right to housing law

Policy Watch

 How the Deadline  Suspension Law Affects Old Rent Tenants’ Rights

The new law suspending legal deadlines, adopted in 15/07/2026 by the parliament,  provides old rent tenants an additional window until july 31, 2026 to preserve their rights,  by  applying for the rent support …

Policy Watch

Old rent Verdicts continued:

A single verdict restores fund beneficiaries’ rights among fragmented readings of a broken law

Since the nine-year extension expired in February 2026, Lebanese courts have been issuing verdicts in old rent cases at an accelerating pace, while navigating a law whose core components, the tenant support fund and committees, remain unfunded and inoperative. The Housing Monitor examines five recent verdicts that follow a troubling shared logic which examines procedural compliance in a non-functioning system to decide who qualifies for legal protection. Against this backdrop, one court stood apart, suspending court proceedings without demanding the impossible.

Alerts Periodic Report

Report on Old Rent  Tenants Eviction From Their Historic Neighborhoods:

Mapping Eviction Mechanisms  and Proposing Protection Alternatives.

أزمة الإيجارات القديمة في لبنان ليست صراعًا بين مستأجرين ومالكين، بل علاقة استغلالية أتت نتيجة عقود من غياب السياسات السكنية. مع انقضاء السنوات ال9 التمديدية التي طرحها القانون 2/2017، دون تفعيل أي من البرامج الداعمة التي نصّ عليها ، تحوّل القانون فعلياً إلى أداة عدّ عكسي نحو الإخلاء. يستند تقريرنا إلى 130 حالة موثّقة بين آذار 2022 وآذار 2026، ويعيد طرح القضية كمساءلة لسياسات الدولة لا كنزاع بين طرفين.

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.

Law Commentary

Two Complementary Draft Laws to Strengthen the Right to Housing

On Wednesday, February 25, 2026, MP Halima Al-Qaqour, along with a number of MPs, submitted two draft laws to the Speaker of Parliament. The first, an amendment to the old residential lease law, …

Report

Why is there a need for a comprehensive housing right law and what are its objectives?

Lebanon’s housing crisis stems from decades of speculation, weak policies, and state withdrawal from housing responsibilities. This policy brief presents the case for a holistic and inclusive right to housing law, as the drafting phase of the proposal begins in collaboration with Legal Agenda. Rooted in principles of social justice and spatial equity, the proposed legislation outlines measures like the state’s role in regulating housing and providing social housing, protection against eviction and homelessness, and addressing precarities of residents of informal areas.

Yearly Report

The Impact of the Israeli War on Lebanon: The Housing Crisis Worsens and Enters a New Phase

The Housing Monitor Annual Report | January 2024-January 2025

This 2024 Housing Monitor annual report examines the impact of war and political convergences on Lebanon’s housing crisis, highlighting mass displacement, rising rents, the exclusion of non-Lebanese residents, and forced evictions.

Statement

WUF12: Disconnecting from Reality in a Region Struggling for Housing Rights

The World Urban Forum (WUF) was created to drive real change in cities by connecting global goals with local action. The WUF12 program appears to have decontextualized the core purpose of the World …

Film

They No Longer See the Land, but Square Meters

The first in a series of independent short films based on the research project “Master-Planning in Lebanon: Manufacturing Landscapes of Inequality”. It looks into the inevitable result of policies relying on commodifying and financializing the land, a permanent loss on all levels – physical, social, private and intimate.

Lecture

النسخة الثانية من حوار/مدينة/ناس

الندوة الثالثة: “الإبادة البيئية في فلسطين وجنوب لبنان” منذ قيام “إسرائيل” كمشروع استعماري استيطاني، وهي تقوم بالعديد من الممارسات بهدف القضاء على الحياة الفلسطينية وتدميرها، ومن بينها تدمير النظم البيئية. وقد اقتلعت الغابات …

From Dossier Research-Based Article

Informal neighborhoods: This is where the just city begins

Part 2: Local and International approaches

In the first part of this article, we presented an overview of the emergence and growth of informal settlements in Lebanon and countries of the Global South, and we addressed the ongoing debates …