Situation analysis and context
Overview
Rapid urban expansion since 1990 means that 88.4 per cent of the overall population in Lebanon now lives in urban areas.i Access to basic services and affordable housing has been limited and poverty rates, already high before the Syria crisis, have worsened.
Sixty-six per cent of displaced Syrians live in residential buildings, while 15 per cent reside in non-residential buildings,1,2 many in and around the main cities of Tyre, Saida, Tripoli3 and Beirut. The remaining 19 per cent of the displaced Syrian population reside in ad-hoc nonpermanent structures4 within informal settlements, largely in governorates bordering Syria. Amongst Palestinian refugees from Syria, 46 per cent are hosted in the 12 official Palestinian refugee camps, which also accommodate 45 per cent of Palestinian refugees from Lebanon. The remaining Palestinian refugees from Lebanon and Syria live in areas adjacent to camps or in other locations.
In major cities across the country, vulnerable host and displaced communities live together in dense urban neighbourhoods. Information on the housing situation of vulnerable Lebanese remains a gap. Data from the National Poverty Targeting Programme (NPTP) is one of the few statistical sources that can be used to assess their living conditions. Neighbourhood profiles that are conducted by UN-Habitat and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) also help flag the nature and extent of shelter issues in poor and dense areas.
Rising economic vulnerability including debt accumulation has forced 55 per cent of the displaced Syrian population to reside in inadequate5 shelter conditions. In 2018, the percentage of displaced Syrians residing in overcrowded shelters with less than 4.5 square metres6 per person was 34 per cent.ii In the Palestinian camps, the majority of shelters are unplanned, at risk of collapse and offer unhygienic conditions due to factors including leaks and inappropriate materials for construction.iii
In the Lebanese residential property market, there is a shortage of adequate housing supply that is within the budget of the population, is of acceptable physical standards (including structural soundness) and provides security of tenure. The suspension of the Government’s Public Housing Corporation’s7 activities in February 2018, which provided housing loans to some lower-income Lebanese, has likely exacerbated the supply-demand mismatch.