The first UN Conference on Human Settlements, known as Habitat I, was held in Vancouver in 1976 amid mounting concern over rapid Third World urbanisation, slum growth and housing shortages. Delegates produced the Vancouver Declaration and an action plan and laid the groundwork for a dedicated UN settlements agency, later UN-Habitat. The conference framed shelter, land and basic services as legitimate concerns of international policy. It drew attention to the conditions of the urban poor in the developing world.
Habitat I began the formal international governance of human settlements, treating cities and housing as development questions warranting global coordination. It launched a recurring cycle of UN summits and an institutional architecture that still shapes urban policy debate.