Resilient and affordable housing:
The Caribbean faces multidimensional vulnerabilities driven by climate change and aggravated by Small Island Developing States’ (SIDS) natural and economic characteristics. A critical natural feature of SIDS is its extreme vulnerability to climate-change-induced events. Economically, the Caribbean has followed the global trend of seeing its urban areas swell during the last decades. Moreover, the region’s coastal areas expose human settlements, infrastructure, and businesses to external shocks, such as climate change-induced extreme weather events. In addition, the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) introduced a new dimension to these vulnerabilities, widening inequalities and demanding new and more localized approaches to how Caribbean countries respond to the pandemic’s economic and social fallout (ECLAC, 2021a; 2021b).
Considering the susceptibility of human settlements and built infrastructure, housing policies are crucial in promoting community resilience, especially given Caribbean countries’ multipronged disaster-risk scenarios. Moreover, these policies have the potential to end intergenerational poverty and cut inequality cycles by combatting spatial segregation in cities and providing an opportunity for climate adaptation through adequate urban planning and green infrastructure.
Inadequate housing is a contributing factor to the intergenerational reproduction of poverty. Slums and informal settlements are one of the most visible expressions of inequality and reflect longstanding development gaps between those who live in middle- and high-income formal neighbourhoods and those living in poor or informal settlements. Addressing this “urban gap” is crucial for building a more just society and cannot be decoupled from overall sustainable development ambitions. Caribbean countries therefore have embarked on various housing policy measures to tackle the negative consequences of unplanned urbanization. These include assistance with housing costs to prevent economic deprivation and, more broadly, to provide access to affordable housing and thus promote social inclusion.
During the 2019-2020 period, most countries in the subregion invested less than 2% of their GDP on housing and community amenities (according to the classification of government functions). Of the 16 Caribbean countries analyzed, the lowest percentage of government spending was in the Bahamas (0.02% of GDP in 2020), and the highest was in Dominica (5.3% in 2019).
This policy brief addresses the challenge of ensuring affordable and resilient housing for everyone in the Caribbean by putting the issue of adequate and affordable housing at the center of policy debates. It provides an overview of housing policy instruments found in 16 member States of the Caribbean Development and Cooperation Committee (CDCC) and provides some recommendations for policy consideration.
Urban areas are economies of agglomeration and scale, which increase the efficient use of resources. Historically, unplanned urbanization and limited land supply are the fundamental causes of housing unaffordability in Caribbean countries. However, as populations continue to grow and move to cities, by 2030, 40% of the Caribbean population (or approximately five million persons) will become urban dwellers and require adequate housing (DESA, 2018). Furthermore, increased inequality and informal settlement expansion have followed unplanned urbanization in many Caribbean countries. According to the World Bank’s World Development Indicators, about 33% of the Caribbean SIDS’ population lived in slum dwellings as of 2018, contributing to the further spatial segregation of the subregion’s poor.
Adequate and affordable housing is a human right and contributes to achieving sustainable development priorities in the Caribbean SIDS (OHCHR/UN-Habitat, 2009). Policy measures to guarantee the right to adequate and affordable housing can include government action at the legislative and executive levels, especially regarding budgetary allocations. These policy measures can also include the creation of public-private partnerships (PPPs) that support the inclusion of all stakeholders to activate the production and improvement of shelters. However, it is essential to note that the right to adequate housing does not translate to the State’s obligation to build housing for the entire population.