Acrefore 9780199975839 e 1026

Affordable Housing: An International Perspective

Bonnie Young Laing, California University of Pennsylvania
https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199975839.013.1026
Published online: 01 July 2014
This version: 31 August 2021
Summary
This entry explores key definitions, causes, and characteristics of slums in the global arena, along with the types of
social work practice and general community development approaches being used to catalyze action to decrease
the prevalence of slums. Core strategies include using planning efforts that prioritize input from people who live in
slums, creating affordable housing, and otherwise transitioning urban slums into vibrant communities. Concluding
thoughts and further considerations for social work practice are offered.
Keywords: pro-poor planning, empowerment, affordable housing, community development and global practice, slums,
favelas, macro social work
Subjects: International and Global Issues, Macro Practice, Social Justice and Human Rights
Updated in this version

Content and references updated for the Encyclopedia of Macro Social Work.
This article explores key definitions, causes, and characteristics of slums, along with the types of
social work practice and general community development approaches being used in the global
arena, which may help to catalyze action to create affordable housing and otherwise transition
urban slums into vibrant communities. The entry ends with concluding thoughts and further
considerations for practice.
There is a global crisis in housing that is creating significant challenges for low-income people
who are seeking affordable housing that is safe, well conditioned, and accessible for the long
term. “Slums” are the opposite, as these are characterized by insecure access, hazardous,
unhealthy, and otherwise unsafe conditions. Social work has, from its inception in the beginning
of the 20th century, given focused attention to the needs of people living in slum communities
(Estes, 2009; Karger & Stoez, 2010; Trattner, 1999). During that time, places labeled as slums
were concentrated in urban centers of industrialization in Europe and the United States. People
who lived in slums were largely immigrants and native-born people from Africa and Asia (Davis &
Bent-Goodley, 2007) and Jews from Eastern Europe as well as African Americans (Wenocur &
Reisch, 2001). They came to cities in large waves to avail themselves of the economic
opportunities offered by the Industrial Revolution. Instead, these opportunity seekers found
themselves relegated to living in unsafe and unsanitary conditions. The plight of people who lived
in slums was largely ignored by elite power holders, who, although generally aware of the
condition of such people, did little to address their most basic needs because of classist and racist
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notions of worthiness (Hine et al., 2012) as a result of economic exploitation, cultural bias, and
racial discrimination (Davis & Bent-Goodley, 2007; Lasch-Quinn, 1993), social Darwinist
perspectives, and blame-the-victim orientations (Davis, 2006; Wenocur & Reisch, 2001).
In the early 21st century, the locus of attention has shifted from Europe and the United States to
Africa, Asia, and Latin America (Davis, 2006; OECD, 2007). Further, major world institutions such
as the United Nations (UN), International Monetary Fund (IMF), and World Bank now exist and
can document, alleviate, or even create slum communities. As an example of this documenting
capacity, the UN, as a global monitor of human settlements, gave the alarming assessment that
without intervention, the number of people living in slums will double by 2030, growing from 1
billion to 2 billion people living in deplorably unsafe and unsanitary conditions. With the
attention of these global policy institutions come the assessment tools and intervention
resources to help people living in slums to improve their quality of life (UN Habitat, 2013).
Scope and Nature of the Problem
Definitions
Wherever poor people live in large numbers in what is considered substandard housing, these
areas have been labeled slums (UN Habitat, 2007). Slums have been identified worldwide; they are
called barrios in Latin America, favelas in Brazil, ghettos in the United States and Europe, and
townships or shantytowns in Africa (UN Habitat, 2003). Slums are commonly considered an
urban phenomenon, yet these areas exist in varying forms in the rural, urban, and suburban
communities of the world (Davis, 2006). The number of people living in slums began to grow
alarmingly fast starting in the 1980s (Davis, 2006; UN Habitat, 2003); growth has been most
rapid in the urban areas of Latin America, Southeast Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa (UN Habitat,
2007).
This rapid growth was produced by massive urban-to-rural migration—labeled the urbanization
of poverty—that began after the implementation of IMF and World Bank lending policies aimed
at creating economic growth and modernization in the developing world. Ten policies, called the
Washington Consensus, were advanced by the United States (Davis, 2006; STWR, 2010; WHO,
n.d.) and included a focus on financial discipline, deregulation, and privatization, but instead
fueled the 21st-century urban slum crisis (Davis, 2006).
ContextUnderstanding the intricate political, economic, legal, cultural, and social dynamics of
slums, along with the approaches used to address the multiplicity of barriers to creating quality
affordable housing, is difficult. As Barjor and Dastur (2008, p. 7) note
the issue of slums is very complex. It cuts across numerous disciplines. It concerns
hundreds of millions of people who live in slums directly—and it indirectly concerns all
the local and national economies and societies in which slums exist. It is one of the
fundamental global challenges of our times.
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Conditions within slums vary among the poorer countries of the developing world and middle-
income and higher-income nations in terms of quality of housing and severity of conditions,
particularly with relation to access to water and sanitation (UN Habitat, 2007).
Table 1. Definitions of Slums
UN Habitat Housing areas . . . which deteriorated after the original dwellers moved on to new and better
(2007) parts of the city. (p. 1)
UN Habitat An area with:

