Land Matters Podcast / Season 7 / Episode 5

Growth and Grit in Cleveland: A Conversation with Mayor Justin Bibb

August 4, 2026

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By Anthony Flint, August 4, 2026

Of all the postindustrial cities in the US and around the world, Cleveland, Ohio, has perhaps had the most ups and downs, oscillating between decline and revival. The city has come a long way since the polluted Cuyahoga River caught fire in 1969, and has been a pioneer in revitalizing its industrial waterfront. Now the city has a chance to start over once again, with the departure of the Cleveland Browns opening up more than 50 acres of prime lakefront land currently anchored by the football stadium, which will be demolished.

The potential for a transformational redevelopment is not lost on Justin Bibb, who was reelected last November to a second term as mayor of Cleveland—and is the latest municipal chief executive to be featured in the Lincoln Institute’s Mayor’s Desk series.

“We have a historic opportunity to maximize Cleveland’s lakefront for once and for all,” Bibb said in a wide-ranging interview recorded for the Land Matters podcast. “We’ve done some things in piecemeal, but we’ve never had a bold, unified vision for really reinvigorating what I call America’s North Coast.”

Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb speaks with Anthony Flint from his office at City Hall. Credit: Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.

The stadium site overhaul, adjacent to the popular Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, will be done in coordination with a massive redevelopment of the now largely industrial Cuyahoga River waterfront. “We want this to be a model for America on how a legacy American city like Cleveland can be a two-waterfront city,” Bibb said.

The waterfront plans have been center stage recently, but Bibb has also been active in trying to assist struggling neighborhoods outside of downtown, including the Midline business district and greenway, which aims to make better use of 350 acres of vacant and under-utilized land.

“We are the largest landowner in the city, and we have thousands … of vacant lots that we have failed to put into productive use,” Bibb said. Under the Site Readiness for Good Jobs Fund, the city is taking stock of its industrial past—and the pollution it created—and identifying contaminated sites for clean-up and a quick turnaround for new business seeking to locate in places like the city’s long-struggling East Side.

Cleveland is well positioned to usher in manufacturing that is “re-shoring” to the US, amid greater awareness of the importance of resilient supply chains, he said. “It’s important that cities activate these sites and attract these jobs of the future, and the present, to make sure that America’s industrial future is competitive long-term.”

“We have the land, we have the talent, and we have the strategy to compete in the global economy,” he said.

One of the new businesses to move into one of those empty industrial sites—a long-empty factory that once supplied ore unloaders for the local steel industry—has been especially promising, Bibb said: MMY US, a producer of low-cost, factory-built modular homes.

“They’ll be bringing 150 good-paying jobs to the city, and they’re going to help us build, in six to eight weeks, new homes in Cleveland that are affordable and within reach for our residents,” he said. “Also, because of our location, we can be a net exporter of modular homes to Canada. We think this will be a game changer for Cleveland’s economy long-term.”

Members of the press listen as Mayor Bibb speaks at the Wellman-Seaver-Morgan Engineering Company building, a long-empty factory that will soon be occupied by a modular housing manufacturer. Credit: City of Cleveland.

Born and raised in the Mt. Pleasant neighborhood in Cleveland’s southeast side, Justin Bibb was reelected to a second term as mayor in November 2025. Previously he worked for President Barack Obama during the latter’s time in the US Senate, served as an education and economic policy advisor for Cuyahoga County, and held leadership roles at Gallup, KeyBank, and Urbanova, focusing on civic innovation and data-driven strategies to improve the quality of life in cities. He earned a BA in urban studies from American University in 2009 and an MBA and JD from Case Western Reserve University in 2018.

The Lincoln Institute has special connections with the City of Cleveland. The organization’s founder, John C. Lincoln, was an inventor and entrepreneur there at the turn of the last century, and established the Lincoln Electric company, a major employer to this day. John Lincoln was interested in the ideas of the political economist Henry George, and heard his first speech by George in Cleveland, which famously had a Georgist mayor, Tom Johnson, in the first decade of the 1900s.

John Lincoln eventually moved to Phoenix as he launched all his philanthropic efforts, but the Lincoln family remained involved in many civic affairs. The Kathryn J. Lincoln Speaker Series, an educational deep dive focused on effective urban planning, inclusive community development, and investment in ethical leadership, was established last year at the City Club of Cleveland. That is named for Katie Lincoln, chair of the board of the Lincoln Institute, who is John C. Lincoln’s granddaughter.

In addition, Cleveland was the subject of a documentary film produced by the Lincoln Institute that scrutinizes the city’s various efforts to engineer an urban renaissance. Cleveland: Confronting Decline in an American City, part of the Making Sense of Place series, aired extensively on public television.

The “two waterfronts” of Cleveland: the downtown shoreline of Lake Erie and the snaking curves of the Cuyahoga River. Credit: © 2026 Google Maps, NOAA.

Listen to the discussion with Mayor Bibb here or subscribe to Land Matters on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Further Reading

Analysis: Cleveland Engages a New Lakefront Planning Team to See What’s Possible After Browns Leave | Ideastream Public Media

Our Governing Agenda for the Cleveland ERA | Substack

A Legacy of Innovation: How Leaders in Cleveland Reimagined and Rebuilt Their City After Decades of Decline | Land Lines

Making Sense of Place, Cleveland: Confronting Decline in an American City | Lincoln Institute documentary

Legacy Cities | Lincoln Institute Data & Tools

Anthony Flint is a senior fellow at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, host of the Land Matters podcast, and a contributing editor of Land Lines.

Transcript

[00:00:05] Anthony Flint: Welcome back to the Land Matters podcast. I’m your host, Anthony Flint. Of all the post-industrial cities in the US and around the world, Cleveland, Ohio, has perhaps had the most ups and downs, oscillating between decline and revival. The city’s come a long way since those dark days of the Cuyahoga River catching fire, and it has been a pioneer in revitalizing its industrial waterfront, led by the establishment of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Now Cleveland has another chance to re-envision the lakefront and make better connections with the rest of the city, all the while addressing persistent issues of equity and uneven economic opportunity in many neighborhoods that are still struggling.

To talk about all this, we have the honor of having a special guest on the Land Matters podcast, the mayor of Cleveland, Justin Bibb. He’s the latest municipal chief executive to be interviewed as part of our Mayor’s Desk series — Conversations With Local Leaders Solving Global Problems. We’ve caught up with many inventive mayors in this series, but Mayor Bibb has been getting a lot of attention for his creativity and policy innovation and has been described politically as quite a rising star.

Some quick background. Before becoming mayor, he worked for President Barack Obama during his time in the US Senate. Served as an education and economic policy advisor for Cuyahoga County and also held leadership roles at Gallup, KeyBank, and Urbanova, focusing on civic innovation and data-driven strategies. A native of the Mount Pleasant neighborhood in Cleveland’s Southeast Side, he’s a proud graduate of American University with a degree in urban studies and has also pursued advanced studies in social policy and economics at the London School of Economics and earned both a MBA and a law degree at Case Western Reserve University.

Before we begin our conversation, just an additional quick note about the many connections that have linked Cleveland and the Lincoln Institute. Our founder, John C. Lincoln, was an inventor and entrepreneur there at the turn of the last century and established the Lincoln Electric Company, which is there to this day. John Lincoln was interested in the ideas of the political economist Henry George and heard his first speech by Henry George right there in Cleveland, which famously had its fully Georgist mayor, Tom Johnson.

John Lincoln eventually moved to Phoenix as he launched all his philanthropic efforts, but the Lincoln family remained involved in many civic affairs. Twenty years ago, the Lincoln Institute also premiered the Making Sense of Place documentary series with a feature-length film looking at Cleveland’s efforts to engineer a renaissance to bounce back from hard times. We’ve also stayed closely connected with the City Club of Cleveland and its great tradition of civic engagement and its lecture series, which now includes the Kathryn J. Lincoln Speaker Series, an educational deep dive focused on effective urban planning, inclusive community development, and investment in ethical leadership.That’s named for Katie Lincoln, chair of the board of the Lincoln Institute, who is John C. Lincoln’s granddaughter.

So our fates are in some ways interwoven. The bottom line is we continue to be interested in what’s happening in Cleveland, and that’s why we’re so grateful for this opportunity. Mayor Justin Bibb, thank you for joining the conversation at Land Matters, and for being part of our Mayor’s Desk interview series.

[00:03:46] Mayor Justin Bibb: Thanks for having me, Anthony.

[00:03:47] Anthony Flint: Well, as I mentioned, decades ago, Cleveland was really a pioneer in redeveloping its waterfront. I think the most recognizable project is the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, but also the Browns Stadium. Now the Browns are moving to the suburbs. Tell us about that and how will the new redevelopment that’s envisioned be different?

[00:04:08] Mayor Justin Bibb: Well, we fought the good fight to keep the Browns playing good or bad football on our lakefront, but the political winds were not in our favor, and now we have a historic opportunity to maximize Cleveland’s lakefront for once and for all. I’ve joked often since I became mayor four years ago that every mayor since Tom Johnson, for the last 100-plus years has had a lakefront plan in Cleveland. We’ve done some things in piecemeal, but we’ve never had a bold, unified vision for really reinvigorating what I call America’s North Coast.

This next chapter is really about making the lakefront a destination for residents, a destination for tourists. Really, we want this to be a model for America on how a legacy American city like Cleveland can be a two-waterfront city. Not only are we redeveloping the 50-acre site where the Browns Stadium currently sits, we’re also undergoing a nearly $4 billion transformation of our riverfront, really led by the great partnership we have with Dan Gilbert and the Bedrock family of companies. That’s about a $5 billion effort to make Cleveland a dual waterfront city.

Excited about the progress that we’re making. We’ll break ground on the lakefront in the fourth quarter of next year. We already have broken ground, and construction is underway on our riverfront. Folks from around the world will be coming to Cleveland soon because we will be one of the best two-waterfront cities, not just in America, but around the globe in the relatively near future.

