Over the past five years, devastating building collapses have shaken various Lebanese cities. These tragic and recurring incidents have resulted in significant human casualties and extensive material losses. However, they are not isolated events but rather a warning signal of the absence of housing justice and the state’s failure to protect its residents’ basic rights.
At Public Works Studio, we continue to investigate the issue of collapsed buildings, aiming to uncover the facts and open a discussion about the deteriorating built environment, the causes of these collapses, and the responsibilities of various entities, from official authorities to negligent parties. This report is a key component of this effort, providing detailed case studies of five buildings that have collapsed recently: the Musallami Building in the Arsal neighbourhood, Sabra; the Amhaz Building in Sahra Choueifat; the Yazbek Complex in Mansourieh; the Nashar Building in Daher El Mugher, Tripoli; and the Rishani Building in Choueifat, which resulted in 13 fatalities and left about 70 families homeless. The report sheds light on the fate of the residents after the collapse.
Additionally, the report highlights the rates of unsafe housing in Lebanon, based on data from the Housing Monitor. It also discusses the responsibilities for providing alternative housing for those displaced by building collapses. The absence of alternative housing options after such collapses is a clear violation of the right to adequate housing and contravenes international treaties and agreements.
Housing security, especially for the impoverished or those who survived the collapse of their homes and its psychological and physical consequences, cannot be considered an individual responsibility. The ability of society’s most vulnerable to recover after disasters is entirely dependent on the state’s provision of support networks and tools to secure basic rights. Otherwise, as we see today, we head towards producing a society that weakens individuals and communities, placing an undue burden on them and perpetuating the absence of social justice.
Read the Full Study in Arabic.