(2010)
• poor structural quality and durability of housing;
• insufficient living areas (more than three people sharing a room);
• lack of secure tenure;
• poor access to water; and
• lack of sanitation facilities.
UN Habitat The UN definition of a slum household is a household that lacks “access to sanitary water,
(2013) improved sanitation” (Shekhar, 2013, p. 55).
Table 1 shows varying definitions adopted by the UN Habitat program over time. The definitions
have core implications for conceptualizing the problem, understanding the scope of the problem,
and for the allocation of resources. Using the 2008 UN Habitat definition of slums, the following
sections explore the background and prevalence of the manifestation of slums in the developing
world. The 2007 definition, which allows the consideration of slums in the non-developing
world, will be explored later in this article. The following explores the causes of slums and is
mainly relevant to the developing and non-developing world.
Contributing Factors
Various factors have been linked to the presence and persistence of slums. This is perhaps
reflective of differing perspectives among scholars, and in some cases affected persons, as to
whether slums continue to exist because of purposeful design, benign neglect, or other forms of
intentional inattention to the needs of poor people and people who live in slums. There is
agreement among major global institutions and researchers that key causal factors include some
modernization and structural adjustment interventions, poverty, poor planning, poor
governance, and climate change. War is an additional factor that contributes to the growing
number of people who live in slums.
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Colonialism, De-Peasantization, and Structural Adjustment Programs

Fox (2013) posits that slums are the product of colonialism. Under colonialism, poor indigenous
people were exploited for labor. Their needs were not considered in planning. Slums were viewed
as extensions of the ethnic village (tribe) (Arimah, 2011). Some scholars have linked IMF and
World Bank interventions as extensions of colonialism and thus as causal factors—namely
structural adjustment and peasant modernization programs (Davis, 2006; Murray Li, 2009). Both
programs influenced the shifting of subsidies and other resources away from traditional
sustenance and small commercial farming to more modern farming methods embraced by larger
corporate growers. Structural adjustment programs (SAPs) require nations that have borrowed
from the World Bank or IMF to reduce domestic spending to repay loan debt. This has resulted in
deep cuts in domestic spending, including agricultural support.
De-peasantization or modernization programs sought to move sustenance farmers to increase

efficiency in growing by requiring farmers whose families had for generations used traditional
methods to sustain themselves to increase output or leave farming to become rural or urban wage
earners (Davis, 2006; Oya, 2009). In many cases, modernization coupled with reduced agriculture
support had the net effect of creating global food shortages (Arimah, 2011; Davis, 2006). African
countries such as Ethiopia and Ghana were particularly hard hit. Additionally, climate change-
impacting rainfall pushed many families beyond the scope of their ability to feed and house their
youth. Thus, young people, with no amassed resources sought out cities for economic
opportunity, which they did not find upon arrival. Their exodus to the only low or no-cost spaces
available illustrates how SAPs and de-peasantization are driving poverty as a push factor for
migration to urban slums (Oppong-Ansah, 2013). Seeking opportunity in urban areas is the core
connection between urban slums and poverty.
Poverty and Insufficient Income

