Rental Housing Subsidies after an Urban Disaster: The Case of Haiti

This is the second of three policy papers looking at rental housing commissioned by the International Housing Coalition (IHC). The IHC believes that rental housing is critical to sound housing policies as it is the form of tenure under which most urban low income families live, in both developed and developing countries. It is particularly critical in the developing world as housing conditions are often inadequate.

Rental housing is not something that comes immediately to mind when it we think of disaster reconstruction. Yet it should. When disasters hit urban areas, the majority of people are likely to be renters, especially low-income people. The experience in Haiti and, more recently, of the Philippines, shows how subsidies for rental assistance can be a positive force in aiding the recovery.