A new global study from non-governmental organization Habitat for Humanity has exposed the crippling impact of unaffordable housing across Latin America and the Caribbean, revealing that 75 percent of people in the region are forced to slash essential spending, dip into life savings, or take on extra work to cover their housing-related expenses.
Titled *A Home, but at what cost?*, the research paints a grim picture of systemic barriers to safe, affordable housing in the region, layered on top of deep structural challenges that include widespread informal employment, a persistent qualitative housing deficit, and systemic obstacles to accessing affordable mortgage or rental financing. The full global iteration of the study draws on survey responses from more than 30,000 people across 22 nations, tracking how households adjust their budgets to accommodate rising housing costs. Its regional findings show that one in three respondents have cut back on food spending to pay for housing, nearly a third have drained savings or emergency funds to cover costs, and 13 percent have postponed or skipped necessary medical care entirely to meet rent or mortgage payments.
Unlike many higher-income regions, the housing crisis in Latin America and the Caribbean is rooted in long-standing structural deficits that exacerbate affordability pressures. Ernesto Castro, Area Vice President for Habitat for Humanity in Latin America and the Caribbean, explained in an interview with EFE that more than 40 percent of the region’s population is impacted by inadequate housing conditions. Around 120 million people currently reside in unplanned informal settlements, and more than 78 percent of the region’s working population holds informal jobs, which do not qualify them for formal housing financing. This creates a cycle of double exclusion, Castro noted: low-income households lack the upfront resources to purchase or even rent formal housing, and their informal employment status blocks them from accessing the loans that would help them secure stable accommodation.
The financial pressure of sky-high housing costs is not just a day-to-day burden—it is reshaping major long-term life decisions for millions of people across the region. The study found that 56 percent of regional respondents say housing costs make it impossible for them to seriously consider starting a family, a share that jumps to 62 percent among Gen Z and millennial respondents, who are already facing broader economic instability in the post-pandemic era.
Castro added that the region’s housing deficit is primarily a qualitative one, meaning millions of households have some form of shelter but it lacks basic infrastructure, is built from substandard materials, or fails to meet basic safety standards. Beyond the core affordability crisis, four additional gaps worsen outcomes: poor urban location that separates households from work and services, high vulnerability to climate-linked disasters, and weak institutional frameworks that fail to regulate housing markets or expand access to affordable units.
With more than 80 percent of the region’s population now living in urban or peri-urban areas, rising housing costs in city centers have pushed low- and middle-income families to settle on the far peripheries of metropolitan areas. This relocation adds extra financial and time burdens, as families face longer commutes to work and higher transportation costs that eat further into already stretched budgets. The region is also disproportionately exposed to climate disasters: between 2000 and 2022, extreme weather events impacted roughly 190 million people across Latin America and the Caribbean, destroying thousands of unregulated, substandard informal homes every year.
Regional survey data collected across six countries—Argentina, Barbados, Brazil, Guatemala, Mexico, and Trinidad and Tobago—reinforces these safety concerns: 74 percent of respondents agreed that a large share of the regional population lives in structurally unsafe buildings, and 18 percent reported their own homes do not adequately protect them from extreme temperatures or flooding.
Castro argues that a large part of the ongoing crisis stems from flawed public policy design. Current housing subsidy frameworks often set strict income eligibility thresholds that leave a large gap: many households earn too much to qualify for public housing subsidies, but still do not have enough steady income to qualify for formal private sector housing loans. To address this gap, Castro is calling for policymakers to revise eligibility criteria, allowing households to qualify for support regardless of whether their income comes from formal or informal employment, a change that would open up affordable housing access to millions of currently excluded working families.