The UN reports that 20% of the world’s population lives in poverty (World Bank, 2012). One the
chief consequences of poverty is the lack of access to adequate, permanent, safe, and affordable
housing. The link between poverty, insufficient income, and slums is centered on the changing
value of land. The global population affected by poverty has sought to access housing where they
can and have thus found themselves living on land that has limited value or importance to
governmental or private development entities (UN Habitat, 2003). An additional connection is the
impact of poverty on educational attainment and social mobility. Worldwide, when people live in
areas of high concentrations of poverty, their ability to move into working and into the middle
class is severely hampered (Krishna, 2013).
Once a poor person becomes a resident of a low-income area, their exit can only be facilitated
with extensive planning and intervention (UN Habitat, 2003). One major challenge is that as
urban centers become areas of choice for people with higher incomes in live in, the low-cost land
occupied by poor people increases in value. Increased values means increasing cost for housing,
as landowners seek to capitalize on increased value by either raising rents or selling land to reap
profit. For low-income people, the power differential attendant to income inequality and lack of
ownership prevents access to the influence necessary to impact decision-making on the use of
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the changing value of land so central to their ability to maintain the affordability of their homes
(Glassman, 2016). Increases in land value means higher renter costs, higher rent equals increased
expenditure (loss of value) for renters, while for landowners increased value means higher
income (gain in assets/income) (Florida, 2018).
Poor Planning
Slums are viewed as geographical manifestations of poverty driven by poor urban planning
(Arimah, 2011; UN, 2013). The failure to consider the needs of the world’s poor or to engage in
municipality-wide and appropriately scaled interventions must be corrected to improve slums
and the quality of life for people who live in slums (Galiani et al., 2013; UN Habitat, 2003). Urban
slums in which active planning and intervention are not in place are growing in scale and the
degree of poverty experienced there is worsening. Davis (2006) makes key distinctions between
slums where poor planning persists and areas where active planning is in place. The World Bank
captures this dichotomy using Davis’s conceptualization of slums of despair and slums of hope:
Slums of hope: areas in which government bodies, nongovernment organizations (NGOs),

and in some cases residents are working in partnership to conduct planning and
interventions to improve the quality of housing, access to economic resources, and social
services (Davis, 2006; UN Habitat, 2003).
Slums of despair: areas in which the challenging social, economic, physical, and
environmental conditions are worsening, and what domestic services exist are
deteriorating. Areas also have a sustained influx of the poor without planning and action to
address inhabitants’ needs or to improve the slum area.
Poor Governance
The UN (UN Habitat, 2003, 2013) and World Bank Institute (2008) identify poor governance as a
key factor in the creation and preservation of slums. These institutions assert that poor
governance results in the lack of a political will to address the conditions of people who live in
slums via planning and resource allocation. Research conducted by Devas (2004) suggests that
the lack of participation by poor citizens in decision-making regarding planning and land use for
slums has been linked to a greater likelihood that slum conditions will persist. Fox (2013) asserts
that lack of voice and participation is one of several factors that define poor governance.
Additional factors include lack of transparency, limited accountability, limited participation, lack
of the rule of law, bureaucratic inefficiency, and failure of enforcement to support property rights
(Arimah, 2011). It is important to note that participation means having the ability to actively
shape and then vet urban planning and development decisions.
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Climate Change
A lack of rainfall is a critical factor pushing people from rural farms to urban areas. Climate
change is also contributing to rising sea levels, a particular threat to slums in coastal areas
(Adelekan, 2010). Slums are more likely to be located in areas that are susceptible to flooding and
land collapse. Slum housing, because of the use of poor-quality materials, is less likely to
withstand earthquakes or storms with strong winds (Saha, 2012). When slum housing is
destroyed, residents are likely to resettle in other nearby slums, thus causing further slum
growth. Conversely, environmental conditions can provide an impetus for active planning and
development (Cronin & Guthrie, 2011).
War and Displacement