[00:05:38] Anthony Flint: When you say the two waterfronts, orient us a little bit. That’s the lakefront and the Cuyahoga River?

[00:05:45] Mayor Justin Bibb: Yes, that’s correct. Cleveland is so unique that we sit on two bodies of water – [Lake Erie and] the Cuyahoga River, which has a storied history in Cleveland and across the country. I sit in the office of the late, great Carl B. Stokes, who was the first Black man and the first Black mayor to lead a major American city. His photo is right behind me and on my chair here at City Hall.

I’m willing to bet when he ran for mayor in the mid-1960s, he didn’t run to be a climate mayor. At the time, industry was not doing right by its cities. They weren’t doing right by its waterways. Our river caught on fire. As a result of that, Carl B. Stokes confronted this crisis. After that crisis happened, he did a nationwide pollution tour, which helped create the Clean Water Act, which then led the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency, the EPA, as we call it today.

Cleveland has a storied history, and 50 years later, our ability to clean up the Cuyahoga River is a model of resilience across the country, and now it’s seeing a nearly $4 billion investment right now through our partnership with Bedrock.

[00:06:48] Anthony Flint: Just pivoting here for a second, what’s your view on the use of government-owned land for creating things like permanently affordable housing, other improvements? You’ve got a fair amount of government-owned land there. What are the prospects for that?

[00:07:02] Mayor Justin Bibb: We are the largest landowner in the city, and we have thousands and thousands and thousands of vacant lots that we have failed to put into productive use. We’re really excited about the work we’re doing to put our assets to work in a more productive way. Currently right now, we are attracting a world-renowned global modular housing manufacturer, MMY. They’re bringing one of their manufacturing headquarters to Cleveland, going to create 150 good-paying jobs, and our new business district called the Midline, which is the largest redevelopment project in the city’s history, a 350-acre site.

That’s one example of the work we’re doing through our site readiness fund for good jobs, where we’re converting a thousand acres of brownfield vacant land, predominantly in the heart of Cleveland’s inner city, and making those sites shovel-ready to go. Not only is it good housing policy to really address our cities’ and our nation’s housing affordability crisis, it’s also a good industrial policy, because as the nation works to have more resilient supply chains, as we see these trends are re-shoring, take shape, it’s important that cities activate these sites and attract these jobs of the future and the present to make sure that America’s industrial future is competitive long-term.

[00:08:19] Anthony Flint: Following up on this idea of repurposing land — there are so many opportunities. Tell us a little bit more about the East Side neighborhoods and the use of different land-based financing to encourage redevelopment and repurposing.

[00:08:35] Mayor Justin Bibb: Yes, Cleveland’s East Side has a long, storied history. My grandparents came up here from the segregated South for jobs in the steel mills and jobs in the auto plants, as well as many immigrants from around the world, particularly from Eastern Europe, who came to Cleveland for those jobs, because Cleveland was a walk-to-work city, and a lot of those jobs were concentrated in Cleveland’s East Side.

For generations, that part of the city has not gotten its fair share of investment. One of the things that we’re doing is we’re using the same taxing tools that we’ve used to spur nearly $5 billion of investment on the waterfronts. We’re using those same tools to attract private investment to the East Side of Cleveland. We’re thinking about vacant parcels differently. We’re activating those vacant lots for shovel-ready job sites to attract good-paying jobs, to put the working class and the middle class back to work in Cleveland.

We’re also using those sites to really address our housing crisis. Particularly in the St. Clair-Superior neighborhood, we are deploying a new housing innovation district to really unlock brand new homeownership and new single-family homes for the future of the East Side of Cleveland.

[00:09:41] Anthony Flint: You mentioned the Site Readiness Initiative. I’m wondering, what have you learned from that experience, and any tips for other legacy cities or cities otherwise on this idea of looking at underutilized industrial land?

[00:09:57] Mayor Justin Bibb: This isn’t just about vacant land. It’s about talent. It’s about infrastructure. It’s about building a resilient manufacturing ecosystem that really builds on the strengths of Cleveland’s economy, so we’re really excited about this. We believe we can attract 2,500 good-paying jobs to the Midline. It costs about $100 million of capital to clean up. It’s 200 acres of vacant land that we’re transforming, and we’re putting about 1.5 million square feet of commercial space back to the market.

For any city to compete, you need two things: you need land, and you need talent. When I took office, we didn’t have any sites, 10 acres or more, to attract or retain companies in the city. Now we have the land, we have the talent, and we have the strategy to compete in the global economy.

[00:10:44] Anthony Flint: You mentioned there’s a modular homes manufacturer that is going into one site. That’s a pretty neat trick.

[00:10:51] Mayor Justin Bibb: Big deal. MMY is the first company to call the Midline home. As I said earlier, they’ll be bringing 150 good-paying jobs to the city, and they’re going to help us build, in six to eight weeks, new homes in Cleveland that are affordable and within reach for our residents. Also, because of our location and the Great Lakes and Lake Erie, we can be a net exporter of modular homes to Canada. We think this will be a game changer for Cleveland’s economy long-term.

[00:11:17] Anthony Flint: Finally, you’ve done a lot of work in climate and climate resilience, but do you think of Cleveland as a climate haven? If so, what needs to be done to take advantage of that kind of interest? Also, are you worried about gentrification?

[00:11:32] Mayor Justin Bibb: I absolutely believe that Cleveland is a climate haven. I believe our climate resilience as a city is second to none. We have access to fresh water. We have a temperate climate, four seasons actually in Cleveland. Although we were, like many cities in the US, exposed to the Canadian wildfires and the air quality, no real hurricanes, no wildfires in Cleveland. When you look at our coastal peer cities, Cleveland has a unique, I think, competitive advantage.

To protect it, number one, we need to make sure we have a resilient housing infrastructure, which is what we’re focused on. We need to make sure that we continue to have an economy that’s growing. We also need to make sure that when we think about climate change and think about this work around environmental justice, that is squarely focused on the cost of living crisis, and that’s our effort.

Now, gentrification means different things to different people. But we have a growth mindset in Cleveland. We need to grow the pie, but also support and uplift existing residents. Our economic philosophy is in all of the above approach to make Cleveland a city where the American dream is alive, within reach, and affordable. That’s the goal.

[00:12:39] Anthony Flint: Mayor Justin Bibb, thank you again for your time. It’s been a pleasure.

[00:12:42] Mayor Justin Bibb: Thanks for having me.

[00:12:43] Anthony Flint: Well, that’s a wrap on the Land Matters podcast. You can find extensive content about Cleveland and legacy cities on our website, that’s lincolninst.edu. Just navigate to the impact area called Land and Communities. You’ll also find the Making Sense of Place documentary series at the website, which includes recent updates on many of the initiatives we looked at 20 years ago. On social media, our handle is @landpolicy.

Please go ahead and rate, share, and subscribe to Land Matters, the podcast of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. For now, I’m Anthony Flint, signing off until next time.

[00:29:22] [END OF AUDIO]

Read full transcript

A rendering of Evoke at Ballantyne shows a four-story, gray and white building with a lawn and small trees.

Entornos favorables: estrategias locales en pos de la reurbanización de terrenos públicos

Ballantyne, Carolina del Norte, es una ciudad en desarrollo al sur de Charlotte. Con buenas escuelas, varios empleadores grandes y un ingreso familiar medio casi un 50 por ciento más alto que la mediana nacional, es un área deseable y en crecimiento, y necesita más viviendas asequibles.

En respuesta a esa necesidad, la ciudad de Charlotte cambió el enfoque hacia uno de los activos más importantes: el suelo. En 2023, la ciudad acordó arrendar una parcela de 1,38 hectáreas a CSE Communities, una división del desarrollador Crosland Southeast que se especializa en proyectos residenciales para hogares de ingresos mixtos.

Según el contrato de arrendamiento, CSE Communities pagará USD 1 por año durante 75 años y construirá Evoke Living en Ballantyne, un desarrollo de 60 unidades que será asequible para hogares de ingresos bajos y moderados. El proyecto incluirá
12 unidades asequibles para residentes que ganan el 30 por ciento o menos del ingreso promedio del área (AMI, por sus siglas en inglés), 32 unidades asequibles para hogares que ganan del 51 al 60 por ciento del AMI y 16 unidades asequibles para aquellos que ganan del 61 al 80 por ciento del AMI.

Como explicó Shawn Heath, subdirector de la ciudad, al South Charlotte Weekly, el proyecto es “una forma maravillosa de aprovechar el suelo que pertenece a la ciudad para generar viviendas asequibles en un área que las necesita”. Heath puso especial atención en la ubicación del lote e indicó que “sin lugar a duda, es una zona excepcional para el desarrollo de viviendas asequibles. Cumple todas las condiciones en términos de acceso a empleos, comodidades, servicios, escuelas públicas locales”.

Alrededor de un tercio de los hogares estadounidenses hoy soportan presiones económicas: destinan más del 30 por ciento de los ingresos a gastos de vivienda y enfrentan decisiones difíciles sobre cómo estirar los presupuestos limitados. Por ello, las comunidades de todo el país utilizan un recurso que ya poseen para enfrentar la crisis de asequibilidad de la vivienda. Muchas personas descubren que los sitios urbanos, como estacionamientos de superficie, baldíos, terrenos institucionales y edificios gubernamentales, se pueden usar de forma estratégica para aumentar la oferta.

Por supuesto, la crisis actual de la vivienda se debe a muchos factores, como salarios estancados, altos costos de construcción y zonificación restrictiva. En última instancia, el problema se reduce a lo siguiente: la nación tiene una crisis de vivienda porque no tenemos suficientes viviendas, por millones de unidades.

Las comunidades adoptan diferentes enfoques a medida que intentan aumentar la oferta de viviendas asequibles mediante la reurbanización de terrenos públicos. En el caso de Charlotte, el municipio mantiene la propiedad del suelo y celebra un contrato de arrendamiento con el desarrollador, para garantizar que la ciudad conserve el valor del suelo. En otros casos, los gobiernos municipales venden o donan el suelo.

