United Nations will debate Housing in the United States

The UN Human Rights Human Rights Council is investigating why hundreds of thousands - maybe millions - of U.S. residents suffer the life sentence in the streets following the housing crisis which worsened last year.

The Geneva-based UN body sent its Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing, Raquel Rolnik, an expert in urban planning from the University of Sao Paulo Brazil, to discuss the situation in the North American country.

Last month, Rolnik toured U.S. cities, and is expected to report shortly to the General Assembly of the United Nations in the New York headquarters.

"Housing is a human right," he told reporters. "For people, ensuring that governments guarantee it represents a constant struggle."

In New York, considered the financial capital of the UN, more than 40,000 people have been left without a safe place to sleep. More than 130,000, most of them black or Latino community, face various problems of housing in this city, according to official figures.

The phenomenon of homelessness is increasing in major U.S. urban centers, not only because of unemployment and economic crisis but also by the lack of a strong public policy on housing.

The Conference of U.S. Mayors reported last December on a rise in homelessness in 19 of the 25 cities examined by their experts between October 2007 and July 2008.