A Comprehensive Law for the Right to Housing in Lebanon

In 2023, Public Works Studio launched a project for a comprehensive draft law for the right to housing in Lebanon as a radical approach to addressing the housing crisis and its accumulations over the past decades. Departing from the principles of spatial justice, the project draft law is proposed as a tool capable of promoting affordability and securing the diverse needs of a variety of social groups, especially the elderly, persons with disability, students, workers, families, and others. The project is rooted in a participatory methodology, and engaged, all throughout its phases, in consultations with residents from marginalized communities, civil society institutions, and experts, whose ownership of the proposal is a pillar for the project’s success.

The comprehensive right to housing draft law is being developed across 4 thematic chapters:

1. The role of the state in regulating housing
2. Protective measures against eviction and homelessness
3. Informal neighborhoods
4. The state’s role in the direct provision of affordable housing

Project Phases

Phase 1 of the project, completed in 2023, comprised the research and analysis that identified the core components of a viable future law for the right to housing, which we discuss in several research outputs published in the Public Works Zine.

Phase 2, completed in July 2024, focused on conducting consultations with residents and building alliances with institutions working with communities most disenfranchised under current housing policies. This round of consultations resulted in recommendations related to the housing conditions of residents of informal areas, university students, women, individuals with physical disabilities, and tenants in general. The consultations were carried out in cooperation with Mouvement Social, Mada Network, the Student Union, The Lebanese Union for People with Physical Disabilities (LUPD), Kafa organization, and the National Committee of Tenants in Lebanon.

Learning from previous experiences of lobbying for progressive laws

In preparation for the legal proposal, we organized a workshop with institutions, coalitions, and groups that have been involved in the past decades in pushing laws that seek to change public policies and push towards a public debate on social justice.

The session allowed for the exchange and documentation of best practices, and drew lessons from past and current experiences in coalition building, advocacy, campaigns, political incitement and other paths to influence decision-makers and achieve fairer policies. 

The workshop saw participation from the Lebanese Union for People with Physical Disabilities (LUPD), Lebanon Mountain Trail Association (LMT), Cedar Center for Legal Studies, Lebanese Women Democratic Gathering (RDFL), Gherbal, Tobacco Free Initiative (TFI), and Abaad.

In Phase 3, beginning May 2025, the workshops kick-started for drafting the first chapter of the draft law: The Role of the State in Regulating Housing, with the project’s legal partner, The Legal Agenda, while consultations with a number of experts, specialists, community representatives, and decision-makers continued in parallel.

In the initial discussion emerged an urgent need to address the issue of rent security, for both old and new tenants for two imposing reasons:

• First, tens of thousands of old tenants are at risk of eviction due to the law liberalizing protected old rent taking effect in February 2026, 
• Second, the unregulated rental market, which does not ensure safe permanent housing and allows exploitation, has exacerbated the displacement crisis during the ongoing war, becoming more prominent after September 2024.

As a result, work in 2025 focused on drafting two expedited draft laws, addressing rents and amending related laws. 

> The first extending the protection to old rent under a new legal framework,

> The second amending the provisions of the Law on Obligations and Contracts Related to Residential and Commercial Rentals (effectively regulating all housing rental contracts)

The two draft laws were submitted to the Parliament on February 25, 2026.

• MP Halima Al Qaaqour, along with MPs Ali Hassan Khalil, Nadim Al-Gemayel, Oussama Saad, and Yassin Yassin, submitted an expedited proposal to amend the old residential rental law.
• As for the draft law regulating new lease contracts, it was signed and submitted by Al Qaaqour alongside the aforementioned representatives, in addition to MPs Ibrahim Mneimneh and Paula Yacoubian.

In Phase 4 in 2026, we continue work on Chapter 1: State’s Role in Regulating Housing, focusing on 3 basic aspects: 

• Fair rent policy,
• Rehabilitating the built environment, 
• and taxes as a tool to regulate the housing market and deter exploitation.

Consultants in the research phase

Lawyer Myriam Mehanna, economist Mohammad Zbib, urban planner and researcher Mona Khechen, economist Joanne Chaker, former UN Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing Leilani Farha, Spanish housing policy expert Eduardo Gonzáles de Molina, and The Hub for Housing Justice.

Partner institutions in community consultations:

The Lebanese Union for People with Physical Disabilities (LUPD), Mada Network, the Student Union, Kafa Organization, the National Committee for Tenants in Lebanon, Mouvement Social.

Experts participating in the law drafting workshops:

Economist Joanne Chaker, urban planner and researcher Mona Khechen, lawyer Maya Geara (the Tenants’ Committee in Lebanon), Head of the Public Corporation for Housing Rony Lahoud, urban planner and researcher Abir Saksouk (Public Works Studio), economic journalist Viviane Akiki, economic researcher Nizar Hariri, Ornella Nehme (UN-Habitat), urban planner and researcher Mona Fawaz (the Beirut Urban Lab at the American University of Beirut), former Director General of Urban Planning Mohammad Fawaz, and lawyer Myriam Mehanna

Participants in the Advocacy Exchange Workshop:

The Lebanese Union for People with Physical Disabilities (LUPD), Lebanon Mountain Trail Association (LMT), Cedar Center for Legal Studies, Lebanese Women Democratic Gathering (RDFL), Gherbal, Tobacco Free Initiative (TFI), and Abaad.