More than 1.1 billion people worldwide are living in slums and informal settlements as the global housing crisis deepens under the combined pressures of climate change, inequality, conflict, and rapid urbanization, according to discussions at the United Nations World Urban Forum in Azerbaijan.
Ministers, mayors, urban planners, civil society groups, and international organizations gathered in Baku this week for the 13th session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13) as the crisis affects nearly 2.8 billion people worldwide.
The forum opened with urgent calls for safer cities, affordable housing, and stronger protection for vulnerable communities increasingly exposed to floods, heatwaves, and other climate-related disasters.
According to the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), more than 120 million people over the past decade were either born into or moved into slums and informal settlements despite ongoing efforts by governments to improve urban housing policies.
Around 160 countries have adopted or are developing national urban policies, while more than two-thirds have introduced housing affordability programmes. But participants warned that these efforts remain insufficient amid worsening poverty, displacement, and climate risks.
Delegates also highlighted the role of the construction sector, one of the world’s largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions, prompting calls for low-carbon construction, climate-sensitive urban planning, and the upgrading of informal settlements.
Speakers at the forum said the crisis is no longer limited to poorer nations, pointing to rising homelessness even in wealthy countries.
“When we have a homeless population of hundreds of thousands of people in the streets in the United States, and we’re considered to be wealthy…In New York, it looks like a crisis right now,” Lance Jay Brown, founder of the Consortium for Sustainable Urbanization, told UN News.
Brown said affordable housing has become increasingly difficult to secure as the global population continues to grow.
The discussions at WUF13 are anchored on the New Urban Agenda adopted during the Habitat III conference in Quito, Ecuador, which guides global urban development efforts through 2036.
The forum is expected to help shape recommendations ahead of the July session of the UN General Assembly, which will review progress in implementing the agenda.