War, and the resultant homelessness and displacement, is an additional factor leading to the
increased numbers of people living in slum conditions (UNHCR, 2020). However, people fleeing
war are considered refugees and nearly 1% of the world population meets this definition (Reuters,
2020). Large settlements of refugees often exist in spaces that the UN and/or other international
organizations have negotiated with the host country as a designated space. Although residents of
refugee camps may sometimes live in the area for more than a decade, these spaces are
considered temporary refugee camps, made only to host a population that will eventually
relocate. As such, these areas are not typically included in development planning that might
result in improved living conditions. In addition, agreements with host countries sometimes
prohibit the development of permanent infrastructure that would improve living conditions, out
of fear of encouraging the permanent tenure of refugees in the designated location (Amnesty
International, 2012). Some refugees, seeking better conditions or a more permanent status in
their host country, evade refugee camps and transition into living in slum communities (Gienow,
2014). Each of the aforementioned factors helps to create slums or maintain status quo slum
conditions.
Impact of Slum Dwelling
Living Conditions
Because slums are home to large concentrations of people who are poor, socially marginalized, or
otherwise relegated to a low socioeconomic status within their particular society (Davis, 2006;
Devas, 2004), these areas are often impacted by a complex web of poor social, economic, health,
and spatial conditions. The array of conditions culminates in the lack of political capital to secure
safe, sanitary, and affordable housing (UN Habitat, 2003). Additional details on the nature of
these conditions follow.
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Economic Conditions
Slums are also characterized by other challenging social conditions, including high levels of
poverty, low educational attainment, and social stratification, resulting in classes of
economically oppressed people. These people are often racial, religious, or cultural minorities.
Some slum communities have high rates of unemployment. However, some scholars have argued
that it is important to consider that many people in slum communities are employed in informal
(alternative) economies (Cities Alliance, 2013; Devas, 2004). The types of work can include
activities that may be deemed illegal, such as prostitution and drug selling. Other activities may
include various aspects of domestic work, mechanical work, textile and clothes making, toilet
attending, or gathering and recycling materials, or the production of crafts or art (UN Habitat,
2003). In some urban slum areas informal sector work accounts for 40%–60% of employment;
thus, the World Bank has begun exploring mechanisms to formalize informal sector work, as a
mechanism for social inclusion (and perhaps as a potential revenue source for the locality). In
higher-income countries like the United States, transportation is a key area of the informal
economy (Gallien, 2017), or gig economy (Gig Economy Data Hub, 2020), with Uber and Lyft as
examples of mechanisms to bring participants into the formal economy sector.
According to Dash (2013), people employed within the informal sector may work for themselves
and others doing work that is undesirable or insufficiently profitable to attract people who are
more affluent. This sector may also include economic activities deemed illegal (such as
prostitution and drug selling), and thus are potentially more difficult to draw into the formal
economic sector in milieus where these activities violate social norms.
Health
The key conditions that threaten health in slum communities are the lack of access to sanitation
and clean water (University of California at Berkeley, 2010). The lack of sanitation causes a
myriad of unsafe conditions because people dispose of waste, both human and other types, too
close to where they live, resulting in the contamination of water sources (Water Aid, 2008).
Although over the past decade upgrades have improved such conditions across the globe, the
majority of people who live in slums continue to lack access to sanitary systems within their
homes (Nderitu, 2010). Some slums have public sanitation systems that may be accessed for a fee.
Some people who live in slums have turned to the use of “flying toilets” (see Kibera video)
(Ondieki & Mbegera, 2009), which consist of plastic bags used to capture the products of
defecation that are then tied closed and flung as far away from the dwelling as possible
(University of California at Berkeley, 2010). The flying toilets contribute to unsafe water
conditions, which increases exposure to waterborne miasmas that cause dengue fever, cholera,
and diarrheal diseases. People who live in slums also face the risk of accidental injury and possible
death resulting from unstable land when slums are situated on steep slopes (UN Habitat, 2003).
Other types of injury are possible when slums are located in or near dumpsites, including burn
injuries, exposure to toxins, and diseases such toxoplasmosis (University of California at
Berkeley, 2010).
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The conditions of slums are particularly impactful with regard to the health of children and
women (UNICEF, 2012). Children’s health is threatened by infectious diseases related to poor
water quality, such that thousands of children living in slums die each day (UNICEF, 2012; Water
Aid, 2008). Children also experience food insecurity, which may lead to poor physical and
intellectual development (UNICEF, 2012). Women’s health is also affected by disease; however, a
bigger threat is the lack of access to toilets (Nderitu, 2010; Ondieki & Mbegera, 2009). Because the
toilet facilities may not be private, women in such areas choose to use these systems during hours
of darkness, resulting in both physical discomfort and potential exposure to crime (Yasin, 2012).
Cost–benefit analyses show that for every $1 spent on the improvement of water quality, $9 is
saved (Water Aid, 2008).
Quality of Housing
Slums are characterized by “dilapidated housing, overcrowding,” and by a lack of durability
(Davis, 2006, p. 22; USHUD, n.d.). Because housing is produced by each householder, it is possible
to find people living in various types of structures, which are built from available materials
(including mud, plastics, cardboard, discarded wood, tin, and aluminum). Structures may also be
built using more durable materials, including brick and cement (Arimah, 2011; UN Habitat, 2003).
Many homes lack plumbing, electricity, access to clean water, or safe sanitation methods. In the
non-developing world, a slum might be composed of housing that was once of high quality, but
over time has become ruined and poorly maintained and is now substandard because of
“redlining” or other forms of limited access to credit (UN Habitat, 2003). In Europe, Canada, and
the United States, residents of slum communities may also live in structures built from salvaged
materials, particularly if they reside in rural areas or are members of communities of migrant
workers (Park & Pellow, 2011; Ramirez & Villarejo, 2012).
Approaches to Slums Across the Globe
Countries with slums vary with regard to population-level descriptors, perspectives on

