Housing as a human right and the role of philanthropy

The idea of housing as a human right has recently gained traction, partly thanks to the Inquiry into Australia’s Human Rights Framework, and the proposal for a National Housing and Homelessness Plan (NHHP), embedded in law. Erin Dolan, Program Manager at the Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation and Chair of Philanthropy Australia’s Affordable Housing Funders Network, provides an of overview recent developments and what else philanthropy can do in this space.

The Inquiry looked at Australia’s human rights mechanisms and in May 2024 recommended a national human rights act. Australia, while agreeing to many international human rights obligations, has a weak, incomplete and complicated domestic framework for human rights. The Inquiry looked to strengthen this framework, notably with a federal law that will place human rights standards at the heart of federal law, including the right to housing.

The NHHP bill, introduced into federal parliament in June 2024 by Senator David Pocock and Kylea Tink MP, invokes the right to adequate housing as a fundamental human right, and as an organising principle for housing policy reform.

While our enforcement is weak, the Australian Government has already formally agreed that housing is a human right. International obligations, signed and ratified, are explicit. Most notably the right to an adequate standard of living is detailed in article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948. Article 11.1 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights 1966 provides the right to adequate housing as part of an adequate standard of living. “Adequate” includes housing that is affordable, well-located, culturally appropriate and more. See this UN Factsheet on the Right to Adequate Housing. 

How could a right to housing work?

In New York, there exists a right to shelter. This is not a right to long-term housing. Instead, New York has an extensive number of congregate or “shelter” facilities that allow people a bed for the night. These are in no way ideal and recent counts show that a population totalling more than 130,000 people (including children) are typically housed as such every night. Read more about New York homelessness, including recent pushes to end this right, on the website for the Coalition for the Homeless.

In the UK, this right is stronger. Under laws from Housing (Homeless Persons) Act 1977, local governments have duties to provide long-term housing for certain categories of people experiencing homelessness. Around 50,000 formerly homeless households are housed annually in permanent social housing tenancies in England under these legal duties. Read the Homelessness Monitor for information about the UK’s homelessness data and related policies.

Housing as a human right is unlikely to provide Australians experiencing homeless a right to housing the way it does in the UK. Our rates of social housing are far lower and our federal government lacks constitutional powers to impose housing duties on state/territory or local government as in the UK framework.

More likely, a right to housing could be used to provide better enforcement of laws relating to housing. Already, individuals have used other, state-based human rights to maintain housing.  For instance, in Queensland a domestic violence survivor was able to avoid eviction to homelessness with the help of the Queensland Human Rights Act, see Case 2.

More than just empowering individuals under the law, a human rights approach to housing could force government to consistently take responsibility and put policies in place to ensure all Australians are adequately housed. Think of a world where housing, like roads or parks, become essential infrastructure for communities.

Do we need to talk about housing as a human right?

Beyond making housing a Commonwealth government issue, a human rights framework can be a powerful organising principle for housing policy reform. As a way to understand the world, it moves us from thinking about dollars and statistics to consider people and their needs and reinforce the primacy of housing as a human necessity. This is extremely important if we’re to solve the housing crisis in Australia.  We need to shift the narrative from the financialisation of housing to essential infrastructure; from a commodity to a necessity that every single person needs to thrive.

Work in narrative shift around housing is growing. More than just countering NIMBYism, this work seeks to change how we view housing and what we want to make a strong community.  There are some excellent examples of this coming from the US: Housing Justice Narrative Initiative, FrameWorks Institute, The Case Made and Housing Narrative Lab

How can philanthropy work in this space?

A good place to start for those wanting to advance housing as a human right is around advocacy for stronger human rights. You can directly support the implementation to create a national Human Rights Act. The Human Rights Law Centre also publishes information about casework in the area and has explainers to cut through the politics.

Other campaigns supported by philanthropy include Everybody’s Home, which recently ran a People’s Commission into the Housing Crisis after receiving more than 1,500 individual submissions. The final report, Voices of the Crisishad a series of recommendations including recognising housing as a human right. Everybody’s Home campaigns are collaborations between key sector organisations – providing strength in numbers and a unified voice.

Don’t forget that support can be more than funding. The private members bill introduced into federal parliament in relation to the upcoming Housing and Homelessness Plan is an example; see this overview. Individuals and organisation could make submissions – Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation provided a written submission supporting the bill. While the bill may be unsuccessful, the submissions showed support for a robust Housing and Homelessness Plan with the necessary institutional architecture in place to ensure meaningful accountability for developing and progressing it.

There is growing momentum in Australia for a narrative shift – and yet much more here still to do. Tripple recently ran a deep dive grants program focused on solutions to the housing crisis. They wanted their work to be community-focused and grassroots led – using the voices of those affected by the housing crisis. They found that harmful narratives are deepening the housing crisis. Read their excellent Evaluation Report detailing how and why they chose to ground their housing work in human rights.

Want to learn more?

There are a number of recent publications on the topic. A good concise start is AHURI’s What does ‘Housing as a human right’ mean in Australia?  The Human Rights Law Centre has an explainer about the Inquiry into the Australian Human Rights Framework. To better understand how human rights could be embedded in a National Housing and Human Rights Plan, see Chris Martin, Hal Pawson and other’s definitive overview Towards a Australian Housing and Homelessness Strategy. The Hon Kevin Bell, a former Victorian Supreme Court justice, has recent produced a book, Housing: the Great Australian Right, which should also get a mention. Like our current prime minister, Bell grew up in social housing and his short book provides both a legal as well as moral call to formalise housing as a human right. 

The Affordable Housing Funders Network’s recent session on Housing as a Human Right was recorded: Housing as a human right and the role of philanthropy on Vimeo. Speakers include Daney Faddoul, Human Rights Law Centre, Hal Pawson, UNSW’s City Futures Research Centre and Sally Hill from Tripple.