A veces, el municipio tiene una participación activa en el proyecto de desarrollo a través de una asociación público-privada. Otras veces, su función se limita a exigir al desarrollador el cumplimiento del contrato. En todos los casos, los municipios capitalizan el potencial del suelo para abordar una necesidad crucial de vivienda y, al hacerlo, cumplir con la responsabilidad del gobierno de maximizar los activos públicos para el bien de la comunidad.

Legislar sobre el uso del suelo estatal y local

Según un análisis realizado por el Centro de Soluciones Geoespaciales (CGS, por sus siglas en inglés) del Instituto Lincoln, el país tiene alrededor de 112.000 hectáreas edificables de suelo propiedad del gobierno que se encuentran en áreas urbanas (léase: lugares donde la gente desea vivir y que ya tienen infraestructura pública), accesibles al transporte público (léase: reducir la congestión del tráfico y promover la transitabilidad a pie), y que no implican sacrificar parques, humedales, servidumbres de conservación u otros espacios abiertos. Esta superficie podría albergar más de 6,9 millones de hogares en lugares más cercanos a empleos y escuelas que muchos sitios de desarrollo tradicionales.

Gran parte de este suelo se encuentra en estados con costos de vivienda excepcionalmente altos, como Massachusetts (10.436 hectáreas), Florida (8.418 hectáreas), Washington (6.437 hectáreas), Texas (6.070 hectáreas) y California (5.900 hectáreas). Debido a que esta lista es un “quién es quién” de los mercados de vivienda costosos, también es un registro de los lugares que más necesitan viviendas asequibles adicionales.

Una cuestión clave es que más del 98 por ciento de esta superficie está en manos de los gobiernos estatales y locales. La falta de un reclamo federal sobre el suelo no solo ayuda a agilizar y simplificar el trabajo de redistribución, sino que también faculta a los gobiernos estatales y locales a determinar el mejor uso. Algunos de ellos pueden ser más adecuados para beneficios comunitarios que no sean la vivienda, como espacios abiertos, un jardín de infiltración u otra infraestructura verde, o instalaciones recreativas.

El Centro de Soluciones Geoespaciales realizó un análisis nacional de suelo propiedad del gobierno en áreas urbanas y accesibles al transporte público para determinar cuánto suelo edificable hay. Crédito: Centro de Soluciones Geoespaciales.

La legislación es una de las herramientas más importantes para apoyar a los gobiernos estatales y locales en su intento de redistribuir el suelo. La legislación desempeña dos funciones clave en este contexto. La primera es establecer las condiciones necesarias para permitir este tipo de transacciones. A nivel estatal, esto puede incluir facultar a los gobiernos locales para que vendan o arrienden su propiedad a precios inferiores a los del mercado, lo que permite que los proyectos de vivienda asequible resulten económicamente viables.

Un ejemplo de legislación efectiva es la Ley de Enmienda sobre la Disposición de Suelo del Distrito para Vivienda Asequible (Disposition of District Land for Affordable Housing Amendment Act) de Washington, DC de 2014, que permite a la ciudad transferir su propiedad por menos del valor asignado por el valuador para proyectos de viviendas asequibles. Según la ley, todos los nuevos desarrollos multifamiliares deben garantizar que, como mínimo, entre el 20 y el 30 por ciento de las unidades sean asequibles para los hogares con ingresos anuales de entre el 30 y el 50 por ciento de la mediana del área. El porcentaje de unidades que deben ser asequibles varía según la ubicación de la parcela. Cuanto más cerca esté la parcela del transporte público, mayor será el porcentaje requerido de unidades asequibles.

La legislación puede promover aún más el uso eficiente de los terrenos públicos al exigir a los municipios que incluyan, o consideren incluir, la vivienda como parte de los proyectos promovidos con fondos públicos. En el condado de Montgomery, Maryland, el proyecto de ley 37-12 exige que el condado evalúe la viabilidad de incluir una “cantidad significativa” de viviendas asequibles en los proyectos de mejoras de capital propuestos, como bibliotecas, centros recreativos y estaciones de transporte público.

Un beneficio adicional de la legislación es que puede ayudar a todas las partes interesadas a ponerse de acuerdo sobre lo que está o no permitido o requerido al reutilizar suelo de propiedad pública. Dadas las múltiples entidades gubernamentales que pueden estar involucradas en una transacción de este tipo, esta claridad es útil para resolver la confusión entre ellas.

Sin embargo, algunos funcionarios electos inevitablemente tendrán dudas a la hora de redistribuir los terrenos públicos para la vivienda debido al riesgo político, dice George W. McCarthy, presidente y director ejecutivo del Instituto Lincoln. “Los terrenos públicos son un territorio muy disputado”, señala. “Todo el mundo tiene una opinión sobre cómo se debe usar cualquier tierra de propiedad pública. Y cada vez que alguien asigne este suelo, otra persona se enojará y otra más lo usará como combustible para asegurarse de que no ocurra la reelección del responsable de haber tomado esa decisión”.

Pero McCarthy, quien supervisó el diseño y lanzamiento de la campaña Community Land for Community Benefits del Instituto Lincoln este año, agrega que esa es una razón más para ser estratégico: “Existen maneras de liberar suelo público de manera eficiente y efectiva para que los gobiernos en verdad expriman todo el beneficio para la comunidad”.

Identificación de parcelas adecuadas

Una vez que un gobierno local confirma que tiene el derecho legal de redistribuir el suelo para obtener viviendas asequibles u otros beneficios comunitarios, la pregunta es cuál es la mejor manera de proceder. Existen varias consideraciones. La primera es identificar todas las parcelas elegibles.

Determinar con precisión qué entidad pública posee qué terreno puede ser difícil. A pesar de las numerosas entidades dedicadas a supervisar el uso del suelo en una comunidad determinada (las juntas de zonificación, los departamentos de planificación, las comisiones de uso del suelo), prácticamente todas las comunidades carecen de una estructura que supervise el uso de toda la cartera de suelo que posee. En consecuencia, los gobiernos municipales generalmente no tienen un plan integral y estratégico para desarrollar el suelo. En su lugar, suelen adoptar un enfoque ad hoc, parcela por parcela, que puede no considerar si un pedazo de suelo es más adecuado que otro para un tipo determinado de reurbanización. El resultado puede ser que no se maximicen las fortalezas y oportunidades únicas de una parcela.

Este es un problema que se puede resolver. Comienza con la preparación de un inventario del suelo de propiedad pública dentro de una comunidad. “No se puede llegar a una buena política para convertir el suelo en vivienda u otro desarrollo si ni siquiera se sabe lo que hay”, explica Reina Chano Murray, directora asociada del CGS.

Llevar a cabo una auditoría de tierras completa puede ser más difícil de lo que parece. Los terrenos públicos pueden ser propiedad de una serie de entidades públicas, como una autoridad de tránsito, un distrito de agua o alcantarillado, o un departamento de parques, algunos de cuyos nombres pueden haber cambiado con el tiempo y a través de varias administraciones municipales, y eso genera un revoltijo de propietarios que es necesario desentrañar.

Una vez que se establece la propiedad, se plantean las cuestiones del uso adecuado. Como explica Murray: “Es necesario conocer la condición del suelo. ¿Cuál es la zonificación actual del terreno en cuestión y el área circundante? ¿El área ya dispone de agua y otros servicios públicos? ¿Está cerca del transporte público? Este es un contexto importante a fin de determinar qué sitios son más apropiados para el desarrollo de viviendas frente a otra necesidad pública”. El CGS está trabajando con las comunidades en Colorado y otros lugares en este tipo de identificación y catalogación del suelo, al ayudar a las comunidades a encontrar los lugares adecuados para desarrollar viviendas, implementar soluciones basadas en la naturaleza y mitigar los riesgos climáticos.

Una vez que un gobierno local identifica las parcelas que son más adecuadas para viviendas asequibles, puede pasar a la etapa de configuración del proyecto. Las consideraciones clave incluyen el interés de la propiedad, las estructuras organizativas, la tenencia de la vivienda y los requisitos de asequibilidad. No existe una fórmula universal para estas transacciones, sino más bien una gama de opciones que dependen de los activos, las necesidades y las oportunidades de una comunidad.

Dicho esto, hay un elemento que McCarthy considera una buena idea para cualquier gobierno, al margen de su tamaño o las circunstancias: conservar la propiedad. “Recomendamos no regalar el suelo siempre que sea posible”, aconseja. “La idea preferida es arrendarlo porque le permite al gobierno mantener el control. Si la ciudad es propietaria del suelo, puede hacer cumplir su voluntad. Puede decir: ‘Estos son los términos según los cuales le daremos este contrato de arrendamiento, y si no cumplen, simplemente recuperaremos el suelo’”.

Poner en práctica la política

Desde hace tiempo, las ciudades y los condados dedican suelo municipal para fines que van desde parques públicos, infraestructura verde y áreas de conservación hasta necesidades de infraestructura como corredores de tránsito y servicios públicos. Pero no es tan común que dediquen el suelo de propiedad pública a la construcción de viviendas. A continuación, se incluyen ejemplos de tres ciudades.

Hamilton, Ontario

La ciudad de Hamilton, Ontario, ha estado dedicando sus tierras de forma estratégica para facilitar el desarrollo de viviendas adicionales desde hace casi una década. Durante ese tiempo, el enfoque de la ciudad ha cambiado, comenta Ray Kessler, quien, como director de Bienes Raíces Corporativos de Hamilton, administra la cartera de la ciudad de alrededor de 2.300 parcelas. (En marcado contraste con casi todas las ciudades estadounidenses, Hamilton tiene una Oficina de Bienes Raíces Corporativos que tiene la tarea de ocuparse de la administración estratégica de todos los terrenos propiedad de la ciudad como una sola cartera).

