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Cairo – The UN Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing is urging the Egyptian government to meaningfully engage with people facing eviction due to new redevelopment projects – and allow them to remain in their homes if they wish to do so.

Egypt has launched several housing projects in recent years and is developing 42 new cities throughout the country, including a new capital east of Cairo, to address the housing needs of its population, including the 38 million Egyptians who live on unplanned areas and informal settlements.

And yet in some cases, the relocations are forcing residents to move far from their previous employment and existing social networks. What’s more, some of the new cities suffer from low occupancy rates and there appears to be a lack of income mix within the housing estates. At least one development – El Asmarat – already looks like a “potential slum”, as Reuters reported.

“Egypt, a nation of engineers and architects, has grasped the bricks and mortar solution to its housing problems, but still needs to better understand the value of and the central role that people play in order for the right to housing to be realized,” said Leilani Farha, a Canadian lawyer and the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing.

Farha visited Egypt last week where she met with several government representatives, NGOs and citizens. At the end of her visit, Farha issued a statement in which she expressed her concern at the government’s failure to “meaningfully consult and engage with residents of these settlements to determine their future”.

For Farha, the solution is clear: “No housing programme, no new city, no social housing programme will be successful without the full engagement of people.”