More than a Just a Roof Over My Head: Housing for people living with HIV/AIDS, 2010.
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Sponsored by the Ford Foundation and compiled by the National AIDS Housing Coalition (NAHC), this document examines the relationship between HIV/AIDS and housing instability in various communities, cities, and nations across the globe. The majority of the text was provided by advocates working on the ground in their communities and affiliated with the National AIDS Housing Coalition through the International AIDS Housing Roundtable; their organizations are cited and their testimonies were supplemented by data and information from UNAIDS, UN-Habitat, as well as other institutions and peer-reviewed articles. Names are withheld from personal testimony to protect confidentiality.
The purpose of this document is to examine the relationship between HIV/AIDS and housing instability. Adequate housing is a human right and a necessary foundation to fulfill other rights and to enjoy a decent quality of life. While poverty is linked to poorer health outcomes and creates an environment of risk across the globe, HIV infection is prevalent among all socioeconomic classes, and HIV/AIDS exacerbates poverty and inequalities across the board.
HIV prevalence in urban areas is 1.7 times the prevalence in rural areas, while HIV is most prevalent in the poorest region of the world: sub-Saharan Africa, where HIV/AIDS is most experienced in rural areas and where access to information and health services is limited.
Approximately 3.49 billion people (50.6% of the world’s population) live in urban areas; one third of these residents are poor, while almost a quarter (827.6 million people) live in slums. In sub-Saharan Africa, 61.7% of the urban population lives in slums, followed by South-Eastern Asia (31%), Latin America and the Caribbean (23.5%), and North Africa (13.3%). Slums are characterized by poor sanitation and hygiene, unsafe water supply, malnutrition, insecure land tenure, and lack of access to basic health, transportation, and other public services. These conditions increase the risk of HIV infection and poor health outcomes related to AIDS-related
complications and mortality.
