To many individuals worldwide October 6^th is just another day of the year. They go to school/work and get on with their day-to-day business of life without giving a thought to the date. Yet October 6^th is a date of special significance as this is the day recognized as World Habitat Day. World Habitat Day is dedicated to the remembrance of those individuals worldwide that are homeless or without adequate shelter.

     This date was first instituted in 1985 by a unanimous decision of the United Nations General Assembly in response to earlier recommendations from the Commission of Human Settlement. These recommendations were born out of a growing realization of the severity of housing problems in an international scale.

    In this so called “ Computer Age”, society is becoming more advanced daily with scores of technological innovations being made, which improve the comfort and lifestyle enjoyed by many members of society. Nevertheless, the chilling fact remains that even as those advances are being made, millions of people worldwide continue to live in the most primitive conditions, inhabiting structures that are considered unfit for humans or, even worse, living their lives exposed the elements. Vagrancy is a widespread social problem.

     Since World Habitat Day was first observed on Monday 6^th October 1986, a number of measures have been instituted to combat the problem. The annual event provides the opportunity for governments, communities and agencies to demonstrate and review national and international efforts to resolve shelter related issues. Experiences of successful initiatives as well as problems encountered are shared.

     In addition, the World Habitat Award has been instituted by the Building and Social Housing Foundation. The objective of this is for every nation to draw up strategic policies and programmes to enable practical and attainable improvements to be made in providing shelter. Innovative and successful human settlement programmes throughout the world are identified that can be replicated elsewhere. With the incentive of two cash prizes and silver trophies, the competition has managed to attract quality contributions each year.

 Thus advances are being made, though there is still much room for improvement. This can only be achieved when we become more sensitized to the issue. On World Habitat Day we need to take the time to realize that this is not an abstract problem, but one that affects us all. So long as there are still large groups in society who lack one of the basic necessities of life – shelter - it is impossible to consider ourselves as members of a truly progressive society.

Article written by Vernice Nadine Phillip

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