A/HRC/37/53 that constitutional and legislative protections of the right to housing may not always be sufficient.12 B. Principle 2: prioritize those most in need and ensure equality 29. The right to equality and non-discrimination must be protected in all aspects of housing strategies. Guaranteeing these rights and ensuring effective remedies are immediate obligations. 30. Strategies must assess which communities and populations are in most desperate need or living in the most hazardous conditions and address their circumstances in a human rights compliant manner.13 31. The needs of communities in areas prone to disaster and flooding, such as along river banks and waterfronts, must be prioritized. States must ensure that disaster prevention development plans, such as the building of embankments or flood channels, do not unnecessarily uproot communities and households. “Peoples plans” for relocation and strategies for protection against disasters should be given priority. 32. Strategies must ensure that communities have the resources and technical capacity to build housing that can withstand extreme weather events, earthquakes and other disasters, drawing on local and indigenous expertise and capacities where possible. 33. Strategies must prevent housing systems themselves from sustaining and increasing socioeconomic inequality and exclusion. They must recognize and address the close association between laws and government policies that position housing as a commodity, and the unaffordability of housing for those in the lowest income brackets, leading to growing homelessness and displacement and increased concentration of wealth. 34. For housing strategies to be effective, they must address not only housing need, but also the structural causes underlying the need. “Housing first” programmes, for example, may reduce homelessness among persons with disabilities, but they need to be supplemented by adequate social protection programmes, barrier-free design, access to affordable housing options and measures to ensure that persons with disabilities are reasonably accommodated by housing providers. 35. The right to equality must be understood substantively. This means much more than ensuring equal access to existing housing. It requires positive measures to undo the effects of discrimination and exclusion. States should refer to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights general comments No. 16 (2005) on the equal right of men and women to the enjoyment of all economic, social and cultural rights and No. 20 (2009) on nondiscrimination in economic, social and cultural rights, to ensure that strategies are consistent with substantive equality and its application. 36. Housing strategies should identify groups that suffer housing disadvantages and should address the particular barriers they face. These groups include: women; persons with disabilities; people living in poverty; migrants; racial and ethnic minorities; indigenous peoples; youth; older persons; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons; and people who are homeless or living in informal settlements. They should ensure that legal protections from discrimination are effectively enforced in the housing sector and that housing status — including homelessness — and social and economic situation are recognized as prohibited grounds of discrimination. 14 37. Women’s equal right to housing must be ensured in all aspects of housing strategies. This includes addressing women’s distinct housing experiences, including discrimination with respect to land, property and inheritance, violence against women and the 12 13 14 See for example www.justempower.org; and https://scotland.shelter.org.uk/get_involved/campaigning/homelessness_far_from_fixed. E/C.12/2007/1, paras. 4, 8 (f) and 13(b). See general comment No. 20. 7