Petition

Joint Letter to Stakeholders Addressing the Displacement Crisis:

Housing Is a Right That Cannot Be Postponed

Hundreds of displaced families continue to seek shelter in public spaces, under difficult conditions, while other families are forced to negotiate or open vacant doors on their own to avoid sleeping in the …

Research-Based Article

2024–2026: Israeli Bombardment of Tyre: Where and What?

Extracted from a wider research conducted by Public Works Studio, this article analyzes the Israeli aggression against Tyre City between October 2023 and April 2026, framing it as a systematic “urbicide” executed through the issuance of evacuation orders, the destruction of dense residential-economic clusters, and the deliberate dismantling of social ties.

Project

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. The project is a radical approach to addressing the housing crisis and its accumulations over the past decades, and is proposed as a tool capable of 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 throughout its phases engaged 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.

Policy Watch

Shelter Centers in Tripoli: A Response Deepening class inequalities in the city

Until the morning of 17 April, 20 shelters were opened in Tripoli. Their uneven distribution concentrated pressure in already vulnerable neighbourhoods, particularly those with collapsed or at-risk buildings, while wealthier areas were largely excluded despite available vacant housing stock, reflecting how response practices reproduce existing spatial and class-based inequalities in the city.

Policy Watch

Shelters in Beirut: Three Factors Deepening Inequality in the City

Amid the ongoing escalation and growing waves of displacement toward the capital, shelters in Beirut continue to face increasing pressure. A review of these centers reveals three key challenges: limited capacity and delayed shelter availability, the uneven geographic distribution across the city, and the heavy reliance on educational institutions as shelter sites. These patterns point to fundamental structural imbalances in the crisis response, contributing to the deepening of inequality at the level of the city.

Statement

Securing the Right to Housing and Return: An Open Letter to Officials on Tripoli’s Building Collapse Crisis

As Tripoli’s building collapse crisis deepens. This letter calls on public officials to ensure that the government’s Emergency Plan measures protect residents from long-term displacement through dignified alternative housing and guaranteed return.

Law Commentary

The Suspension of Deadlines in the Absence of Housing Protection: A Legislative Loophole in Times of War

The suspension of deadlines in times of war is a key tool for protecting rights. However, excluding lease agreements from it undermines this protection and exposes tenants to the risk of eviction and homelessness. In the context of widespread displacement and declining ability to pay, the right to housing cannot be separated from any serious legislative response to the crisis. Including leases within the scope of suspended deadlines is not a technical detail, but an urgent necessity to ensure a minimum level of social protection under exceptional circumstances.

Research-Based Article

Kfarkela, Southern Lebanon: Stories of the Land and Its People Facing Erasure

بلدة كفركلا هي بلدة جنوبية حدودية تشتهر بأراضيها الخصبة وأشجار الزيتون، إضافةً إلى علاقاتها التاريخية مع القرى الفلسطينية المجاورة قبل فرض الحدود الاستعمارية الحديثة. واجهت البلدة والقرى الحدودية في جنوب لبنان اعتداءات إسرائيلية منتظمة منذ عام 1948. ومع بدء الحرب الإسرائيلية على لبنان في 8 تشرين الأول 2023، تعرضت هذه القرى لإبادة بيئية ومكانية شملت القصف والتفجير والحرق واستخدام الفوسفور الأبيض، إضافةً إلى إعاقة العودة وإعادة الإعمار. ورغم غياب الدعم الرسمي، يبادر السكان عبر جهود جماعية ومبادرات محلية للحفاظ على صمودهم وعلاقتهم بالأرض واستمرارية الحياة فيها.

Research-Based Article

Eviction in Wartime: A Reading of Old Rent Eviction Verdicts

This article explores how courts in Beirut and Zahle selectively applied an inapplicable law to fast-track legally preventable evictions, while disregarding the consequences for old-rent tenants in a country already overwhelmed by war and displacement.

Publication

Responding to Ecocide in Lebanon: Recommendations for Official and Community Engagement in Sustainable Recovery

Since 8 October 2023, following the Israeli war on Lebanon and the ongoing ceasefire violations, the southern regions have endured widespread attacks on homes, infrastructure, public facilities, cultural landmarks, forests, and agricultural lands. …

Project

Responding to Ecocide in Lebanon: Recommendations for Official and Community Engagement in Sustainable Recovery

Since 8 October 2023, border villages in southern Lebanon have suffered systematic ecocide, with Israel targeting infrastructure, forests, and agricultural lands, aimed at enforcing displacement and making the area uninhabitable. Over the past year, Public Works Studio conducted research, monitoring, and workshops, focusing particularly on the town of Kfarkela as a case study, to analyze damages and identify priorities for return, reconstruction, and environmental recovery. This work culminated in a policy paper documenting the impacts, evaluating recovery frameworks, and offering recommendations to advance environmental justice. The paper was launched during a public seminar to foster discussion on participatory advocacy pathways.

Statement

Open the Empty Buildings – Public and Private- and Apply Rent Control

Thousands of displaced families are sleeping on the Corniche sidewalks, the beach, and in public squares, left without shelter. This situation is a direct result of the government’s shortcomings in its plan to accommodate the growing number of displaced people, exacerbated by Israel’s orders to evacuate more than 80 towns in the south and all of southern Beirut.

We are here to reiterate the following options for effectively responding to the escalating displacement crisis, in light of the evolving security situation and the imperative to guarantee the right to housing, which is being violated on an unprecedented scale during wars.