The subjective right to housing

Abstract

Consideration of the factors that determine the configuration of the right to housing as an enforceable right. First, it is discussed whether the right to housing may amount to a guiding principle of public policy. It is noted that its normative value does not compensate for the shortfalls arising from the ambiguity of its content. The legal basis for a judicially enforceable right to housing is subsequently analysed in the Spanish Constitution, in certain Statutes of autonomy, in the basic Law, and in the legislation of the Autonomous regions. Then the main manifestations of the right to housing are explained – the right to access to housing, and the rights to a housing market, to conservation of the housing and finally to quality of the housing–, assessing the contents and deficiencies of each of them in terms of comparative law. This leads to two conclusions: first, the need that the State establishes the basic legal framework that would ensure the effective enforceability of the right to housing; second, and concurrently, the need for judges and courts to apply the legal framework in order to develop the concrete faculties that form part of the right to housing, and that may be claimed by particulars.