Box 2.6: Key actions to make housing affordable during the pandemic

Long-term investment strategies for affordable housing, such as direct market investments, also have an important role to play on the energy needs of households, both on account of an increase in conventional demand (more space heating, hot water, cooking and so on) because of the increased time spent in the home, but also the additional demand connected to new activities such as teleworking and remote schooling. These pressures, combined with widespread loss of livelihoods, have exacerbated the pre-existing problems of fuel and energy poverty. In the European Union, for instance, more than 50 million families were facing energy poverty when the pandemic began, a figure that was anticipated to rise further during the pandemic as measures to contain the virus were put in place.48

In sum, COVID-19 has exacerbated a longstanding, global housing crisis reflected in the increasing unaffordability of adequate housing to a large share of the urban population. Ensuring people remained housed was a key priority in the emergency response for many governments in the first months of the crisis.

Box 2.6: Key actions to make housing affordable during the pandemic

Together with suspensions and bans on evictions, ensuring temporary affordability of housing and utilities allowed people to comply with lockdown and curfew orders, especially those presenting pre-existing or new economic vulnerabilities. The most common measures were:

• Rent freezes that have temporarily prohibited rent increases on rental units for the duration of the emergency and/or for months after the end of the emergency.

• Moratoria on mortgages that allowed landlords to avoid incurring in debts with banks or financial institutions.

• Housing vouchers” or rent bonuses/subsidies that have been used to help tenants pay and afford rents during the emergency

• Bans on utilities shut-offs that have also contributed to ensure affordability of housing costs through continuity of utilities supply during the pandemic, particularly for those already on the edge of the poverty line. Alongside subsidies and financial assistance to ensure the short term affordability of rents, mortgages and utilities costs, other measures such as temporary moratoriums on evictions and foreclosures were put in place to prevent a rise in homelessness. Nevertheless, some cities saw evictions continue even at the height of the first wave, with the poorest neighbourhoods, informal settlements and slums the primary targets. In Nairobi, for instance, thousands were forced from their homes with little warning or support in the form of alternative housing and compensation: in Kariobangi informal settlement, to take one example, some 8,000 residents were forced from the area and their homes destroyed despite a court order in place prohibiting authorities from undertaking the eviction.49 Similar patterns were in evidence in other East African cities throughout the crisis, with some 65,000 people evicted in Somalia in the first half of 2020, including more than 33,000 in Mogadishu alone.50

In other countries, measures to ensure the right to housing have been taken: in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, authorities worked with UN agencies to address the situation in informal settlements by helping to rebuild these communities in line with rights-based principles. Beyond the short term measures described above, longterm investment strategies for affordable housing, such as direct market investments, also have an important role to play. A major limitation of emergency policies is that, if taken in a vacuum, they do not address the broader economic drivers that leave million of people vulnerable to eviction. Gaps have emerged, too, even in countries where protections are supposed to prevent evictions. In the US, for instance, landlords have still been able to evict tenants if they fail to file a hardship form or if there are errors in their paperwork: according to data from Princeton University’s Eviction Lab, compiled from 27 cities across five states, as of 13 February 2021 almost a quarter of a million (247,463) evictions had taken place since the pandemic began.51 However, cities can themselves enact policies to alleviate these impacts. New York, for instance, rolled out wide