The Right to Housing in Contemporary Urban Residential Complexes

The right to have proper housing is one of the main and most important rights of humans in society. This will become more important considering population growth and increasing human interactions, especially in urban areas. The goal of this research is to determine the housing rights indicators to fulfill the desires and needs of the residents. The concept of the right to housing has been addressed in different eras under moral right, individual right, social right and political right. Based on the literature review and the theoretical framework of the subject, the right to urban housing can be determined in two aspects: natural and civil. The natural aspect of the right to housing is fulfilling different levels of needs and desires of the residents and contains moral and individual rights. Using the descriptive-analytic method, these levels can be divided into three categories: basic needs and desires, various needs and desires, and changing needs and desires. Housing design must meet such conditions that considering all three levels of need and desire fulfill the following rights: (1) Right to have, which is the primal, basic and common right among all residents. (2) Right to choose, which shows the non-basic needs and desires of the residents based on their personal differences and democratic architecture principles. (3) Right to adapt, which stresses the necessity of adaptation of housing qualities to the needs and desires of the residents which changes over time. The civil aspect of the right to housing is explained through the governmental system of each society due to the social and political meaning of the right. Hence the adaptive studying of housing policy setting in liberal, semi liberal and non-liberal societies show the importance of four main indicators in four different aspects of housing planning: (1) Management Policy, which determines the organization responsible for providing housing, security of tenure, and target group. (2) Financial Policy, which determines method of payment, securing budget, and tax credits. (3) Designing Policy, which determines a way to design sufficient and proper housing for all. (4) Housing Assignment Policy, which determines the method of choosing and receiving housing. In each of the mentioned aspects, recommendations have been made to start a mechanism to adjudicate the right to urban housing so that with the consideration of all these indicators, the planners and designers of contemporary urban housing complexes are able to fulfill the right to housing to the extent of their position. The housing that is the product of collaboration between the residents and the workers will undoubtedly better meet the needs, desires and rights of residents. Considering that the laws of designing and production of urban residential complexes do not define such rights for residents, explaining these natural rights, can be a step towards transforming these rights into civil laws.