“Al principio, cuando comenzamos a vender nuestro suelo para vivienda en 2016, vendíamos propiedades, como todos los demás”, explica Kessler. “Pero en el último tiempo, adoptamos lo que llamamos una política de ‘arrendamiento primero’, donde priorizamos el arrendamiento en lugar de la venta, siempre que sea posible”.

Cuando se determina que el arrendamiento es una opción viable, la ciudad ofrece a una organización de vivienda sin fines de lucro seleccionada un arrendamiento a largo plazo, en general, de un mínimo de 40 años de duración, para construir o administrar viviendas asequibles. El arrendamiento es nominal y todos los proyectos aprobados deben cumplir con el Programa de Suministro de Viviendas Asequibles de la Ciudad, que describe diferentes pautas según el terreno en particular.

En el caso de la parcela de propiedad de la ciudad en 1126 Garth Street, el cronograma requiere que las unidades sean casas adosadas de dos o tres dormitorios, disponibles para alquiler o compra (aunque el desarrollador puede construir una vivienda de varias unidades sujeta a rezonificación). Si las casas adosadas están a la venta, al menos el 50 por ciento de ellas deben ofrecerse por no más del 90 por ciento del precio de compra promedio, y no se pueden construir más de 10 unidades, según el reglamento de zonificación.

En el caso de que las casas adosadas estén en alquiler, al menos el 30 por ciento de las unidades deben tener un precio que no sea más del 80 por ciento del alquiler promedio del mercado. Los alquileres solo pueden aumentarse de forma anual y deben cumplir con las Pautas provinciales de aumento de alquileres, lineamientos anuales que limitan los aumentos máximos de alquileres en Canadá y varían según la provincia. Por ejemplo, en 2026, la pauta de Ontario es del 2,1 por ciento, mientras que en Columbia Británica es del 2,3 por ciento.

La ciudad prefiere arrendar la propiedad porque otorga más capacidad para asegurarse de que las unidades sean asequibles a largo plazo. Como explica Kessler: “Cuando se produce un cambio de titularidad, incluso si se establecen controles, no se puede garantizar el cumplimiento a largo plazo porque se perdió la propiedad. Con un contrato de arrendamiento, seguimos siendo propietarios del suelo y, siempre que ese contrato esté bien redactado, esas obligaciones contractuales nos darán mucha más garantía que los instrumentos relacionados con títulos propietarios”.

Además, el arrendamiento crea oportunidades económicas para la ciudad. “Todavía no lo hicimos, pero con un contrato de arrendamiento, es posible que podamos generar ingresos para reinvertir en otros proyectos de viviendas asequibles. O, en un área más densa, como el centro de la ciudad, es posible que podamos vender derechos de desarrollo sobre, por ejemplo, suelo de propiedad pública donde funciona un centro de artes escénicas. Esa tierra tiene una zonificación que habilita a construir 30 pisos, pero solo tiene 6 pisos, por lo que, si podemos transferir parte de la densidad a otro sitio, entonces lograremos generar ingresos de esa manera”.

Boston, Massachusetts

Como parte de una iniciativa más extensa para recuperar suelo público subutilizado, en 2023, la ciudad de Boston lanzó Welcome Home, Boston, una iniciativa escalonada para reutilizar tierras que son propiedad de la ciudad con el objetivo de construir viviendas asequibles para residentes con ingresos bajos y moderados. El año anterior, los funcionarios de la ciudad lanzaron una auditoría anual de tierras en toda la ciudad, un inventario de todos los terrenos que pertenecen a la ciudad, uno de los mayores propietarios de bienes raíces de Boston.

La auditoría identificó 1.238 parcelas por un total de 882.578 metros cuadrados de suelo (el 5,4 por ciento del total de las propiedades de la ciudad) que califican como vacías o subutilizadas, incluidas pequeñas parcelas aptas para urbanización. Ciento cincuenta de estas parcelas se pusieron a disposición para oportunidades de propiedad de vivienda asequibles según el programa Welcome Home, Boston, que se financia con USD 58 millones de la asignación del Plan de Rescate Estadounidense de la Ciudad.

Una nueva vivienda construida en un lote que solía estar vacante en el vecindario de Hyde Park en Boston. Crédito: Ciudad de Boston.

Desde la publicación de la primera solicitud de propuestas en junio de 2023, según un portavoz, la ciudad de Boston aprobó 10 propuestas en 28 parcelas que producirán 144 nuevas unidades de vivienda asequibles para los residentes con un ingreso familiar de entre el 80 por ciento y el 100 por ciento de la mediana del área. Esta primavera, la ciudad planea aprobar nuevas propuestas para 11 parcelas que producirían alrededor de 40 unidades, destinadas a hogares con ingresos de entre el 120 por ciento y el 135 por ciento de la mediana del área. Se encuentran en las etapas de planificación más de 30 parcelas adicionales, y se espera que los esfuerzos de participación comunitaria comiencen este año calendario.

Para ayudar a garantizar que se puedan cumplir estos objetivos de asequibilidad, la ciudad vende las parcelas a los desarrolladores participantes por una tarifa nominal. Como explica Sheila A. Dillon, jefa de vivienda de la ciudad: “Al hacer que las parcelas subutilizadas de la ciudad estén disponibles para la vivienda, podemos ayudar a las personas que compran su primera vivienda, fortalecer los barrios y garantizar que los terrenos públicos brinden un beneficio duradero a la comunidad. En algunos casos, la venta de parcelas con claras restricciones de título de propiedad permite que las viviendas sigan siendo asequibles para los futuros compradores, al tiempo que reduce la carga administrativa durante la gestión de los arrendamientos de tierras. Ese enfoque ayuda a la ciudad a concentrar más recursos en crear y preservar viviendas asequibles en Boston”.

Por ejemplo, en 2024, la ciudad vendió cuatro lotes vacíos por un total de casi 1.486 metros cuadrados en el vecindario de Dorchester, con un valor asignado por el tasador de USD 1,26 millones, a Norfolk Design & Construction por USD 400 para construir 20 viviendas asequibles dirigidas a compradores de primera vivienda.

Welcome Home, Boston es solo una de las múltiples iniciativas que la ciudad utiliza para administrar el suelo. Otras parcelas más grandes están atravesando un proceso comunitario para determinar los mejores usos para el desarrollo. Una de esas parcelas son los 1.757 metros cuadrados de suelo propiedad de la ciudad en 55–57 Hudson Street, Chinatown. La ciudad entregó el terreno a la organización sin fines de lucro Asian Community Development Corporation por una tarifa nominal de arrendamiento de terrenos para construir 110 unidades de vivienda asequible, incluidas 66 unidades de alquiler y 44 condominios para compra. El nuevo edificio también incluirá una sucursal permanente de 1.579 metros cuadrados de la Biblioteca Pública de Boston en Chinatown.

Atlanta, Georgia

Como parte del objetivo de sumar 20.000 viviendas al parque de viviendas asequibles de la ciudad para 2030, la ciudad de Atlanta está trabajando para remodelar la Estación de Bomberos 15, una parcela de terreno de 0,3 hectáreas con un valor de mercado de USD 14,1 millones. Ubicada en el popular barrio de Midtown, la propiedad actualmente alberga un edificio de una sola planta con un sótano parcial. Según la remodelación propuesta, se construirá un edificio residencial para hogares de ingresos mixtos. Los últimos planes incluyen una estructura de 21 pisos con una estación de bomberos de 3 pisos y un estacionamiento de 5 pisos. Los pisos restantes contendrán alrededor de 230 departamentos, de los cuales cerca de un tercio serán asequibles. Esta es una acción muy necesaria en un vecindario que cuenta con todos los servicios, donde el ingreso medio de los hogares es casi un 70 por ciento superior al de la ciudad en general, y el alquiler es cerca de un 33 por ciento más alto que la mediana de toda la ciudad.

Midtown, Atlanta, tiene planes ambiciosos para reconstruir la Estación de Bomberos 15; esta vez, tendrá 230 departamentos en la parte superior. Crédito: Atlanta Housing.

En este caso, el acuerdo es una asociación público-privada. La ciudad de Atlanta seguirá siendo propietaria de los derechos sobre el suelo y otorgará una opción de compra de los derechos aéreos sobre la estación de bomberos por una tarifa nominal (por ejemplo, USD 1) a la organización sin fines de lucro, Atlanta Urban Development Corporation (AUDC, por sus siglas en inglés), creada en 2023 por la ciudad de Atlanta y la Autoridad de Vivienda de la Ciudad de Atlanta para liderar el desarrollo de viviendas en suelo de propiedad pública. AUDC es una subsidiaria de la autoridad de vivienda, que actúa efectivamente como una agencia de desarrollo público con capacidad para colaborar con inversores privados.

Una vez que se reconstruya la propiedad, AUDC continuará manteniendo el proyecto (es decir, el suelo y las mejoras, pero no la estación de bomberos) en una estructura de arrendamiento de terrenos a largo plazo con el desarrollador. Se espera que la ciudad sea propietaria de la Estación de Bomberos 15 de carácter permanente. El resto del desarrollo será propiedad de una iniciativa conjunta entre el socio desarrollador seleccionado y AUDC.

Conforme a la estructura propuesta, AUDC será el accionista mayoritario, con al menos el 51 por ciento de la propiedad, y dividirá los flujos de fondos del proyecto con el desarrollador, como se describe en un informe conjunto del laboratorio de finanzas Nowak Metro Finance Lab de la Universidad de Drexel y Putting Assets to Work (PAW), una incubadora nacional que ayuda a los gobiernos estatales y locales a transformar las propiedades públicas subutilizadas en activos que generan valor a largo plazo para la comunidad. Como se explica en el informe: “La iniciativa conjunta permite al desarrollador disfrutar de algunas ventajas de los flujos de fondos del proyecto con un riesgo relativamente bajo, al tiempo que garantiza la asequibilidad a largo plazo, gracias a la propiedad mayoritaria de AUDC”.

