María Nieves Pacheco Jiménez, Lorena Sales Pallarés
The global economic crisis is affecting all countries equally, but some are more equipped than others to deal with its impact. In countries where there has been a policy of public housing, there is a higher level of resilience. The data show a rise in the insecurity of tenure: according to Eurostat, 17% of the EU population, i.e., about 85 million people are ill-housed, of which about 3 million are homeless. Thirty-eight per cent of people at risk of poverty spend a very large share (i.e., more than 40%) of their disposable income on housing – compared to 19% of the overall population (Eurostat 2010). This is evidenced by the increase in the number of slums since the crisis, which are more visible and often are located on brownfield sites, where the speculators want to make money through redevelopment. Housing, law and especially its lack of it, today present one of the outstanding issues to which the States have to face.