local info

Réquisition logements vides

Selon l’Ifop, 69 % des Français se déclarent favorables à la réquisition des logements privés. Un large consensus qui témoigne de l’ampleur de la crise du logement. Si la gauche se rassemble, la droite quant à elle se divise sur le sujet.

The government of Papua New Guinea must investigate the conduct of police who burnt down homes and threatened people with guns while illegally evicting them from land next to one of the biggest gold mines in the country, Amnesty International said today.

Gala Crum is homeless, pregnant and living in a tent alongside the interstate in Prince William county. (Bill O'Leary - The Washington Post, 2009 )

The economic recession made homelessness a hot topic in 2009. It seemed every day there was a story about shelter bed shortages, record numbers of school children, or a new tent city popping up. But which stories stood out the most? Change.org has scoured the headlines and trends to compile the 10 most notable homelessness stories of 2009.

Property owners' rights will soon receive better protection under revisions to the controversial regulations for demolishing urban housing, a senior legislative official said yesterday.

Tunnels beneath Vegas a refuge for homeless people

Underneath its glitzy casinos, far from the bright marquees, there is another Las Vegas, a pitch-black, dank underworld virtually unknown and unseen by those who live, work and play above.

Jobless, and Living in a Bunk

For Atsushi Nakanishi, jobless since Christmas, home is a cubicle barely bigger than a coffin — one of dozens of berths stacked two units high in one of central Tokyo’s decrepit “capsule” hotels.

Home not Games

"My sense is this is the tip of the iceberg, it's the beginning of December and this is when I imagine these situations will start to ramp up," said Laura Track, a spokeswoman for Pivot Legal Society, who joined members of the Olympic Resistance Network to publicize the situation Monday.
In April, the City of Vancouver passed a housing bylaw allowing temporary rentals during the Games, so long as landlords have a municipal licence.

Village of Yapleu, Moyen Cavally, in the western area of Côte d’Ivoire (Barbara McCallin/IDMC, July 2008)

A reform programme designed to formalise customary land rights in Côte d’Ivoire may compromise durable solutions for internally displaced persons (IDPs) if their specific needs are not taken into account, according to a new report by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).

Part of the Omar Colony UC-7 near the railway line

On 3 September a Pakistan government committee approved a project worth Rs 128.5 billion (US$1.54 billion) to revive the Karachi Circular Railway and turn it into a modern commuter service, but not everyone is pleased: some 7,000 households will need to be relocated.

Trucks transport the furniture of residents of Istable Antar slum in Cairo to new homes about 50 km outside the capital

CAIRO, 17 November 2009 (IRIN) - When government workmen came in a truck to take Ahmed Mohamed's furniture to his new home just outside Cairo, the 32-year-old fisherman said “We were given beautiful homes, but they’re good for nothing. What can a fisherman like me do in the desert?”