La Estación de Bomberos 15 es parte de una iniciativa más extensa del alcalde de Atlanta, Andre Dickens, que tiene como objetivo destinar los terrenos de propiedad municipal para fines de vivienda. Las parcelas que forman parte de la diversa y creciente oferta de la ciudad se seleccionan para fines de reurbanización en función de un mapa integral de activos de propiedad pública que los funcionarios de la ciudad crearon a través de la participación en el programa de incubadoras de PAW en 2023.

Cobrar impulso

De la misma manera que no hay una sola causa de la crisis de asequibilidad de la vivienda, no hay una sola solución. La reutilización de suelo de propiedad pública para fines de vivienda asequible no es una panacea, sino una respuesta eficiente y escalable que podría ayudar a resolver el problema. Si los gobiernos correspondientes desarrollaran las 111.692 hectáreas edificables de suelo de propiedad pública identificadas en el análisis del CGS, incluso con los estándares de baja densidad de 7 unidades por casi media hectárea, la nación podría sumar más de 1,9 millones de unidades de vivienda nuevas. Si se elevaran las ambiciones y los desarrolladores construyeran con estándares de mayor densidad de 25 unidades por casi media hectárea, el suelo propiedad del gobierno podría producir 6,9 millones de unidades de vivienda nuevas.

Por supuesto, no todos los terrenos públicos deberían desarrollarse conforme al derecho de zonificación. Sigue siendo de vital importancia que las comunidades protejan los espacios abiertos, ya que esto aporta beneficios ampliamente documentados para la salud pública y planetaria, y para garantizar la coherencia entre el uso previsto y los atributos de la propiedad.

Pero la cuestión está cobrando impulso, tanto a nivel estatal como municipal. Como señaló McCarthy en una columna reciente de Mensaje del presidente: “California fortaleció su Ley de Tierras Excedentes y obligó a las agencias locales a inventariar las parcelas disponibles, ofrecerlas primero a los desarrolladores de viviendas asequibles y seguir procedimientos transparentes y exigibles… Massachusetts avanzó en la creación de una cartera de parcelas estatales excedentes con el objetivo de producir miles de viviendas; el programa Public Lands for Housing de San Francisco destina sitios grandes y de bajo rendimiento, como el embalse Balboa Reservoir de 6,88 hectáreas, para viviendas de ingresos mixtos; y Sound Transit en el estado de Washington desarrolló una política para destinar propiedades excedentes a viviendas con ingresos restringidos cerca de las estaciones”.

A través de estrategias reflexivas y equilibradas, las comunidades pueden utilizar el suelo que ya poseen para proporcionar vivienda asequible y adaptarse al cambio climático, y pueden usar el valor derivado de estos acuerdos, ya sea en forma de pagos de arrendamiento, compra de derechos de desarrollo u otro mecanismo, para financiar infraestructura y servicios sociales. Como están demostrando comunidades como Charlotte, Hamilton, Boston y Atlanta, el suelo público es un componente esencial de las soluciones políticas del siglo XXI para nuestros desafíos sociales más serios.

Loren Berlin es escritora y editora, y se especializa en vivienda. Para leer más sobre su trabajo, visite www.lorenberlin.com.

Imagen principal: Evoke Living en Ballantyne, un desarrollo de 60 unidades en terrenos que pertenecen a la ciudad en Charlotte, Carolina del Norte. Crédito: Evoke Living en Ballantyne.

An aerial view of downtown Fairbanks with mid-rise commercial buildings, rooftops, and colorful tents and people in the streets.

Mayor’s Desk

Líder en una tierra de extremos

Mindy O’Neall, de 44 años, fue elegida la 53.ª alcaldesa de Fairbanks, Alaska, en 2025. Esto significó cambiar el mando de republicanos a demócratas por primera vez en una década y la convirtió en la cuarta directora ejecutiva municipal mujer en la historia de la ciudad, que alberga a alrededor de 30.000 personas.

A bordo de una camioneta pickup de transmisión manual, la nativa de Iowa condujo a Alaska en busca de aventuras hace 23 años. Su primer destino fue Anchorage, donde trabajó como asistente legislativa, antes de mudarse a Fairbanks. Trabajó en Fairbanks Economic Development Corporation y en la empresa pública de distribución de gas, Interior Gas Utility, como representante laboral y fundó Blue Canoe Media, una firma boutique de comunicaciones y consultoría.

O’Neall obtuvo una maestría en comunicación por la Universidad de Alaska Fairbanks, en la que investigó la gobernanza y los impactos climáticos en las zonas rurales de Alaska. Antes de convertirse en alcaldesa, ocupó un cargo en la Asamblea del Condado de Fairbanks North Star y fue directora ejecutiva del Centro de Investigación de Viviendas en Clima Frío; ocupa un cargo en las juntas de la Asociación de Constructores de Viviendas del Estado de Alaska y la Liga Municipal de Alaska. Su campaña giró en torno a temas como la revitalización del centro, la vivienda asequible y la seguridad pública. Vive en el centro de Fairbanks con su perro, Tito, a quien señaló como el verdadero perro oficial de Alaska, el perro mestizo.

Esta entrevista, que se ha editado por motivos de espacio y claridad, también está disponible como pódcast de Land Matters.

Anthony Flint: Para los que no están familiarizados, ¿cómo es Fairbanks? ¿Y por qué quería ser alcalde?

Mindy O’Neall: Diría que es una tierra de extremos. El frío en invierno es extremo. Algunos se sorprenden cuando descubren que podemos alcanzar un máximo de 32 a 37 grados Celsius en el verano. Tenemos animales exóticos, osos pardos y osos polares, y tenemos industrias extremas, como la minería y el desarrollo de gas y petróleo. En el corazón de esto está la gente … que tiene coraje y determinación y, a menudo, esta mentalidad de abundancia … [y] de escasez al mismo tiempo. Estamos al final de la fila. Aquí, la seguridad alimentaria está garantizada solo por tres o cuatro días.

La alcaldesa Mindy O’Neall. Crédito: Foto de cortesía.

Llevo más de 23 años viviendo en Alaska. Soy originaria de Iowa y vine aquí en busca de aventuras, como muchas otras personas. Dicen que quien conoce el Medio Oeste nunca quiere abandonar el corazón del país. Y yo dije, no se preocupen, volveré en un año. Solo quiero ir a ver cómo es. Después de un año, resultó dolorosamente obvio darme cuenta de que había mucho más por descubrir en Alaska y que solo tenía que quedarme.

Una de las cosas interesantes de Alaska es que tenemos siete distritos, que funcionan como los condados en los demás estados. Y, luego, tenemos ciudades dentro de esos distritos. Así que Fairbanks tiene un municipio que tiene un órgano de gobierno, que es la asamblea, y un alcalde; y luego, dentro del municipio, hay dos ciudades, Fairbanks y North Pole… Siempre nos gusta bromear con el hecho de que, para un lugar que está tan en contra del gobierno y la regulación excesiva, tenemos una gran presencia gubernamental.

Comencé mi servicio público durante la pandemia… Teníamos un alcalde que hacía un buen trabajo en lo administrativo. Pero era muy discriminatorio con la población nativa de Alaska, y después de algunos comentarios y polémicas en las redes sociales … Creo que el servicio público es un privilegio, y la persona en el cargo tiene que ganarse el respeto de cada población dentro de su comunidad … [un] elemento fundamental del servicio público es mostrar respeto hacia la comunidad en la que uno trabaja, incluso cuando no la comprende o no está de acuerdo con ella. Creo que, en este tiempo, ese respeto se perdió en muchos niveles del gobierno.

En verdad creo que uno de los beneficios de ocupar este cargo es ser mujer. Esta es la primera vez que Fairbanks tiene una alcaldesa en alrededor de dos décadas, y soy la cuarta desde 1903 … una mujer joven de unos 40 años que lidera esta comunidad y es un modelo a seguir para que las niñas de nuestra comunidad vean que hay alguien como ellas … en un entorno que a veces es muy hostil y tiene mucha presencia masculina.

AF: Todo el mundo tiene dificultades con la capacidad de pago en estos días, y una gran parte tiene que ver con la vivienda. ¿Cuáles son las políticas que pueden ayudar a comprar o alquilar una vivienda en su región?

MO: Sufrimos de una oferta de vivienda que data de la década de 1970. Alaska tuvo su último gran auge durante la construcción del oleoducto en la década de 1970. Hubo una ola de personas que llegaron al estado y construyeron de la manera en que sabían: sin mucho aislamiento y con lo que fuera que tuvieran. Nuestras viviendas son muy ineficientes.

[Debemos centrarnos en] crear riqueza generacional más allá de la propiedad de la vivienda. Construir casas y viviendas ha sido el juego o el negocio de desarrolladores importantes y ricos. Y, en nuestra comunidad, en verdad no podemos permitirnos eso. No tenemos suficientes personas para que un gran desarrollador gane dinero aquí… ¿Cómo podemos reducir el monto de la inversión [que es necesaria para la vivienda]?

AF: El Instituto Lincoln ayuda a los municipios a identificar terrenos propiedad del gobierno que puedan utilizarse para viviendas asequibles. ¿Ve oportunidades con ese enfoque?

MO: Por supuesto que sí; le daré algunos datos. El 60 por ciento de nuestra tierra en Alaska es federal y el 25 por ciento es propiedad del estado de Alaska. El 10 por ciento es propiedad de corporaciones nativas y el 1 por ciento es privado. Así que tenemos una gran cantidad de suelo gubernamental disponible. Ahora, alrededor de 32 millones de esas hectáreas se gestionan para la conservación. Pero todavía nos queda un poco de suelo para utilizar.