addressing the needs of people who live in slums, and whether the nation meets the UN definition
of a slum. Nations across Asia, the Americas, the Caribbean, and Europe have had decades of
benign neglect and slum clearance. Common elements of slums include poor-quality housing and
insecure tenure. Slums in the developed world are less obvious and extensive when compared to
those in the non-developed world. Following are some examples of various approaches countries
have taken to addressing slum conditions, examined according to the income level of the country.
Africa
Low-income countries in Africa have the highest proportions of the world’s poor. The poor in
Africa are some of poorest of the world’s population, with many surviving on less than $1.25 per
day (World Bank, 2012). In addition, many African cities host the highest percentages of urban
people who live in slums. For example, 72% of sub-Saharan Africans and 92% to 99% of the
populations of Ethiopia and Chad live in slums (Arimah, 2011). Fox (2013) and Davis (2006)
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attribute at least part of the prevalence of poverty and slums to the colonial ban on indigenous
people’s land rights and other policy efforts to create an urban underclass of exploitable labor. In
South Africa, the failure to secure apartheid-based reparations for shantytown residents, coupled
with violent slum clearance efforts ahead of the 2012 World Cup and corruption/cronyism in
disruption of resettlement benefits, is fueling organized legal advocacy, resistance, and
disruptions efforts centered in the KwaZulu-Natal province (Gibson, 2009).
Asia
China provides a unique case in that its rapid growth in the early 21st century does offer jobs as a
result of real economic growth. Although the proportion of Asians living in urban slums is
relatively lower than that of other nations, Asia has the highest actual number of people who live
in slums. This number is largely fueled by Indian cities such as Mumbai (Davis, 2006). Among
Indian, Pakistani, and other Arab-influenced groups, war became a key push for rural-to-urban
migration, and legacy colonial perspectives on the rural poor created disinterest in the plight of
people who live in slums.
Developed Sector
In European countries including Spain, the United Kingdom, and France, immigrants reside in
informal settlements and shantytowns in or near major cities, including London and Madrid
(Frayer, 2012). Ethnic minority immigrants form a significant proportion of European people who
live in slums. These populations are composed of Eastern European, Roma, Portuguese, and
North African migrants and immigrants. Slums in these and other cities are characterized by
limited or no land tenure or access to water and sanitation (Edmunds, 2013).
The United States is also home to slums, as defined by both UN Habitat (2003) and older
standards that rely on the presence of substandard housing. Slum communities in the United
States include the South Bronx in New York and significant portions of Detroit, Michigan
(Semuels, 2015). Some First Nation reservation communities could also be classified as slums due
to lack infrastructure such as connection to water and sewage systems (Murray, 2016;
Partnership with Native Americans, 2019). Rather than rapid urbanization, the United States is
simultaneously experiencing the suburbanization of poverty and a “back to the city
movement” (Pew Charitable Trusts, 2011). In the United States communities are more likely to be
labeled as blighted. As defined by the U.S. Office of Housing and Urban Development (USHUD),
blight consists of conditions including deteriorated buildings, substandard housing, high
numbers of vacant and/or abandoned properties (USHUD, n.d.).
In addition, areas meeting the UN definition of slums manifest as a rural and suburban problem.
In rural agricultural or tourist regions, people who live in slums are primarily undocumented
Latin American migrant workers, some of whom live in cars without access to water or sanitation
(Park & Pellow, 2011). Homelessness is also a slum problem in that urban populations live literally
on the street without durable shelters or in tent cities in non-accessible areas of cities (under
highway overpasses). The United States is also experiencing isolated incidents of homeless
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families living in cars or other vehicles, with many accessing water and sanitation via public
bathrooms and food via homelessness programs and food banks. Finally, Rust Belt cities have
high concentrations of vacant and abandoned housing. The lack of housing affordability is a
greater concern in the United States, with some labeling the problem a crisis (NLIHC, 2020).
Strengths of People Who Live in Slums

