A/HRC/43/45 decades of debt repayment for debtors.57 It has been reported that the most vulnerable groups struggle to pay their debts, and those attending technical and private university were specifically affected.58 D. Housing and utilities debt 49. Housing financialization, predatory lending and unpayable household mortgage debt, at the root of the 2008 financial crisis, illustrate the links between household debt and the deregulation of financial markets, to the detriment of people, with devastating consequences in terms of thousands of foreclosures, widespread cases of eviction, displacement and homelessness, across countries in the North and increasingly also in the global South. In 2012, the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living and on the right to non-discrimination in this context raised the alarm about predatory lending practices targeting the poor and more marginalized, forcing them into a debt trap as the sole alternative to have access to housing, with States in some cases facilitating the process or in others ignoring the risks to people and the economy at large (see A/67/286). 50. In 2017, the Special Rapporteur on housing also noted that the financialization of housing was linked to expanded credit and debt taken on by individual households made vulnerable to predatory lending practices and the volatility of markets, the result of which was unprecedented housing “precarity”. She summarized: “Not only had people lost their homes but they faced personal financial ruin”.59 51. Since housing is the entry point to the exercise of numerous human rights, such as education, work or health, people often place expenditure on rentals, mortgages or utilities at the top of their family priorities, often to their peril. This directly contradicts the authoritative interpretation of affordability for the right to housing made by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in its general comment No. 4 (1992), in which it clarified that personal or household financial costs associated with housing should be at such a level that the attainment and satisfaction of other basic needs are not threatened or compromised. The Committee added that States parties should establish housing subsidies for those unable to obtain affordable housing, as well as forms and levels of housing finance, which adequately reflect housing needs. It is essential to note that discrimination on various bases, such as sexual orientation, by public and private landlords as well as credit providers has an important impact, with, for example, leases and mortgages applications being denied to members of the LGBTI community as a result.60 52. Mortgages taken on in a foreign currency, sometimes to the detriment of the debtors or of refinancing “opportunities”, for those already struggling to secure payments – both of which are often aggressively promoted by lenders – are also of specific concern.61 Changes in the housing market can have dire consequences for debtors. In Norway, the expansion of the housing market played a role in household indebtedness between 1997 and 2017. 62 Furthermore, the role of vulture funds acquiring lenders’ debts and sometimes debtors’ homes in addition to enjoying advantageous tax conditions should not be left out of the right to adequate housing equation.63 53. In 20 years, 20 million people have moved to the peri-urban areas in Mexico, to areas without a sufficient water supply or infrastructure provided to the poor, while the construction 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 12 Submission by the Committee for the Abolition of Third World Debt. See Macarena Segovia, “Las cifras negras del CAE: 40% de los estudiantes desertores o egresados se encuentran morosos”, El Mostrador, 28 May 2018. A/HRC/34/51, paras. 5 and 21. Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, general comment No. 20 (2009) on nondiscrimination in economic, social and cultural rights, para.11. See also A/74/18, para. 14 and A/HRC/29/23, para. 69. See submissions by the Open Society Justice Initiative et al. Romania and Ireland. Economist Intelligence Unit, “Household debt poses risk to private consumption”, 30 July 2019. Submission by the Open Society Justice Initiative et al.