squatting

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.

Study

Squatting Vacant Buildings: A Report on the Illegality of Evictions During the War

During the Israeli war on Lebanon, the use of vacant buildings proliferated as a prominent way to access housing due to the lack of alternatives. In an attempt to understand these practices, this report documents the legal and political tools used for evictions and eviction threats in 3 case studies in Beirut, highlighting their illegitimacy. It also calls for challenging the criminalization of squatting, particularly during war, and emphasizes the role of these practices in restoring the social value of vacant buildings.

Field Watch

 In Bir Hassan, Eviction After Displacement, Under the Pressure of Real Estate Development, and the Pretext of Protecting the Safety of Residents

After a long history of threatening families displaced by the Lebanese Civil War with eviction from a residential building in Bir Hassan under the pretext of being “illegal occupants,” and following failed negotiations, …

From Dossier Investigation

Eviction in the war: Protecting Private Property, the Case of Hildon Hotel

Once again, we document the story of an abandoned building, the “Hildon Hotel” in Raouche, where around 600 displaced people, fleeing the Israeli war, sought refuge. Though the hotel owner’s son initially allowed them to stay, he later demanded their eviction, forcing them to leave without alternative housing. This case highlights the urgent need for government intervention, calling for the use of vacant properties as temporary housing and ensuring evictions follow legal procedures with suitable alternatives provided.

Activity

Defend the Right to Housing, Join the “Housing Monitor” Team

Hotliners' Workshop and Training

The upcoming workshop on Friday, March 17 in Tripoli will have a specific focus on the legal and policy frameworks safeguarding the right to housing. The Right to Housing Committee, which was recently …

Study

Legitimate Housing or the Right to Dwell?:

Pubilc Housing and their Informal Transformations in Saida and Tripoli

Read the Arabic article here.

Activity

How to Defend Our Right to Housing?

A Workshop and Training to Join the “Housing Monitor” Team

The aim of this workshop is to reframe the concept of the «right to housing» by linking it to the concept of the right to the city, property relations, and access to resources. …

Activity

Urban Struggles in the Arab Region

Exchanging Experiences and Methodologies

Public Works Studio, in collaboration with Professor Heba Bou Akar from Columbia University, organized a series of online seminars focusing on experiences, frameworks, and methodologies for addressing the challenges of urban realities in …

Project

Ras Beirut: Housing Narratives in the City

Over the past 150 years Ras Beirut has changed from an agricultural community to a dense urban neighborhood, particularly distinguished for its social, economic and cultural diversity. This diversity is however increasingly threatened …

Publication

Housing Narratives in Ras Beirut

Over the past 150 years Ras Beirut has changed from an agricultural community to a dense urban neighborhood, particularly distinguished for its social, economic and cultural diversity. This diversity is however increasingly threatened …

Activity

Workshop: Housing Policy in Beirut, Towards Affordable Housing and an Inclusive City

In partnership with the «Social Justice and the City» program at the American University of Beirut, Public Works Studio organized a consultative meeting and workshop titled «Towards Affordable Housing and an Inclusive City» …

Project

Mapping Beirut through its Tenants’ Stories

This project studied the impacts of market-driven developments and policies on housing rights in Beirut and the creation of social and spatial injustices, resulting in the displacement of many low and middle-income families. …