Leilani Farha, former UN special rapporteur on adequate housing, argues that the current international housing crisis reflects a profound failure of democratic governance. Drawing on personal observations from Toronto, where homeless individuals live in the shadow of luxury developments, she suggests that residential infrastructure is increasingly prioritized for financial investment rather than human necessity. This trend indicates that the housing market has become detached from the needs of ordinary people, serving the interests of the financial sector instead. Farha contends that the inability of citizens to secure affordable shelter is not merely an economic issue but a systemic democratic crisis, suggesting that nations have ceded too much influence to market forces at the expense of their populations' basic rights.
Source : The Guardian
Photo : The Guardian
