, further aggravate the situation. Because what's a housing crisis without a side of geopolitical chaos?
The crisis goes far beyond bricks and mortar. Housing is increasingly seen as a cornerstone of human dignity, urban resilience and even global stability. Its impacts ripple across every aspect of life, the UN warns - straining healthcare and education systems, weakening economies and fraying the social fabric. In other words, it's not just about having a roof; it's about not having everything else fall apart too.
Francine Pickup, Deputy Director of the UN Development Programme and head of the UNDP delegation to WUF13, said the agency hopes to use the forum in Baku to strengthen partnerships in promoting integrated urban solutions that combine housing, climate resilience, governance and local financing. “This global housing crisis that we’re in is not primarily a construction problem,” Ms. Pickup said. “We need to go beyond looking at building homes and houses and look at the urban setting and look at the housing issue as a complex problem.” Translation: it's not just about hammers and nails, folks.
One of the central themes will be the rapid growth of informal settlements, or unplanned areas where residents lack legal claims to land and live in precarious housing. Today, around 1.1 billion people live in slums, and projections suggest that figure could rise by another two billion in the coming decades. Children are especially vulnerable: between 350 and 500 million children are estimated to live in slum conditions. Because if you thought the housing crisis was bad for adults, try being a kid without a stable place to sleep.
At the same time, UN-Habitat is calling for a shift away from approaches that view informal settlements solely as a problem. In many cases, such neighborhoods are the only way millions of people can secure shelter in cities. So maybe stop calling them slums and start calling them “innovative DIY urban planning.”
Another issue set to loom large, against the backdrop of ongoing conflicts and crises, is how cities recover after war and disaster. By the end of 2022, more than 123 million people had been forcibly displaced worldwide, according to the UN, with over 60% seeking refuge in urban areas. Losing a home is about far more than losing a roof. It can mean the rupture of communities, the loss of livelihoods and a deep sense of insecurity. In Baku, the focus will not only be on providing shelter, but on rebuilding lives - from restoring neighbourhoods and creating jobs to helping communities find a path back to normality.
Ms. Rossbach added that discussions will also focus on reconstruction and recovery in countries affected by wars and disasters. “There is an urgent need not only to provide housing, but also to rebuild communities in ways that are inclusive, resilient and sustainable.”
Another line of discussion will focus on climate issues. Experts warn that the climate crisis is fast becoming a key driver of the global housing crisis. Extreme weather events - including floods, storms and wildfires - displaced more than 20 million people in 2023 alone. Estimates suggest that climate change could destroy 167 million homes worldwide by 2040. Because nothing says “home sweet home” like a wildfire turning it into ashes.
At the same time, buildings themselves remain one of the largest sources of emissions: the construction sector accounts for 34 per cent of global energy-related CO2 emissions. The forum will therefore seek answers to two interconnected questions: how to build more housing while also avoiding a worsening of the climate crisis. It's like trying to lose weight while working at a bakery.
“The theme of the Forum is housing. We will explore housing from many different perspectives - including informality, finance, sustainability and resilience,” Ms. Rossbach said. “Today, we must be fully aware of the impact of climate change and the pressure it places on housing systems. What we build, how we build and where we build all have consequences for natural resources, climate resilience and communities’ ability to withstand shocks and disasters.”
A central theme running through the forum is the need for collective action - bringing together everyone from governments and local authorities to universities and grassroots communities. “World Urban Forum is our biggest platform to bring together stakeholders,” Ms. Rossbach said. “We hope to see a strong and diverse community gathered in Baku and to emerge from WUF13 with a stronger global coalition to address the housing crisis.”
“We cannot solve the global housing crisis alone. We need governments, local authorities, civil society, academia, communities and the private sector to work together,” she added. Because if there's one thing that solves complex global problems, it's more meetings.
The Baku forum will also mark an important political milestone: this year marks the tenth anniversary of the New Urban Agenda adopted in 2016. Further, in July, the UN General Assembly in New York City will conduct a midterm review of the Agenda, and discussions in Baku are expected to help determine how far the world has progressed in creating more sustainable, safe and affordable cities. Spoiler: not far enough.
The World Urban Forum was established by the UN General Assembly in 2001 and is organized by UN-Habitat. Held every two years, it is considered the leading international conference focused on sustainable urbanization and the future of cities. The forum brings together governments, urban planners, researchers, civil society groups and private sector representatives to examine how rapid urban growth is affecting communities, economies, infrastructure and the climate. Since the first session in Nairobi in 2002, the forum has been hosted by cities around the world. Some 40,000 participants from 182 countries are registered to take part in Baku forum. That's a lot of people who all need places to stay - hopefully the forum has that sorted.