Expansion of Eight Types of Homelessness in Iran

The widespread poverty in Iran, manifested in issues such as inadequate housing, slum dwelling, and homelessness, has reached such dimensions that it is reflected in reports by regime’s government institutions.

One example is a report by the regime’s Majlis Research Center titled “Evaluation of the Seventh Development Plan from the Perspective of Housing Provision for Low-Income and Vulnerable Groups,” which was published on August 14.

The report discusses the “pervasive and multifaceted housing crisis” in Iran and programs such as the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development’s “National Housing Movement” and Tehran Municipality’s “Housing Jihad Headquarters” are mentioned as initiatives that are being pursued.

The main objective of these initiatives is primarily to increase homeownership. However, conducted surveys indicate that even in periods when the rate of homeownership has increased due to construction activities, the proportion of rental occupancy has also risen.

As the number of property owners has increased, the number of tenants has also risen

The research conducted by the Majlis Research Center indicates that, “Although from 2011 to 2016, the equivalent of 3.5 million residential units were added to the total housing stock of the country, instead of reducing the number of renters, during the same period, 2.5 million renter households were added to the population of renters.”

In other words, housing policies have “practically contributed to the increased homeownership of existing homeowners” rather than reducing the number of renters. Furthermore, in recent decades, instead of transitioning from rental occupancy to homeownership, many citizens have faced the “inevitable fate” of remaining renters indefinitely while housing policies have also neglected the situation of renters.

It takes one-and-half centuries for young people to become home owners

The severe state of inflation and wages that don’t increase in accordance with the costs of living have made the dream of becoming homeowners not only more inaccessible but also turned rent affordability into a serious problem for many individuals.

The Research Center had previously concluded in another study that in the five years leading up to 2022, the cost of housing had increased by more than nine times on average, while the average increase in wages was less than seven times.

Two weeks earlier, the regime’s Donya-ye-Eghtesad newspaper estimated that individuals born in the 1990s, under the condition of equal growth in income, housing prices, and a 20 percent savings rate, would have to wait seventy years in the best-case scenario and a century and a half under normal conditions to become homeowners.

Eight Forms of Homelessness: From Graveyard Sleeping to bus sleeping

The research center has highlighted the “abject failure” of housing policies in addressing the citizens’ housing needs and the consequent “fall from the housing ladder” experienced by renters. This situation has led to the emergence of various forms of homelessness as alternatives to renting.

The Research Center identifies eight common examples of homelessness: rooftop sleeping, car sleeping, bus sleeping, graveyard sleeping, makeshift shelters, job-seeking for the sake of shelter, and cohabitation of multiple families in a single dwelling.

Previously, reports on new phenomena such as graveyard sleeping and bus sleeping had been published in Iranian media, which were initially denied by officials. However, the research conducted by the Parliament’s Research Center has confirmed their existence.

The “abject failure” of housing policies spans across different governments, not exclusively limited to the regime’s president Ebrahim Raisi, whose slogan during the election campaign included the construction of one million housing units per year.

The government of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had introduced the “Mehr Housing plan” as a purported solution to the housing issue. However, this plan faced significant criticism since its inception and in subsequent administrations.

The government of Hassan Rouhani, whose officials were among the most vocal critics of the Mehr Housing Scheme, claimed to address the issues by implementing “Social Housing” for the lowest-income segments of society. However, these efforts have been accompanied by the expansion of substandard housing, marginalization, and various forms of homelessness.

These days and weeks, the housing crisis in Iran is breaking the back of tenants and sometimes even leading to the breakup of families. The reason is, of course, the gang of corrupt thieves who are ruling the country and are spending the country’s wealth to keep their hold on power.