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Homelessness, SDG 1 and Sustainable Recovery from COVID19: Poverty left behind
Tuesday, 6 July 2021
7:30 AM - 9:00 AM
Virtual (NY Time)

Side Event

United Nations Human Settlement Programme (UN-Habitat) co-organized with Institute of Global Homelessness

Homelessness is the manifestation of the failure to implement the right to adequate housing and to an adequate standard of living among others fundamental rights. The variations in definition for homelessness and homelessness-related conditions carries significant complications in terms of the consistency of related data and data collection methods.

During the pandemic this made it more difficult for national and local governments to plan and devise long-term recovery strategies. Accurately gathering data on homelessness is a precondition for the sustainable and resilient recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. While homelessness presents links with all SDGs, weak data collection methodologies on homelessness prevent states from effectively reporting on SDG 1 to end poverty in all its forms everywhere and SDG Target 1.4 to ensure that everyone have equal rights [and access] to basic services.

Homelessness is one of the crudest manifestations of poverty and inequality. How can we possibly assess poverty and progresses made to end it, without appropriate tools to assess the population in situations of homelessness? SDG Indicator 1.4.1 refers to the “proportion of population living in households with access to basic services”. Not accounting for the population in situations of homelessness when reporting on SDG indicator 1.4.1 will inevitably provide an inaccurate picture of poverty and availability of basic services in the country. This event aims to understand to what extent the lack of standardized data collection methodologies on homelessness hampers the reporting process for SDG1, and the sustainable and resilient recovery from COVID-19.

United Nations