Tenemos un parque de estacionamiento que estuvo inactivo durante probablemente cinco años. La universidad que lo usaba ya no lo necesitaba, por lo que literalmente soldaron las puertas, y este edificio ha estado allí, deteriorándose desde entonces. Había algunos fondos disponibles … para la adquisición del suelo. Publicamos una solicitud de propuestas para que un desarrollador construyera dos o tres pisos sobre el espacio aéreo del estacionamiento y, de esa forma, activar el espacio, al dar uso a ese estacionamiento cubierto, que es muy importante en Fairbanks, pero también al agregar unidades de vivienda en el centro de la ciudad. Ese es solo un ejemplo, tenemos otros, pero estoy muy entusiasmada por ver cómo se desarrolla.

AF: ¿Cuáles son los desafíos únicos de vivir con el cambio climático en Alaska y qué se puede hacer al respecto a nivel estatal y local?

Una fumarola surge sobre un bosque. Una casa solitaria es visible. — Incendio de Lost Horse Creek al norte de Fairbanks en 2023. El cambio climático está haciendo que Alaska sea más susceptible a los incendios forestales. Crédito: Togie Whiel/Equipo Interinstitucional de Gestión de Incidentes de Alaska.

MO: A menudo, se refieren al Ártico como el canario en la mina de carbón, porque comenzamos a ver los problemas del cambio climático en mayor medida y mucho antes que el resto de los estados u otras partes del mundo. Algo sucede en nuestro medio ambiente desde hace un tiempo. Hay más viento en Fairbanks, lo que significa que tenemos más riesgo de incendios en verano. Tuvimos inviernos más fríos y con más nieve de lo habitual, lo que significa que el suelo no se descongela con rapidez, es decir, cuando la temperatura se calienta en el aire, todo se derrite en agua, pero no tiene donde ir porque el suelo continúa congelado. Ahora, no podemos aprovechar esa agua, y sufrimos muchas inundaciones. Además, no tenemos humedad en el suelo, por lo que es más susceptible de sufrir incendios forestales en el verano.

No creo que haya mucho que podamos hacer al respecto en este momento. Está sucediendo. Estamos en un ciclo de disrupción climática. Pero podemos crear un plan. Podemos planificar acciones ante eventos extremos, como qué hacer cuando nos quedamos sin electricidad y la temperatura es de -35 °C.

La otra cuestión es que la planificación requiere dinero y, en Alaska, no recaudamos impuestos sobre las ventas en todo el estado. Algunos municipios lo hacen, el municipio de Fairbanks, no. Lo mismo sucede con el impuesto sobre la renta. Pagamos impuestos a la propiedad y nada más. A medida que abordamos estos eventos cada vez más dramáticos, nos cuesta cada vez más reparar las carreteras y garantizar la continuidad de los servicios públicos que están por encima y por debajo del suelo. Estamos viendo cada vez menos inversión del gobierno federal para este tipo de eventos. Como habitantes de Alaska, es hora de que pensemos seriamente en cómo queremos proteger nuestros activos. Y qué nivel de compromiso asumimos con nuestros propios bolsillos.

AF: ¿Cómo es ser alcaldesa en un momento en que el gobierno federal reduce los fondos y ya no brinda apoyo en tantas cuestiones?

MO: Seguimos pidiendo a nuestros empleados públicos que hagan más con menos. Al mismo tiempo, la ciudadanía espera que los servicios sean modernos. Eso significa que tenemos que invertir en tecnología.

Es un punto difícil. Uno tiene muchas ideas y planes para cuando sea alcalde y, luego, asume el cargo … Para poder ofrecer los servicios que queremos y mejorar la eficiencia … con cada vez menos fondos, tanto del estado como del gobierno federal, tendremos que buscar formas de contribuir por nuestra cuenta. Y eso se reduce a los valores que tenemos como comunidad.

Es difícil. Sin duda es algo en lo que estoy trabajando: cómo hacemos más con menos, cómo explicamos el valor de una buena administración pública, [mientras] nos comprometemos personalmente en el camino.

Anthony Flint es miembro sénior del Instituto Lincoln de Políticas de Suelo, conduce el ciclo de pódcasts Land Matters y es editor colaborador de Land Lines.

Imagen principal: El Festival del Sol de Medianoche en el centro de Fairbanks, 2021. Crédito: Jacob Boomsma vía iStock/Getty Images Plus.

Land Matters Podcast / Season 7 / Episode 4

Housing the World: A World Urban Forum Recap with Anacláudia Rossbach

June 26, 2026

Listen on:

A large sign for the World Urban Forum 13 features a stained glass rendering of red and yellow shapes against a blue sky.

World Urban Forum 13, held this year in Baku, Azerbaijan, drew a record number of participants. Credit: UN-Habitat/Jessica Jones-Langley.

By Anthony Flint, June 26, 2026

Humanity’s essential need for shelter is going unanswered around the globe. An estimated three billion people lack access to housing that is safe, decent, and connected to both jobs and basic services like energy, water and sanitation, according to the United Nations. An estimated 300 million people are currently experiencing homelessness.

“We are at a crossroads,” said UN-Habitat executive director Anacláudia Rossbach, freshly returned from last month’s 13th session of the World Urban Forum in Baku, Azerbaijan, on the latest episode of the Land Matters podcast. If the supply of sustainable housing stock is not increased, said Rossbach, many of the two billion people expected in coming years to migrate to cities—mostly in Asia and Africa—will simply move straight into unplanned informal settlements (colloquially known as slums, favelas, or shantytowns).

At the same time, Rossbach said, the record-breaking 58,000 participants from 176 nations at World Urban Forum 13—the latest convening of the biennial global cities summit that started in 2001—concluded that housing cannot be viewed simply as the construction of homes, but rather as part of an ecosystem connecting with land, infrastructure, transport, public services, and economic opportunity.

Accordingly, the Baku Call to Action recognizes that there are “interconnected pressures including rising costs, land speculation, displacement, imperfect governance systems, and climate impacts”; and that addressing these challenges requires “moving beyond fragmented approaches toward more integrated and people-centered solutions.”

Anaclaudia Rossbach stands in front of a section of white geometric building in Baku, Azerbaijan. She is wearing glasses and has shoulder length gray hair, a gray paisley scarf wrapped around her shoulders, and a blue lanyard. — UN-Habitat Executive Director and former Lincoln Institute of Land Policy program director Anacláudia Rossbach at the site of the World Urban Forum in Baku, Azerbaijan. Credit: UN-Habitat.

Enrique Silva, chief program officer at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, and a representative for nonprofit organizations at the World Urban Forum for many years, joined the conversation by pointing out the importance of land in any calculations related to global urbanization.

“We do not connect enough the relationship between land, land use, land policy, and housing as shelter, housing as an economic asset, housing as a dignified vehicle for improving our social and economic mobility,” he said. “A huge portion of the cost of housing, whether it’s a mansion or a shack, is land—the cost of land.”

UN-Habitat also recognizes that housing and climate change are intertwined challenges, calling for climate-smart housing design and alternative, low-carbon building materials, such as cement-free concrete. Cities must consider the carbon footprint of their expansion, said Rossbach—who formerly directed the Latin America and the Caribbean program at the Lincoln Institute—and acknowledge that the poorest populations are generally the most vulnerable to climate impacts such as flooding, mudslides, fires, and extreme heat. “They are on the front lines,” she said.

Reducing emissions and building resilience “is the intersection of how future urban development will take place, how we are going to transform the existing cities, the existing built environments, especially in the Global North, and how we are going to work with this upcoming needs in the Global South, especially in the areas that are highly urbanized,” she said. “How we build our houses, how we transform our built environment, how we address informal settlements, will have a direct relation in terms of climate.”

An aerial photo of Salvador, Brazil is bisected by a curving road, with low-lying informal housing on the left and forested land on the right. In the distance high-rise buildings are visible. — The low-lying houses of an informal settlement in Salvador, Brazil. Credit: Joa_Souza via iStock Unreleased/Getty Images.

Lincoln Institute staff were actively engaged at World Urban Forum 13, with Enrique Silva, Luis Quintanilla, and Darla Munroe serving as panelists and facilitators for sessions on land value capture, affordable housing, slum upgrading and climate action strategies. The multimedia case study video Still the One, chronicling the creation of a pioneering community land trust in Burlington, Vermont, was also shown at the Urban Cinema venue.

The next summit, World Urban Forum 14, is scheduled to be in Mexico City in 2028.

Listen to the show here or subscribe to Land Matters on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Further Reading

Baku Call to Action Urges Renewed Commitment on the Global Housing Crisis | UN-Habitat News

Lincoln Institute at the Thirteenth Session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13) | Land Wise blog

Solving World’s Housing Crisis Requires More than New Construction | World Resources Institute

Slums are Bearing the Brunt of the Climate Crisis—and Devising Solutions | Knowable Magazine

Anthony Flint is a senior fellow at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, host of the Land Matters podcast, and a contributing editor of Land Lines.

Transcript

[00:00:04] Anthony Flint: Welcome to Episode 4 of Season 7 of the Land Matters podcast. I’m your host, Anthony Flint. On this show, we’re going to zoom out for a truly global perspective on cities where nearly two-thirds of the planet’s population reside—technically about 55 percent or 4 billion people as of now, but projected to be 68 percent by 2050. However you look at it, that’s a lot of people needing food, water, shelter, community, and economic opportunity.

Our guest is Anacláudia Rossbach, Executive Director of UN-Habitat, the United Nations agency that runs the World Urban Forum. That’s the biennial global conference on sustainable urbanization, bringing together leaders from all levels of government, urban planners, and nonprofit organizations to address the really big issues facing these cities, and in many cases, huge metropolitan areas.

The World Urban Forum was established in 2001, so it’s a quarter-century-old tradition that’s right alongside the World Economic Forum or the COP, Conference of Parties climate summits. The last World Urban Forum, World Urban Forum 13, was held in May in Baku, Azerbaijan. We’re catching up with Anacláudia to get a recap and understand what the most pressing challenges are, and of course, the collaboration that’s going on to find solutions.

