displacement

From Dossier Narrative

A loquat from Abba on the sidewalk of the Beirut Pine Forest

The first part of the narratives of the residents of the Beirut pine forest during the 2026 war.

Study

Syrian Refugees in Lebanon: 

Between Housing Vulnerabilities and the Limits of “Voluntary” Return

This report examines the housing vulnerabilities of Syrian refugees in Lebanon between September 2024 and April 2026. It shows how housing vulnerabilities shape the production of “voluntary return” under constrained conditions, where the deteriorating conditions in Syria intersect with a push environment, restrictive policies, and forced evictions in Lebanon. The report concludes that the absence of a rights-based housing and asylum framework sustains instability.

Dossier

What Beirut’s pine forest concealed during the 2026 war: Diaries of displacement and longing

A series of narratives of the residents of the Beirut pine forest during the 2026 war.

Report

Municipalities at War: When Local Authorities Decide the Legitimacy of Housing

This report documents 68 municipal circulars and measures issued during Lebanon’s March – April 2026 displacement crisis, examining how local authorities expanded their role from emergency response to surveillance, control, and restrictions on housing and mobility. It also analyzes post-ceasefire municipal initiatives aimed at curbing housing exploitation and supporting return. The report calls for a rights-based approach that clearly defines municipal powers within a comprehensive national housing policy.

Article Field Watch

The Demolition of Houses in Al-Hara Al-Jadida and the Displacement of their Residents:

When the Authorities Solve a Conflict of Their Own Making 

On July 9, 2026, security forces forcibly evicted residents and demolished ten homes in Al-Hara Al-Jadida neighborhood, under the guise of resolving an “illegal occupation.” This Fieldwatch reveals that the issue is a direct result of failed state housing policies and 1970s land consolidation and parcelation project, which re-divided land among owners on paper while ignoring actual residents on the ground.

Decision Commentary

انهيارات المباني في طرابلس تسابق أصحاب القرار:

يتناول هذا التعليق قراءة نقدية لخطة الطوارئ الحكومية والمقرّرات الحكومية المرتبطة التي أُقرّت عقب سلسلة انهيارات المباني الكارثية في طرابلس مطلع عام 2026، متتبعاً مسار تطبيق بنودها ميدانياً عبر الجهات المعنية، وخصوصاً السلطة المحلية، بناءً على مقابلة أجريت مع رئيس بلدية طرابلس.

Policy Watch

Qaaqaiyat al-Sanawbar once again: Israel is erasing southern villages, while our state destroys their agriculture.

Since the start of the 2024 war, the zionist entity has targeted Qaaqaiyat al-Sanawbar for 175 days, in addition to threats of evacuation, forcing the remaining residents to flee.
While the town is being destroyed, the authorities have reclassified agricultural areas within it as an industrial zone through Decree No. 2304, issued on January 22, 2026.
This exacerbates the destruction and extraction perpetrated by the occupation.

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 …

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

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

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.

Research-Based Article

Is there anything left to say about Hayy el Tanak?

This article looks at Hayy el Tanak in Tripoli, not as an example or proof of randomness or disorganization, but rather as a question about the meaning of a neighborhood; for the neighborhood is not a product of chance or an architectural sin. It is, in fact, a testament to the architecture of exclusion.