Displaced people often struggle to find affordable and dignified housing in cities, relying on the informal market. This is also true in Bogotá and Beirut, which host large numbers of displaced persons. This project explores and compares the housing challenges faced by displaced persons in the two cities to improve their housing situation and the overall humanitarian housing response.
Bogotá, early morning – Maria grabs her children’s backpacks. Her cousin folds the last blanket. Outside, the landlord waits with two men, arms crossed. Maria knows them – not by name, but by reputation. She opens the door.
The eviction is swift. No court order. No warning. Just a consequence of hosting her cousin and partner, newly arrived from Venezuela, in her one-bedroom apartment. Now five people stand on the street with nowhere to go.
New Perspectives on Housing for Displaced Persons
This isn’t Maria’s first eviction. Her journey began three years ago when she fled Venezuela with her children, escaping economic collapse, empty supermarkets, and a ruined healthcare system. Her experience mirrors that of 600,000 Venezuelan refugees struggling to find stability and a home in Bogotá, Colombia, with cascading effects on health, social integration, and gender equality. Similar struggles by displaced persons to secure housing can be found in cities across the globe, such as in Beirut, Lebanon, which has been hosting refugees from neighbouring Syria for over a decade.
Responding to the housing needs of displaced people, especially in urban settings, remains thus one of the biggest challenges for humanitarian organisations and related actors. These challenges drive the cooperative project (2023-2026) between the Spatial Development and Urban Policy (SPUR) research group at ETH Zurich, the Beirut Urban Lab at the American University of Beirut, and the Instituto Pensar at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá. Funded by the SNSF Spirit Grant, the comparative project seeks new perspectives on housing for displaced persons in Bogotá and Beirut, aiming to improve humanitarian responses and strengthen the well-being and agency of those affected.
Key Takeaways at this Stage of the Project
- In both cities, housing financialization excludes refugees from secure, affordable homes. With state provision absent and humanitarian responses shrinking, refugees navigate informal rental markets marked by precarity and exploitation.
- In this regulatory vacuum, new actors—from real estate developers to criminal gangs —fill the gap, often driven by profit.
- Displaced communities act as social anchors, facilitating access, mediating relationships, and sustaining housing stability as critical support. Their authority, rooted in kinship and local ties, is limited by legal precarity and scarce resources.
- NGOs and humanitarian organisations still play a crucial role. While “cash-for-rent” programs offer short-term relief, they risk reinforcing market logics that deepen housing insecurity.
Understanding these dynamics is vital for designing housing policies that protect displaced communities. See updates here.
Prof. Dr. David Kaufmann is the Assistant Professor of Spatial Development and Urban Policy (SPUR) at ETH Zürich. He serves as the Deputy Director of the Institute for Spatial and Landscape Development (IRL) and was Director of the Network City and Landscape (NSL) (both at ETH Zürich). He is an urban studies scholar with an interest in planning, policy, and migration studies. His research motivation is to understand and contribute to sustainable, democratic, and just urban development through policy-making and planning.
Dr. David Kostenwein is an urban researcher with a PhD from the Institute of Science, Technology and Policy (ISTP) at ETH Zürich. At SPUR, he coordinates the Humanitarian Planning Hub, working closely with practitioners and INGOs and creating policy relevant research in the field of sustainable emergency housing and planning.
Bruna Rohling is a doctoral candidate at the Spatial Development and Urban Policy (SPUR) research group and is currently a visiting researcher at the American University of Beirut (Autumn 2025). Trained as an urban planner, she researches the urban humanitarian governance of displaced populations in times of polycrisis, focusing on Beirut, Lebanon.
Beirut Urban Lab (BUL), American University of Beirut
Instituto de estudios sociales y culturales Pensar, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana
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