Housing may exist, but it may be overcrowded, unaffordable, unsafe, without clean water or sanitation, vulnerable to floods and extreme heat, or built on land from which residents can be displaced at any time.

We should also ask how many families obtained secure tenure; how many informal settlements gained clean water and sanitation; how much affordable rental housing became available; how many women acquired secure housing or land rights; how many neighbourhoods became accessible to persons with disabilities; and how many vulnerable communities were protected from floods, heat and forced displacement.

As the UN Secretary-General observed for this year’s World Habitat Day, adequate housing forms a foundation for dignity, security and opportunity, while investment in housing and upgrading informal settlements can simultaneously reduce poverty, inequality and climate vulnerability.

A home is one of the first places where humans feel at peace, in love, and with dignity. It is where a child sleeps without fear, where a family gathers, where people recover from illness. It is a place where memories are created and where individuals develop a sense of belonging. Yet billions of people around the world have no secure place to live. Housing may exist, but it may be overcrowded, unaffordable, unsafe, without clean water or sanitation, vulnerable to floods and extreme heat, or built on land from which residents can be displaced at any time. World Habitat Day is observed by the United Nations on the first Monday of October every year. The day was established to encourage the world to reflect on the condition of our towns and cities and on our collective responsibility for the future of human settlements. First observed in 1986 under the theme “Shelter is my right.” World Habitat Day has now developed into an important global conversation about housing, urbanization, inequality and sustainable cities. It also opens Urban October, which continues until World Cities Day on 31 October. The theme for World Habitat Day 2026 is “Adequate Housing for All,” and this slogan is happening at a time when the scale of the housing crisis is enormous. UN-Habitat estimates that around 2.8 billion people experience some form of housing inadequacy and nearly 1.1 billion live in slums and informal settlements. These figures tell us about a common misunderstanding. Adequate housing does not simply mean four walls and a roof. A house may exist and still be inadequate. If a family can be arbitrarily evicted, its housing is insecure. If paying rent leaves little money for food, education or healthcare, it is not genuinely affordable. If a house lacks safe drinking water, sanitation or electricity, it cannot provide a decent standard of living. The concept brings together UN-Habitat’s seven elements of adequate........

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