Adequate housing for all continues to remain one of the human rights and development challenges in Nepal. As estimated in the National Census, 49% of Nepal’s population lives in substandard housing. Less than 30% of people’s houses are considered structurally safe. Further, as revealed by UN-Habitat’s Nepal: Urban Housing sector profile, about 10% of urban dwellers in Nepal are “squatters” or people who do not currently have a legally recognized right to the house or land they occupy. Soaring land prices and increasing rural-urban migration have made it difficult for those living in poverty to afford adequate housing, especially in the fast-growing urban areas. The proposed targets for 2030 set by the Government of Nepal include doubling the proportion of households living in safe houses to 60%.

There is a huge demand for structurally safe houses in urban areas. The private sector is emerging as an active player in urban housing. However, housing is inadequate and expensive. There exists a government-run Janata Awas Karyakram (People’s Housing Program) initiated in 2009. However, its coverage is limited in terms of geography (27 districts) and beneficiaries (Dalits and Muslim households living in poverty and Indigenous Peoples on the verge of extinction). As housing finance offered by banks and financial institutions carries high interest rates, affordable housing is challenging for people living in poverty and with low income. Also, banks and financial institutions often require a house or land as collateral to provide a housing loan. Currently, there is a lack of appropriate housing finance or subsidized loans available to those living in poverty.

The occurrence of natural disasters and the impacts of climate change frequently exacerbate the housing problem in Nepal. For example, the earthquake of 2015 significantly worsened the housing situation when more than 700,361 houses were destroyed in the 14 most affected districts. Those worst affected by the earthquakes were those already marginalized, including landless people, women, Dalits, and other caste-based and ethnic minorities. In 2017, massive floods in Tarai districts and landslides in hill districts left 43,400 houses fully destroyed and 191,700 partially destroyed. A Recent rainstorm in March 2019 damaged more than 2,400 houses in Bara and Parsa districts.

Many of those who suffered the most as a result of the natural disasters are from marginalized ethnic groups and so-called “lower castes”, families with persons with disabilities or severe health problems, and single-headed households. To date, a substantive portion of the earthquake victims are waiting to receive the financial support promised to them by the government. As noted by the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA)’s press release in the context of the 4th Earthquake Remembrance Day, only 50% of households who were left homeless have built their homes with the housing grant provided by the government. Four years on, 50% of those made homeless by the earthquake are desperately waiting to have their home rebuilt with the housing grant. Out of them, 30% are in the process of rebuilding. However, 20% have not even started their reconstruction work.

Amnesty International’s 2017 research entitled ‘Building Inequality’: The Failure of the Nepali Government to Protect the marginalized in Post-earthquake Reconstruction efforts identified that not only had the reconstruction process been slow, but also that it was flawed in many respects. Especially, the landless people (living as sharecroppers on landlords’ land or as squatters on government land) were not able to qualify for government grants to rebuild their homes as they did not possess a land certificate – the main document required in the reconstruction grant model chosen by the government. Exclusion from government grants to re-build houses left those already marginalized in an even more disadvantaged position.