Rooftops Canada is one of the pioneers in identifying and responding to the critical link between housing and HIV and AIDS. Rooftops Canada-supported programs in South Africa,Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Kenya, Cameroon, Uganda and Indiaas well as its African regionaland international networking efforts all put HIV and AIDS on the housing and human settlements agenda.
HIV and AIDS is an urgent issue, especially for women and children living in urban slums. Overcrowding, tenure insecurity, poor housing conditions and inadequate water and sanitation intensify the impact of HIV and AIDS.
Leadership and skills in community and cooperative housing groups are being eroded due to AIDS-related deaths. Forced eviction – sometimes linked to stigma – violates people’s dignity and threatens safety, while disrupting medical regimes, and access to nutrition and home-based care. When family members die, survivors and orphans often lose their homes because they cannot afford housing payments or because of sexist inheritance practices. Children, especially girls, drop out of school to care for parents and when the parents die, the children often end up on city streets.
Since 2003, Rooftops Canada has been working to integrate HIV and AIDS issues into para-legal training on women’s rights to tenure and inheritance. Rooftops Canada partners are encouraging the use of wills to ensure that widows and children receive their entitled housing inheritances. Other responses include insurance to cover housing loan repayments and youth leadership training. Urban agriculture is also being promoted for better nutrition, food security and income generation among affected households.
Canadian AIDS Service Organizations and housing co-ops have made important contributions through their participation in study and exchange visits sharing their experiences providing housing/support services for people living with HIV and AIDS.
Rooftops Canada supports a growing global network focused on housing as a crucial element in the response to HIV and AIDS. Together with the União de Movimento de Moradia em Alagoas (UMM, Brazil), National AIDS Housing Coalition (USA), Red Habitat (Bolivia) and CONGEH (Cameroon) Rooftops Canada hosted a networking event at the WUF 5, held in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. Brazil is credited with one of the most successful national responses to HIV and AIDS and is home to one of the largest social movements around popular housing. The event expanded the network into Latin America and opened up new possibilities for collaboration.
Over 170 people from 46 countries have attended our networking and capacity building events - the World Urban Forums in North America (WUF 3, 2006 in Vancouver, Canada), Asia (WUF4, 2008 inNanjing, China) and Latin America (WUF5, 2010 in Rio DeJaneiro, Brazil), the World Social Forum (2007) and the 2008 Regional Worksop on HIV, AIDS and Housingboth held in Nairobi, Kenya.
Rooftops Canada is pleased to announce a new fact sheet on Housing, HIV and AIDS developed together with the Interagency Coalition on AIDS and Development (ICAD). This and other information resources are available for download.