We’re joined by my colleague Enrique Silva, Chief Program Officer at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, and a veteran of many a World Urban Forum. He’s been engaged, among other things, on the role civil society has to play in supporting this rapidly urbanizing planet of ours. Anacláudia, I know it’s been a whirlwind. That may well be a permanent condition for you, but we really appreciate you making time to join the conversation on Land Matters.

[00:02:01] Anacláudia Rossbach: For sure, Anthony. Thank you so much. I’m here because land matters.

[00:02:05] Anthony Flint: The perfect guest! Let’s step back, and if you could provide an overview of World Urban Forum 13 and where it sits, in your view, in the pantheon of these gatherings, and then maybe a little bit about the venue, Baku, and how that was chosen. Tell us about World Urban Forum 13.

[00:02:27] Anacláudia Rossbach: First of all, you mentioned it as being approved by the General Assembly, actually, of the United Nations in 2001, to be a mechanism to engage with stakeholders. It is the primary space that we have at UN-Habitat to liaise with the civil society, with the academia, with local and regional governments, and also even the private sector. This, in Baku, was the 13th edition, and it was record-breaking at many levels.

Perhaps the first is in terms of attendance. It took place at the Olympic Stadium in Baku, which also hosted COP29 back in 2024. We had 58,000 people on the ground with badges. With this number, I think it became the largest UN conference because it was even bigger than the COP. In terms of the broader context, what role it played in terms of really generating change on the ground, because this is what we want at the end of the day, this edition was very strategic because it happened just a couple of months before we meet in New York in July to review SDG 11 and to review the new urban agenda after 10 years.

The new urban agenda is our main document that guides our work. It was endorsed by member states in Quito, Ecuador, in 2016 at the Habitat III conference.

[00:03:53] Anthony Flint: Just let me interject to explain the SDG 11. That’s the Sustainable Development Goal.

[00:03:59] Anacláudia Rossbach: Yes, the sustainable development goals that frame what we call the 2030 agenda. As the name says, 2030 is just around the corner. We have literally four years until the end of this agenda. The United Nations committed to address these sustainable development goals that are related to several aspects of the world we live in, climate being one, but education, health, employment, gender, equality. The SDG 11 is the one that is dedicated to cities and communities. It has to do with housing, informal settlements, land consumption is one aspect, planning, participatory planning, basic services, urban mobility.

What we discussed at the World Urban Forum [is] informing us in this process of going to New York and the assessment of where we are, and to share with member states. The other piece is the new urban agenda that I mentioned before. We are looking at what happened in the last 10 years and what is going to happen in the next 10 years.

One critical aspect of the New Urban Agenda, when it was conceived, was housing. Housing was supposed to be at the center of the New Urban Agenda. Effectively, we are living a global housing crisis. This is why the World Urban Forum brought housing as central theme. Baku was a critical space for us to reflect, to have technical and political discussions on the progress of the new urban agenda, to bring all that to the meeting in New York in July.

[00:05:38] Anthony Flint: Now, I want to ask you more about housing. That was a big theme. I know it’s difficult to summarize, but the declaration on housing, tell us about that, and this re-emphasized focus on housing and basic shelter.

[00:05:53] Anacláudia Rossbach: The Baku call to action is a call to action, as the name says, by stakeholders only. There was no engagement by member states. Stakeholders met, the civil society, the CBOs, the CSOs, the academia, and so on, the different groups, youth, women, persons with disabilities, aging, indigenous. They all met there. The result of their conversations is the Baku call to action, which is a document that is also being brought to New York to inform member states. We need to deal with the housing crisis. It is global.

Informal settlements has been a prevalent form of living, but it is now almost a humanitarian issue because we are stagnated and we might be at the risk of expanding. We have to have a holistic view of the city. We have to go back to the new urban agenda, bring the principles of the new urban agenda of participatory governance, comprehensive urban planning, recognizing that land is fundamental, that land has a social and ecological function, but we need to make sure that people are at the center.

When saying people, it’s people having access to the basics, to water, to electricity, to waste management, integrated to the city, and a roof over their heads. These communities are the frontline, the frontline of climate change, but also human rights violations, evictions, and other forms of issues that are affecting people residing in the most vulnerable spaces in our cities.

[00:07:25] Anthony Flint: Housing is a big issue in the US; affordability, a big issue. It sounds like there’s a more fundamental question of how people can find safe shelter all around the world in these growing cities.

[00:07:40] Anacláudia Rossbach: It is a huge, huge task, and you’re right. Affordability became a global issue. What has been a prevalent feature of the Global South, always the gap between what people’s income and the cost of the house has been always really big. One of the reasons why we have the prevalence of informal settlements because people need to live somewhere, and if they cannot buy a house in the market, if the government doesn’t have money to provide the needed subsidies to cover this gap, they occupy.

Now, it’s an issue in North America. You mentioned the US. It’s an issue in Europe. In Europe, for example, for the first time, the European Union has a dedicated commissioner to housing. For the first time, they have a housing plan. I think the first time after the Marshall Plan, which was actually focused on housing, they have a housing plan for the continent because perhaps there is supply, but there is a mismatch of supply because people cannot access the units at the market, or there is a limitation of supply because the houses have been taken by, for example, tourists in some of the cities that are affected by high levels of tourism, or cities or countries that are attracting retired population, and things like that.

Bottom line, young people, families, they don’t have today the money to buy or to rent a house. In most of the countries, elderly, sometimes they cannot stay where they are, and so they lose their houses. These are all factors that are limiting affordability everywhere.

[00:09:10] Anthony Flint: We will share the declaration about housing in the show notes. I’d like to turn this question over to Enrique with a little commentary. Enrique, if you don’t mind, as a preamble, because you’ve been such a veteran of the World Urban Forum, we noticed that land and land policy is one of the three pillars in the current strategic plan, and we all want to learn more about that. Enrique, may I turn it over to you?

[00:09:37] Enrique Silva: Sure. Thanks so much. First, I want to say how much I’m enjoying, and I appreciate sharing the space with my friend and colleague, Anacláudia, and also to congratulate her and her colleagues for what was, as she noted, an outstanding forum a couple of weeks ago, by all measures. I also want to take a note on the World Urban Forum as a space. I think it’s understated, but the UN-Habitat in creating and offering the World Urban Forum creates probably the singular space for all of us that are interested, care about cities and human settlements to gather and to talk.

Without that space, it’s really hard to think about how we could create a community, even a multidisciplinary, multi-vision on what it means to take care of and advocate for cities. It’s great to see colleagues. It’s great to meet new colleagues and to share the accomplishments that we’re making, but also come together to understand what the challenges are. I also want to congratulate UN-Habitat and Anacláudia’s leadership for not just the forum, but what was behind the forum, as I understand it, is a strategic plan for UN-Habitat that also has housing in the center. That plan offers a systematic way to approach this huge task that we were just talking about.

That, in and of itself, is a contribution. Within that, and now to your question, one of the things that I appreciate and that is innovative about the focus on housing that UN-Habitat is proposing is that it really steps away from housing as pure shelter. It looks at the ecosystem behind housing. It looks at housing from a socioeconomic, cultural perspective. With regards to land, it acknowledges very clearly, and this is important, even though for us in the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, it’s our daily bread, but out in the world, outside of our offices, we do not connect enough the relationship between land, land use, land policy, and housing as shelter, housing as an economic asset, housing as a dignified vehicle for improving our socioeconomic mobility.

That is something that needs to be really celebrated. There’s a space. UN-Habitat, through its plan, through the forum, has given a structured space to understand all of the dimensions of land. In particular, and I think one of the things that we need to look at it in terms of a huge task, is clearly stating that a huge portion of the cost of housing, whether it’s a mansion or a shack, is land, the cost of land.

That forces us to look at what drives the cost of land and how the cost of land affects the availability of land for anyone to put a house on that piece of land. That, for us, is something very important. We are strong allies with UN-Habitat to keep on hammering that message, but also doing the research and demonstrating how the relationship works, and why we need to develop clear strategies, multiple-level strategies, to link the way that we administer and allocate land and how that affects what we could offer as housing.

I’m sure we’re going to talk about informal settlements, but that relationship between land policy, the quality of land, and the availability of land is at the root of the proliferation of informal settlements. My take, and I think the take of many colleagues, if that’s at the root of informal settlements, the solutions to informal settlements also have to go through addressing the role of land.

[00:12:59] Anthony Flint: Anacláudia, do you have anything to add on the matter of land?

[00:13:03] Anacláudia Rossbach: I think in that sense, this … was also unprecedented because we really were able to connect our strategic plan, which has a very sharp focus. It’s access to housing, to land, basic services, the transformation of informal settlements, to the whole structure of the discussion. Of course, we will help the people attending, our people, our staff, but all the partners that attended to come back home with more concrete ideas, insights, and inspiration, and ideas, all that, but concrete examples on how to go back and to implement.

Enrique is right. Land is at the core. The price of land has been impacting all these effects in the market that is generating pressure on affordability. We have to look at that, at the root causes. I’m glad we are partnering with Lincoln to do that. What are the actions? What are the land policies? What are the mechanisms that you can apply at the local level? What are the laws that you need at the national level to help us overcome this challenge?

Also, if we look from the climate lens, which is one of the areas of impact of our strategic plan, and spoiler alert, we are still finalizing our SDG 11 report, but we’re still growing more in territory than in population. Urban sprawl is still bigger than what perhaps we need. This has a strong impact in the environment, in terms of the natural ecosystems, the natural environment, in terms of the infrastructure needed when we sprawl, and the footprint in terms of emissions.

I think at the World Urban Forum, the Baku call to action, we were able to bring all these different perspectives, the economic perspectives of markets, how they’re working, not working, how it’s putting pressure on affordability, how housing is so important for the SDGs, for the socioeconomic challenge that we have, but also the climate perspective. Land is a central aspect of that.

