Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
recognised today that there are many renters in
self-help settlements (see Gilbert 1983; Gilbert and
Varley 1991; Kumar 1996), together with the
existence of squatter landlords (see Gilbert 1983;
Lee-Smith 1990; Potter 1994). Third, there are the
squatters and occupants of shanty towns, who
inhabit what may be referred to as spontaneous
self-help housing areas.
The inventiveness of low-income residents
cannot go unnoticed. In Cairo, for example, the
severe housing shortage has led to a number of
novel responses. The old city, or
medina,
has
become a vast area of tenement slums. Perhaps
more surprising are the tomb cities, or cities of
the dead, which are to be found located on the
eastern edge of the city. Here, the structures built
for caretakers or for relatives visiting graves are
now occupied by the poor as permanent homes.
Another novel response in Cairo is living on the
rooftops of apartments—as long as the structures
placed on existing roofs are not constructed of
permanent materials, they are legal. It has been
estimated that in the region of half a million people
live in such rooftop dwellings within the city (Abu-
Lughod 1971). The growth of population in low-
income settlements is frequently running at
between 12 and 15 per cent per annum (Turner
1967; Dwyer 1975). Frequently, shanty towns and
squatter settlements account for at least 20-30 per
cent of the total urban population, but on occasion
the proportion is far higher, as for Bogota (60 per
cent), Casablanca (70 per cent) and Addis Ababa (90
per cent).
Clearly, this is an applied problem of vast
proportions, and much academic work has been
carried out not only by geographers but also by
economists, sociologists, anthropologists and
planners looking at the issues surrounding such
shelter provision. The policy relevance of
providing adequate shelter was early recognised by
the United Nations conference on Human
Settlements (Habitat), which was held in 1976.
The follow-up Habitat II or 'City Summit'
conference, which was held in Istanbul in June
1996, strongly reiterated this continuing and
largely unmet need for adequate low-income
shelter (Berghall 1995; Okpala 1996; UNCHS
1996) and the need for housing to be provided on
a sustainable environmental basis.
LOW-INCOME HOUSING IN THIRD
WORLD CITIES: THE SUBSTANTIVE
ISSUES
The housing problem in the developing world has
really emerged since the early 1940s. It is the
squatter settlement or the shanty town that is the
most ubiquitous sign of rapid urban development
in this region. Such settlements are also referred to
by means of a wide variety of other names, among
them spontaneous settlements, informal
settlements, uncontrolled settlements, makeshift,
irregular, unplanned, illegal, self-help, marginal and
peripheral settlements. The wide variety of labels
used to describe such settlements points to an
important characteristic, namely their extreme
diversity with regard to formation, building
materials, physical character and the characteristics
of their inhabitants. One avenue of applied
research, therefore, focuses on the analysis and
monitoring of low-income housing conditions
(Box 37.1).
The terms 'squatter settlement' and 'illegal
settlement' are frequently used but are potentially
misleading. Squatter settlements are those where
individuals have settled without legal title to land,
or alternatively without planning permission. A
good example of the latter is provided by the
barrios clandestinos
of Oporto in Portugal. Squatter
settlements are frequently located on government
or church-owned land. But illegality is not always
a characteristic. Many low-income homes are
owned, the plots having been subdivided and sold.
Similarly, some homes and/or the land on which
they are sited are rented. Such rentyards are quite
common in Caribbean and Latin American towns
and cities (Ward 1976).
Yet another common characteristic is that areas
are makeshift settlements or shanties, being
constructed from whatever materials are available
to hand. Basic shelters made from packing cases
and fish barrels, as well as cardboard cartons and
even newspapers, have been described in the
