HRCM reports on Maldives housing crisis
December 2008: Housing has become so scarce in the capital Male’ that a quarter of all families share just one room, according to a major new report by the Maldives Human Rights Commission.
Almost 85 per cent of families living in the capital of the Maldives are homeless, according to a major report released by the Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM) last month.
The HRCM report found that around 12,000 families in Male’ do not have their own housing and are forced to share accommodation with other families or make do with temporary living arrangements.
Housing has become so scarce that a quarter of all families in Male’ share just one room and almost 70 per cent live in accommodation that fails to meet ‘adequate housing’ criteria on the basis of overcrowding.
“In these conditions it is highly probable that ventilation, sanitation, degree of privacy and quality of cooking facilities are sorely deficient, easily qualifying these apartments as ‘slums’ by the United Nations definition," says the report.
“Male’ is therefore likely to take the prize for having the highest percentage of slums in a capital city of any Middle Income Country.”
Housing and human rights
Housing-related issues made up the third highest number of complaints received by the HRCM in 2007 and the lack of adequate and affordable housing is one of the most pressing problems facing people living in Male’ and the atolls.
“It has come to this level because of serious neglect,’ said Ahmed Saleem, HRCM President, at the launch of the Rapid Assessment of the Housing Situation in the Maldives.
The report, produced in collaboration with Geneva-based NGO Displacement Solutions, is the first of its kind to provide a detailed analysis of the country’s housing problem.
It looks at the reasons for housing stress across the Maldives; causes and patterns of urban immigration; existing housing programs and policies; housing finance; and housing affordability.
The right to adequate housing is set out in a number of international human rights treaties, including the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which was ratified by the Government of the Maldives in September 2006.
The HRCM report proposes 18 recommendations which set out a concrete, rights-based approach to address the factors that have contributed to the scarcity of adequate housing, as well as immediate steps that can be taken to resolve problems of sanitation and access to clean water.
Overcrowding
Between 2000 and 2006 the population density of Male’ increased by 40 per cent, as people have sought employment and services available in the capital as well as greater security following the 2004 tsunami.
Overcrowding has become a serious issue, with focus groups telling the HRCM that, on average, five or six people would share a single room in the city’s apartments and houses.
This can have significant consequences for people’s health, privacy and safety.
One woman, who lives with her family of six in one room, said she and her husband force their children to leave the apartment frequently because they cannot cope with having so many people in such a small space at the same time.
Migrant workers – numbering 30,000 in Male’ – face even greater pressures. As many as 30 men have been reported to share apartments measuring 3m x 3m, which lack running water or sanitation. The men sleep in ‘shifts’ because they cannot all fit into the room at the same time.
Such overcrowding is among the “key causes of rising social problems such as gang warfare and drug abuse,” the report says.
It has also been driven by the skyrocketing cost of accommodation, with rents roughly doubling between 2005 and 2007 and many survey participants paying 85 per cent of their income on rent and utilities.
Atolls
Housing stress is also a problem in the atolls, with many residents expressing a high degree of dissatisfaction with many aspects of their living conditions, including:
- family homes no less crowded than those in Male’ and the surrounding islands
- inadequate household and community sanitation
- the high cost of electricity and building materials
- shortages of clean water for drinking, cooking and cleaning, and
- the long wait for assistance repairing homes damaged or destroyed by the tsunami.
Solutions
The report recommends an expansion of social housing schemes in Male' and other urban areas; a mechanism to monitor and regulate rents; and a system for receiving and resolving complaints between tenants and landlords.
It also recommends greater availability of housing finance and incorporating the concept of a right to adequate housing in building codes.
The newly elected Government of the Maldives has responded positively to HRCM’s report and has committed to implementing another of its key recommendations: creating a National Committee on the Right to Adequate Housing, made up of representatives from the public and private sector.
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