[00:15:00] Anthony Flint: Just following up on land and housing and the issue of informal settlement, you mentioned that we’re still expanding in terms of land at a rate that is a little bit at odds with the actual population, but there’s this sort of spreading out of informal settlement. What is the current view on what to do about that to try to prevent it or curtail it or to work with it in situ that there are improvements that can be made to improve the quality of life in these expanding informal settlements?

[00:15:37] Anacláudia Rossbach: First of all, recognize that they are there because we are talking about 1 billion people. We are at the moment at a crossroad. We have been able to stabilize informality growth in certain regions. However, we have Africa and Southeast Asia receiving about 2 billion people in the next couple of decades, and Latin America also in a crossroads after COVID. In the Global South, we might be at risk of expanding informality if we don’t take action. This is the big picture.

Also, in the Global North, informality also popping up and being recognized. I saw that in Europe. You see vulnerable communities, you have refugees, you have overcrowding. The point is let’s take a picture and let’s recognize they are there, and then having active policies to address that. Understanding that they have been the only option these people found when they moved to a certain city, to a certain metropolitan area.

As I said, they wouldn’t have the money to go to the markets and to a real estate agent and buy a house. The governments wouldn’t have programs that would reach the whole of the population. They go, they find a job, they have aspirations, they go to cities, and they don’t have a place to live. They occupy environmentally protected areas. Sometimes they occupy public land that has been empty or even private land that has been empty.

This is what I mean in terms of recognizing the social function of the land. Many countries, especially in Latin America, they have embedded that in their national legislation. Embedding in the legal regulatory framework that we accept slums are there, informal settlements are there, and the people have the right to stay there and to access services.

Then, of course, from that, embedding in the city planning, from that, making sure that public investments flow into these areas and can generate transformation. Transformation in terms of looking at densities, opening up pathways, roads, looking at drainage solutions, but also looking at public spaces, at green coverage, access to social, to leisure, to cultural amenities, and make sure that these areas are connected up to the city. Embedding in urban planning, embedding in the national development strategies, these are all strategies that we recommend from UN-Habitat.

[00:18:04] Anthony Flint: Enrique, you’ve been tracking this incredibly vast issue of informal settlement for many years. Where do you see things stand at this moment in terms of what most people would say are slums, shantytowns, informal settlement?

[00:18:20] Enrique Silva: I’m glad we’re touching on this subject. It’s one of the things that I appreciated about coming to work at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, in particular, its program in Latin America, which, in many ways, was established a little over 30 years ago to understand the relationship between land policy, land markets, and the proliferation of informal settlements or slums, as some call it.

The argument that we’ve developed over that period is to stop looking at informality as merely an issue of poverty and household low income or resources, and to look at it as fundamentally a failure in local governments or local markets to provide land that is of a quality sufficient enough to sustain everyone’s household shelter needs with dignity. That failure manifests itself in governments for markets not investing in infrastructure, water, electricity, or preparing land that’s close to job markets.

Those are land policy issues and decisions that are both public, also market-driven. For us, land policy tries to intermediate public decisions with market decisions. There, our largest, biggest argument is if you want to prevent informal settlements, the sheltering of people in places that are not recognized by law, talk about climate change, are in place because they’re not recognized by law, in ecologically vulnerable or susceptible places. If you want to prevent those, invest in what we call servicing land, which is ensuring that either the public sector or the market conditions land so that people can have housing.

Do it enough, in the quantity enough, it makes the purchase of the land accessible to more income levels. That’s to prevent it. We still argue that the best way, and as Anacláudia was saying, we have a window of opportunity here to prevent additional informal settlement. A strategy for that—it’s not the only one—a strategy for that is to look at how we can allocate and create service land or offer service lands at an affordable price so that people can buy and settle them into it.

As Anacláudia rightfully says, we have to also, first and foremost, recognize what’s already there because of the failures of the past, and we need to address those. There is a land policy component to regularizing informal settlements. Those tend to be, though, costly, much more complicated because you’re dealing with people’s homes that are already established, communities that have built community and developed extremely healthy social, economic ties.

There are ways to do that. We offer land policy and land-based financing opportunities to finance the regularization of some of these informal settlements. For us, in terms of how to tackle the informal sector, informal housing, it’s everything above. All options are on the table. It’s not just preventative. You have to do both. It’s not just about paying for upgrading, but it’s also looking at the different models to secure tenure of the households there. If and when that land is improved upon, those improvements don’t displace them, which happens often.

[00:21:26] Anthony Flint: We are talking about such big issues, and I want to make the final question about a really big one, and my sympathies for both of you to synthesize this, but that is climate change, both mitigation and resilience efforts, and the issue of climate migration. Anacláudia, what came out of World Urban 13 on the climate front?

[00:21:52] Anacláudia Rossbach: Many things. We have a very strong body of research on climate change. To start with some good news, we launched a publication. We reviewed the Generation 3.0 of the indices, the National Determined Contributions, what we call the national climate implementation plans, let’s say so in a more simple language.

[00:22:13] Anthony Flint: This is each nation’s plan for dealing with climate change?

[00:22:17] Anacláudia Rossbach: Exactly. They have to provide, and there is a third generation now. We used AI to analyze this third generation of reports, and we identified that 80 percent of these reports, they have an urban content, and half of them with some elements around housing and or informal settlements. The importance and the role of cities, of urban climate action, of local action is important to address climate change.

What we discussed, in addition to that, is the role of housing in that space. Cities are responsible for 70 percent of the emissions, and if you look at the built environment, it’s 34 percent. If we look at the city, the majority of the buildings are housing. The way we address housing, the way we address the housing crisis, will have strong implications in terms of climate. Why? Two sides of the coin. Mitigation and adaptation.

Adaptation, we spoke about informal settlements already. These are the people building incrementally, low profile, without sophisticated heating, cooling systems, and so on, very climate-friendly. They’re not contributing much to emissions. However, they are the ones being affected most. They are on the front line. Fires, disasters, landslides, floodings, sea level rise, you name it, they are on the front. Addressing issues, addressing informal settlements, making them stronger, resilient, looking at drainage, looking at protecting them from everything that I’m talking about, improving their housing conditions so that they’re more resilient in terms of disasters, of climate events.

This is an important aspect of this intersection, urban development, cities, informal settlements, housing, and climate change. We have 3 billion people living in inadequate situation right now, 300 million homelessness. We spoke about displacement, 120 million. These are the big numbers that we have. People displaced by conflicts, by climate change, and so on. This is happening as we speak. People are losing their houses. In that sense, housing, if we have to address the needs, we have to, A, either recycle existing buildings or build new ones. Recycling opportunities in the Americas, you’ll find some. In Europe, you’ll find some.

Where urbanization is really happening, in Africa and Southeast Asia, we still need to build because you just don’t have buildings to be recycled. The decisions that we take on how, where, and to whom we build will have an impact because if we don’t focus the upcoming buildings, if we don’t connect to the needs, we might exacerbate a mismatch of supply and demands and have unnecessary emissions.

If we look at location, if we keep up with the urban sprawl, we are, as I said, affecting the natural environments, biodiversity, the natural ecosystems, water. Look at metropolitan areas that are facing drought: Cape Town, Santiago, Bogota. The needs for infrastructure will imply more emissions. People move from place to place. This has impact in terms of air quality, in terms of emissions, et cetera. We have to look at location and we have to look at materials and the form and the design of all that.

Here is the intersection of how future urban development will take place, how we are going to transform the existing cities, the existing built environments, especially in the Global North, and how we are going to work with this upcoming needs in the Global South, especially in the areas that are highly urbanized. How we build our houses, how we transform our built environment, how we address informal settlements will have a direct relation in terms of climate. It’s very interesting that we are talking about that today, Anthony, because as we speak, we are here in Nairobi at a conference meeting the IPCC Cities Report authors.

For the first time, we’re going to have an IPCC Cities Report focus on cities. We have been discussing within these days the role that housing plays. In all conversations that we are having here, we all understand housing is a critical aspect. If we don’t deal with that right, we’ll not be able to achieve the 1.5 or above targets.

[00:26:46] Anthony Flint: Looking ahead, there’s going to be another World Urban Forum, the World Urban Forum 14, as I understand it, in Mexico City in 2028. Anacláudia, a brief look ahead to that gathering.

[00:26:59] Anacláudia Rossbach: First of all, I hope to meet you all in Mexico City in 2028. It will be a critical moment because we are going to follow up on the Baku call to action … housing, land, human rights, all is there. The WUF14 will be used as a moment to reflect what happened and to see how action is really taking place and being implemented. We hope also to have strong mobilization towards WUF14. In this last WUF, we had many innovations. We had a practices hub. We had the WUF Academia.

We are organizing the practices, the different segments into more structured coalitions, communities of practice, way of work. We hope to come stronger as a global, let’s say, coalition in Mexico City, have more allies, bring, because it’s in Latin America, the perspective from the Americas, and experiences from the Americas. Also, we brought in Baku for the first time, very strong, the private sector. This is one segment that needs to be part of the conversation. We hope to elevate that in Mexico City.

[00:28:14] Anthony Flint: Anacláudia Rossbach, Executive Director of UN-Habitat. Enrique Silva, Chief Program Officer at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. Thank you so much for joining the conversation at Land Matters.

[00:28:28] Anacláudia Rossbach: Thank you so much. It was a big pleasure to be with my former colleagues, but forever friends. Lincoln is a key stakeholder. We hope to keep our partnership very strong and towards Mexico.

[00:28:39] Enrique Silva: Rest assured, it’s very strong, and it can keep on getting strong. Wonderful to be here. Thank you.

[00:28:44] Anthony Flint: We have extensive research on global urbanization, informal settlement, climate resilience, all of the big issues facing global cities. Just check out our website. It’s lincolninst.edu. On social media, our handle is @landpolicy. I hope you’ll go ahead and rate, share, and subscribe to Land Matters, the podcast of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. For now, I’m Anthony Flint signing off. Until next time.

[00:29:22] [END OF AUDIO]

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