A World without enough Homes
Somewhere tonight, a child will fall asleep on a floor made of compacted earth, beneath a roof of corrugated iron held down by stones. In another city, on another continent, a young couple will lie awake in a rented room they cannot afford, calculating whether next month’s pay cheque will cover the rent or the food, but not both. In a third place, an elderly woman will sit in a tower block built half a century ago, its concrete walls blooming with damp, its lifts broken for the third time this year, wondering how a building designed to give her dignity has instead given her despair. These are not isolated stories. They are the daily reality for billions of people across every continent on earth. The global housing crisis is not coming. It is here. It has been here for decades. And unless we fundamentally change the way we design, build, fund, and deliver homes, it will define the century ahead. This chapter sets out the scale of that crisis — not to overwhelm, but to establish clearly what we are dealing with. Because before we can talk about solutions, we must first be honest about the problem. And the problem is enormous.
