One billion people live in slums and precarious housing in the world with 8 billion

Of every 8 inhabitants on the planet, 1 now lives in slums or inadequate houses, according to UN data. The issue is even more worrisome because most of humanity’s growth forecast for the next few decades will take place in cities, which lack adequate areas to receive more housing. This Tuesday (15), the United Nations predicts that the world will reach the mark of 8 billion inhabitants.

The entity defines an inadequate house as one that has at least one of the following conditions: it is made of poorly resistant materials; does not have adequate access to potable water and sewage; and houses more than three people per room.

In the last decades, however, the trend had been towards some improvement. In 2000, 31.2% of the planet’s residents who lived in cities were under these conditions. After 20 years, the percentage dropped to 24.2% — in Latin America, the drop was greater, from 31.9% to 17.7% in this period, but the index is still far from that observed in Europe and America. of the North (which, according to the UN, excludes Mexico), where only 0.7% of the urban population lives in an inadequate way.

At the same time, the growth of cities continues to accelerate. In 2000, the world had 371 municipalities with more than 1 million residents; in 2018, they were 548 and by 2030 they should be 706.

Megacities, conglomerates with more than 10 billion inhabitants, are also multiplying. There were 33 in 2018, which should become 43 in 2030. The São Paulo metropolitan region is the fourth largest global metropolis, with a current population estimated at 21.8 million people, according to the World Population Review website. The global top 3 has Tokyo (37.4 million), New Delhi (29.3 million) and Shanghai (26.3 million).

Already large European urban conglomerates, as well as some in the US, are in the process of shrinking due to accelerated aging, low birth rates and internal migration in search of cheaper housing – even in rich countries, property prices are rising, which makes it difficult for young adults to buy.

Following population growth, most of the growth of cities will take place in the so-called Global South, which brings together Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

The list of municipalities to reach megacity level in the coming years includes Luanda (Angola), Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), Tehran (Iran) and Ho Chi Minh (formerly Saigon, Vietnam). China and India, the most populous countries in the world, have six and five megacities, respectively. And of the 1 billion people living in slums today, 85% are in Asia (at least 665 million) and Africa (230 million).

“We think there is a disorderly growth [das cidades] and that this is something inexorable. Not. The problem is to understand that the order is this. There is low-quality growth in regions without infrastructure, due to the price of land”, points out Valter Caldana, professor at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism at Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie.

With the economic crisis generated by the coronavirus pandemic, access to housing has become more difficult in many parts of the world. The closure of activities led to many people running out of money to pay rent, ending up evicted or having to look for cheaper housing. At the same time, supply chain failures and lockdown periods have delayed the production of new real estate, which has also driven up prices in many countries.

Without adequate urban planning, many metropolises leave the poor with no option for affordable housing and, in practice, pretend that they do not see the creation of slums and inadequate housing on the periphery.

“House prices are strongly driven by land value – which represents between a quarter and a third of the final value, but can reach 90% in places where the market is very heated”, says Christophe Lalande, housing specialist at UN Habitat. , United Nations program for human settlements.

He advocates that governments take actions to prevent land prices from rising too much and create regulations for land use, such as vetoing spaces to remain idle awaiting appreciation. “In the absence of public regulation, the housing market is far from delivering affordable homes in cities, even in high-income countries.”

Fernando Túlio, president of the São Paulo department of the IAB (Instituto de Arquitetos do Brasil), estimates that it would be necessary to invest something around US$ 3.5 trillion to solve the issue of lack of quality housing for 1 billion people in the world. He considered an average cost of $10,000 per house to provide the necessary urban services, with each house housing three people.

“Resources exist. But as the richest billionaires on the planet should not donate this money, governments need to invest in political and tax reforms”, he says. “Governments in rich countries also need to transfer resources to help those in the Global South, whether as reparation for colonization or to help combat climate change.”

Túlio recalls that people without adequate housing are the most vulnerable to extreme events such as floods and storms.

“Social housing is not just about providing housing for those who don’t have it. It’s about improving everyone’s quality of life”, points out Caldana. “In a city where many people do not live well and some are on the street, the whole city is sick and lives badly. São Paulo is an example of this.”