UCLG 2025 Retreat: Housing justice is a “key priority” for local governments
At this year’s United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) retreat, local and regional governments reiterated housing justice as one of the key agendas to advance in various multilateral spaces and in local and national plans to address today’s most pressing challenges.
From the 17th to the 21st of February, members and partners of UCLG gathered in Barcelona to define strategic priorities and commitments for 2025, reflecting the key role that local governments play in addressing key global challenges, from the climate crisis to dramatic inequalities. The retreat provided a space for participants to exchange on ways local and regional governments, in partnership with civil society and grassroots movements, can advance housing justice along with other agendas like climate resilience, youth participation, health, food security, conflict prevention and local finance.
In preparation for the UN World Social Development Summit, UCLG and partners are aiming to advance a Local Social Covenant that places housing at the heart of a renewed global agenda for justice and sustainability for current and future generations. Local governments’ proximity to communities and their role as innovative policy co-creators and implementers enable them to advance anti-discriminatory and democratic forms of housing production, as well as to centre housing as an infrastructure of care.
The retreat also featured concrete calls to action, and participants shared opportunities for further partnership to advance the collective commitments, including the Hub for Housing Justice. UCLG, as a key ally of the Hub, will promote effective partnerships with local governments and civil society and research actors.
Emilia Saiz, Secretary General of UCLG, commented that:
Access to adequate affordable housing is one of the greatest challenges facing cities around the world. It actually threatens the stability and sustainability of our societies. We cannot solve this problem without addressing the issue as a political priority that takes into account the social function of land. The Hub for Housing Justice represents an opportunity to align positions between academia and local and regional governments to drive transformative solutions to the housing crisis.
Other Hub allies and partners present at the retreat included the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), Habitat International Coalition (HIC), Slum Dwellers International (SDI), Cities Alliance, and Habitat for Humanity.
Paula Sevilla, housing justice researcher at IIED and co-convener of the Hub’s Secretariat, emphasised during the retreat that:
Local and regional governments have a very important role to play in promoting new models of housing delivery that are anti-discriminatory and radically democratic, and promote housing as an infrastructure of care.
As local and regional governments continue to advance social justice at the World Social Development Summit and beyond, promoting housing justice will be a critical step towards building a new social contract that is underpinned by principles of care, equity, sustainability and intergenerational solidarity.