Housing for Freedom Territorial Pact for the 21st Century Towards a UN Resolution on the Metropolitan Right to Housing

The global housing crisis has become a systemic challenge, undermining cities and territories capacity to ensure safe, equitable, and resilient living conditions. In the twenty first century this crisis requires a clear coordinated plan of action as it is particularly acute in metropolitan areas where rapid urban growth, climate change, urban informality poverty, inequality and unequal access to services converge and create affordability and access deficits. The discussion opens with a comparative critical analysis of partner solutions, approaches, practices, and key documents, including metropolitan solutions, metropolitan declarations, related frameworks, and the UN Habitat Strategic Plan 2026 2029, to assess convergences, gaps, and opportunities for integration at the metropolitan scale. Urban informality is a core dimension of the global housing crisis as informal settlements face climate risk while lacking secure tenure infrastructure and social protection. Addressing informality requires integrated rights based and climate sensitive strategies linking poverty reduction equity and progressive formalisation within broader housing and urban policy frameworks. The Side Event frames housing and shelter as essential metropolitan infrastructure for dignity inclusion and resilience. Housing outcomes depend on interconnected metropolitan systems including mobility, water, energy, services, employment and care and therefore require effective metropolitan and multilevel governance. The session examines mother cities and their networks of intermediate and small municipalities as well as island cities operating as single functional systems to advance integrated policy responses linking housing climate resilience and sustainable development. The event launches the Metropolitan Housing Manifesto, developed by the POLIMI MetroHUB Centre and partners, and refines it through expert input, city experience, and participatory working groups, as a basis for a future United Nations Resolution proposal. Structure: ninety minutes of opening statements, metropolitan keynote, international panel, participatory working groups, collective drafting, and call to action.