ABSTRACT
In developing countries, it is impossible to separate homelessness from the context of housing supply policy as there is a severe shortage of accommodation for lowincome households. This is in contrast to most industrialised countries where housing shortage and supply failure are not major contributors to homelessness. Edgar et al. (2002), however, note that, although European countries have no overall housing shortage, in some regions the operation of both private and public sectors leads to effective shortages for more vulnerable people. In this chapter, we deal with the international policy context within which governments work to formulate their priorities for housing policy and practice and how they impact on homelessness. Shortages in housing supply are universal in the nine countries in the CARDO study and elsewhere. For example, India lacked nearly 19 million dwellings in 2002 (Government of India, 1996). We will focus on the shortages and their national policy backgrounds in detail in Chapter 3.
