A/HRC/10/7 page 13 33. In Latin America, public housing construction was hit by severe cuts in State spending. For instance, between 1990 and 2000, the housing deficit in the region increased from 38 to 52 millions of housing units, partly explained by the decrease of public expenditure in social housing in a number of countries in the region. For instance, in Brazil, public housing and sanitation expenditure represented 4.4 per cent of the total public expenditure in 1990, whereas it decreased to 0.8 per cent in 2001. Similarly, in Paraguay, public investment in housing and sanitation decreased from 5.6 to 1 per cent of total public expenditure in the same period, while in the Dominican Republic expenditure was reduced by 75 per cent, decreasing from 13.6 to 3.4 per cent of total public expenditure.40 34. There is a clear link between the rise in housing prices - and resulting affordability problems - and the demand for public and affordable housing. Through his country visits, the previous Special Rapporteur observed the reduction of public housing stocks and its impact on the most vulnerable sections of the population. The constant reduction of public housing has resulted in long waiting lists, keeping a large number of people in inadequate housing conditions or impacting their expenditures in other areas, such as food, clothing and health. C. Homeownership as the sole objective and the impact on other housing options 35. The transfer of responsibility for provision of housing to the market has been accompanied by the view that homeownership was the best option for all. Thus, this form of tenure was put at the centre of all housing policies by most countries. While this aim has provided good results for a part of the population, it has also had negative side effects. 36. Public housing was seen as an integral part of the culture of welfare dependency as well as representing the worst problems of modern urban design.41 Public housing is nowadays essentially understood as housing for the poor and the so-called marginal groups. This perception has implications for policy programming and government housing options, as well as for social attitudes towards public housing. 37. In some countries, selling publicly owned houses to the tenants has been seen as a way to increase homeownership while diminishing State expenditure, especially in terms of maintenance. The privatization of public housing has taken various forms, including the sale of public rented housing through right-to-buy policies to sitting tenants (as in the United Kingdom), property transfers to not-for-profit actors (as in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom) and in some cases to profit-maximizing actors (as in Germany).42 38. Larger-scale privatization of public housing has also taken place in countries in transition from planned to market economies. According to the World Bank, in transition countries, a considerable amount of residential property - perhaps as much as $1 trillion worth - changed 40 See footnote 35 above. 41 See footnote 26 above. 42 See footnote 33 above, p. 23.