Although slums are a visible and clear manifestation of poverty and economic oppression, these
places also highlight the powerful ingenuity and endurance of their inhabitants (STWR, 2010;
World Bank Institute, 2008). Further, people who live in slums contribute greatly ($5 trillion
annually) to local and national economies through their consumerism (STWR, 2010) and
industries (such construction and domestic work). Slums also create spaces that are open to and
accepting of migrants and culturally marginalized people. Slums have been places of cultural
innovation in music, writing, and other art forms as well as multicultural housing innovation,
self-help opportunity, and artistic expression (Owusu et al., 2008).Women in slums have
developed saving schemes as a means to organize themselves to purchase land and thereby gain
land housing tenure (Chitekwe & Mitlin, 2001). Residents frequently have high levels of
cooperation and a general sense of communalism (Carpentera et al., 2004). Slums have also been
places of housing innovation and microenterprise (Gulyani & Bassett, 2007).
The following section, “Programmatic and Policy Interventions,” provides an overview of sets of
interventions used to improve slums and to develop affordable housing. The first set of
interventions examines approaches to slum improvement and increasing quality affordable
housing used by national governments, slum-dweller alliances, the UN, and the World Bank in
the lower-income countries of the developing world. Also included are strategies used in higher-
income countries, which have been labeled “right to the city” efforts. A second set of
interventions centered on the roles and methods used in global social work practice are included
and integrated with systems theory.
Programmatic and Policy Interventions
Good Governance, Social Inclusion, and Empowerment

Good governance means that decision-making is conducted in a manner that is open and
transparent and requires accountability. Together these factors prevent cronyism, corruption,
rent-seeking, and less advertent forms of diverting power and resources away from the needs of
the public. Diverted resources often go into the hands of policymakers and help to worsen the
conditions that disproportionately affect the most vulnerable people in slum communities,
particularly women and children (Transparency International, 2013; UN Chronicle, 2012; UN
Habitat, 2003). Social inclusion is the level to which groups with particular characteristics are
included in the social, economic, and political life of a society (Arimah, 2011). Groups that are not
socially included are unprotected, unconsidered, and otherwise disempowered with regard to
having their needs and wants addressed. As a result, such groups are left to develop alternative,
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underground social, economic, and power systems. In the parlance of exploring slums, this is
labeled the informal sector. Much focus is being placed on moving groups, particularly women
and children in slums, into the formal sector through social inclusion (Cotton, 2009; UN Habitat,
2003; Water Aid, 2008).
Social inclusion and good governance have been identified as critical factors in improving the
quality of life in slums. It is possible to view both governance and social inclusion as forms of
empowerment. In particular, legal empowerment is the form of securing legal rights to land
tenure, which in turn is linked to enfranchisement and the ability to influence governance
(Rashid, 2009). Legal empowerment is defined as “a process of systemic change through which
the poor and excluded become able to use the law, the legal system, and legal services to protect
and advance their rights and interests as citizens” (OECD, 2012). Without legal empowerment,
poor people have been subject to decisions made by corrupt leaders. Many have also been victims
of economic exploitation that cause them to pay exorbitant fees for access to basic services
including water, toilets, and institutions such as schools. People who live in slums are exposed to
violence, but have limited recourse to law enforcement or judicial systems.
“Pro-Poor” Planning and Participatory Slum Upgrading

