Urban informal settlers displaced by disasters: challenges to housing responses

The growing frequency of urban disasters and the lessons learned from mega-events such as the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and the 2010 earthquake in Haiti have spurred the development of human rights guidelines on adequate housing in post-disaster settings. Those disasters have also raised international responders’ awareness of the importance of adopting a rights-based approach to shelter assistance and disaster risk reduction (DRR), and addressing the needs of non-owners in general and informal settlers in particular. This report aims to inform national and regional humanitarian and development responses that facilitate adequate and durable housing solutions for displaced informal settlers following urban disasters. After reviewing the human rights standards and operational frameworks relevant to disasters, displacement and adequate housing, it examines the extent to which responses to date have addressed displaced informal settlers’ needs in line with the right to adequate housing. It briefly presents and analyses nine case studies from Asia, America and Europe that illustrate the challenges inherent to the provision of durable housing in urban settings, and ways in which some of these challenges have been overcome.