The 5th Housing Forum discusses the challenges of housing in the region

Our project manager attended a major event this week, the city of Bogota and the Urban Housing Practitioner’s Hub in partnership with several other organizations hosted the 5th Housing Forum in Latin America on the topic of “Responding to the climate and social crisis.”

For three days, local and national decision-makers, international organizations, companies, universities, and civil society actors discussed the major challenges for affordable, sustainable, and resilient housing in the region.

The presented numbers and initiatives underline that the time for action is now (or it was yesterday) and multi-sectoral alliances are needed to ensure adequate finance, access to land, participatory processes and timely implementation are enabled. Very memorable were the highly energetic presentations of Claudia López Hernández, Major of Bogota, who shared the details of the remarkable progress the city has made since 2020 and stressed the importance of access (30min city concept) and gender equality.

During the event, we had also the chance to meet and work with Fundación Pro Hábitat, a Bolivian foundation working on housing and informal settlements, and with whom we are currently writing a common project proposal. We congratulate them on their splendid work, such as biological corridors, which also awarded them a prize at the conference.

For more information on the host and to rewatch the numerous panels, visit the dedicated website. https://www.uhph.org/en/forum

In addition to the host, the city of Bogota, we want to thank Monica Ramirez from Habitat for Humanity International and Marina Muñoz for organizing the UHPH forum and the invitation to the UHPH assembly. In the past, our institute has been involved in the best practice steering committee and also tested ideas on how the collected data of best practices can become more accessible for research and knowledge sharing.

Building on this experience and the additional sights gained at the conference, we look forward to continuing to forge alliances between academia and practices to make broad access to adequate housing in Latin America a reality.