When home becomes the frontline

AS countries gathered in the Azerbaijani working capital capital of azerbaijan for the domain Urban assembly (WUF), discussions on the world-wide housing crisis were shaped by stark contrasts between development-focused solutions and the lived realities of war-affected nations, as representatives from conflict-hit regions highlighted large-scale displacement, destruction of housing, and urgent humanitarian challenges, underscoring that reconstruction efforts remain far from adequate amid funding gaps and ongoing conflicts.“Resilience begins with the right to stay,” read the slogan painted on the Palestinian pavilion at the Urban Expo of the 13th edition of the WUF, where 66 countries showcased their housing experiences and innovations.At the Minab-168 booth tucked away in another lane of the sprawling Urban Expo, school bags on display bore in memory the 168 victims, including 138 students, of the bombing of Iran’s Shajareh Tayyebeh primary school this February. Shajareh Tayyebeh, their information booklet explained, means “rooted tree, alive and growing.”The Ukrainians at their pavilion announced their resolve to rebuild the “future at home” with the model of a residential structure destroyed in bombing and a restored version alongside. Also on display was a symbolic installation of an underground school to protect their children from bombardment, and, thoughtfully, a playground above it for the days when the sky is clear.This existential crisis found echoes in terms such as “domicide” and “urbicide” — deliberate destruction of homes or city spaces, leading to the loss of memories and identity — used in the UN-Habitat flagship World Cities report released at the forum.In panel discussions, experts weighed in on some fundamental questions: Why is housing not the primary response in a crisis, even as protracted military conflicts are flaring on such an unprecedented scale? What does it take to rebuild at that scale and speed?Living among the ruinsIt’s very hard, said Ohood Enaia, programme and policy manager at the Association of Palestinian Local Authorities. With heavy bombing in Gaza, there is a lot of rubble — by some estimates, 39 million tonnes — and dead bodies buried under it.By early 2026, almost the entire population were internally displaced people, many of them multiple times, said the World Cities report, with an estimated 83% of structures damaged or destroyed.Municipalities such as Khan Younis, which have not been completely destroyed, are taking in people at five times their capacity. The official landfill is behind the no-go yellow line, so municipal waste is disposed of very close to where people live. There is a rodent problem, and skin diseases are common, said Enaia.Some areas have less than 5% of their water system capacity. As much as 70% of wastewater systems are destroyed. With no reserves and revenue coming in, there is a 42% reduction in municipal staff.Electricity and fuel have long been scarce due to the 17-year-long blockade, so they have been using solar energy to charge their phones and pump water from wells. Now, there is no fuel to run the few garbage trucks available. Municipalities use donkeys to move the waste from one place to another, she said.American President Donald Trump’s post-war “Las Vegas-like plan” for Gaza, said Enaia, “has no connection to the culture, the history, the memories people of Gaza have of home.” After the Israel-Hamas ceasefire in October 2025, the next step was to open the border to the import of construction materials for aid. Unfortunately, because of the Iran problem, everything seems to be on hold now, she said.In Iran, the new conflict temporarily displaced up to 3.2 million Iranians by March 2026, according to the World Cities report. Iran’s ambassador to Azerbaijan, Mojtaba Demirchilou, said that more than 100,000 homes were damaged, some completely destroyed. “Rebuilding requires substantial time and budget, and until then, the government is providing interim support,” he said.Since 2022, war has displaced about 3.8 million people in Ukraine, leaving 2.5 million families without adequate shelter, the UN report stated. Damage from drones, bombs and missiles has made front-line towns and villages uninhabitable.For Syria, it’s a “double burden” of 13-plus years of conflict (the civil war that started in 2011) and accelerating climate change that destroyed 31% of its housing stock, said Felicity Cain, deputy country director, UN-Habitat, Syria, in her presentation at a session on resilient Arab cities. The 2023 earthquake only added to the piling damage.No funds to rebuildRebuilding takes money. But there is a major mismatch between humanitarian and development funding, pointed out Anacláudia Rossbach, executive director of UN-Habitat. The majority of development funds come from development banks, she said, but within these banks’ portfolios, housing is a small component.For example, the UN, European Union and the World Bank have estimated the total cost of rebuilding Gaza at over $70bn over a decade. But international donations are not coming through.The Guardian reported on May 20 that, from the $7 billion pledged by nine countries (and an additional $10 billion promised by Trump) for “Gaza relief” at the first meeting of the Trump-chaired Board of Peace, only the United Arab Emirates and Morocco have sent funds. On May 26, a Financial Times report stated that four months on, the board’s fund set up by the World Bank has received no money.“We hear grand pledges in Davos and Geneva, but in Gaza, families are still living among rubble with no water and no roof. Donors say they are waiting for political progress, but our children cannot wait. The money is pledged, yet we see none of it. That is not diplomacy. That is abandonment,” said Enaia.Shelter versus homeIt is the gaps between displaced people’s needs and agencies’ readiness to implement such plans that Sultan Barakat, a professor of Public Policy at Qatar Foundation’s Hamad Bin Khalifa University, cautioned about.“A displaced family is likely to start thinking about reconstruction from the second day of displacement. So, at the beginning, just soft interventions focused on people’s ability to organise, to maintain their energy, not to be marginalised would put them in a position to move forward,” he said at a session.Even establishing property rights requires documents that are often destroyed or lost during these crises. Issues such as slow procedures complicate the resolution of property disputes, as seen in Syria. In Palestine, access to legal aid is limited, while Lebanon faces complex legal frameworks that can result in evictions, said Lubna Shaheen from the UN-Habitat’s Palestine Country Office in her presentation at the forum.A year after Russia’s full-scale invasion, the Ukrainian parliament passed a law in February 2023 on compensation for destroyed property. So far, over 196,000 families have received relief.Reconstruction is not just about brick and mortar structures; it is fundamentally about rebuilding homes and lives of people. Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city located close to the Russian border, has launched a pilot to reconstruct in accordance with its new master plan. As 75% of city residents own the homes they live in, the plan takes their needs into account. Feedback from 16,000 citizens has been incorporated, the document states.