At the global level, major institutions such as the UN and the World Bank have recognized that
when poverty exists, creating the economic growth that spurs healthy communities necessitates
pro-planning and development (OECD, 2012; World Bank Institute, 2008). Two key features of
pro-planning are empowerment and good governance. Empowerment entails ensuring that
people from disadvantaged communities participate in development decision-making and thus
are able help craft efforts to address the needs central to reducing poverty and disadvantage (UN
Habitat, 2012). Slum upgrading seeks to mobilize residents’ existing resources and to pair these
with technical or material assistance from NGOs or civic organizations, with the goal of helping
people living in slums to improve their shelters and the physical environment of the broader
community.
Right to the City Policies in Developed Countries
The “right to the city” concept is used to explore mechanisms for social inclusion. In higher-
income countries, it has been a rallying cry for activists concerned with movement building to
end urban poverty (Brown & Kristiansen, 2009). Key policies that promote affordable housing are
inclusionary zoning and housing subsidies.
Inclusionary Zoning
Inclusionary zoning is a policy tool that has been used in Canada, Europe, the United States, and
Australia (Metro Vancouver Policy and Planning Department, 2007) to ensure that housing
developments targeting people with moderate to high incomes include a specific percentage of
housing units that are affordable to low-income or very low-income individuals or families
(Brunick, 2004; Nolon & Bacher, 2007; Rusk, 2006). The required percentage is written into the
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zoning code for a given area, which may be a section of a locality, an entire city, or a county
(Chang, 2009; Damewood & Young Laing, 2011; Rusk, 2006). In return, the developer can be
granted benefits that decrease the cost to build low-cost units or the development as whole.
Developers may also have key fees waived or gain access to faster project review by local officials.
Housing Subsidies
Creating affordable housing is one of the key strategies to combat slums. Yet in addition to
creating quality affordable units, UN Habitat calls for more comprehensive strategy that employs
rehabilitation and prevention. The rehabilitation portion of the approach includes leasing and
regularizing land, improving infrastructure and housing through public funding, and relocating
slums by utilizing public–private partnerships and transferable development rights, which
allows for higher density development (UN Habitat, 2010, 2012; World Bank Institute, 2008). The
prevention portion of the approach aims to keep new slums from developing by building more
affordable housing, regulating urbanization, encouraging decentralization, and improving public
transport. Building affordable housing also includes a public–private partnership model that
pairs developers and governments or NGOs to create housing using charitable or government
funds otherwise not available to for-profits. Also included in this approach are remedial efforts.
This strategy includes mobilizing the residents of the target slum community to discuss their
needs and wants in regard to housing and infrastructure improvements as well as what efforts the
residents could complete themselves with the appropriate materials, training, and other
resources. Finally, residents would be engaged in selecting key projects to complete using their
own effort (Affordable Housing Institute, 2013).
In the United States, tax credits to developers have been a longstanding approach to encouraging
the creation of affordable housing (USHUD, 2019). Emerging solutions for addressing the lack of
affordable housing involve giving tax credits directly to families who need help to secure safe and
affordable housing (Tracy, 2019). These family-directed tax credits would help to bridge the gap
between amounts in excess of 30% of income spent by those with low or moderate incomes. In
other words, families would be able to claim any amount above 30% spent on housing as a dollar
for dollar deduction on their tax return (Tolan, 2019).
Living Wage Standard

In the United States, workers who earn the federal minimum wage ($7.25 in 2021) will need to
spend nearly 50% of their pay to secure adequate housing (NLIHC, 2020; Smith, 2018). Thus,
earning a “living wage” is a key strategy to ensure access to affordable housing. A living wage is
the minimum rate per hour a person needs to earn to secure basic necessities such as housing,
food, and other critical resources that would allow someone to live according to the basic
standard of living for the nation in which they reside (MIT, 2020). In Europe wage standards vary
greatly, with the United Kingdom operating a graduated pay system that depends on the age of
the worker and on employers voluntarily paying a higher living wage (Living Foundation, n.d.).
Conversely, workers in Central and Eastern Europe are less likely to earn a wage that meets the
living standard (Clean Clothes Campaign, 2016). In essence, the key challenge is that without a
Page 12 of 22
wage that pays enough for workers to secure quality housing, they must make tough choices
between a safe and adequate living space and fundamental necessities such as food, utilities, or
medicine.
Tenant Ownership
Some groups of renters have used tenant ownership as mechanism to promote affordability.
Tenant ownership allows for collective ownership of a property, in such cases renters own a share
or portion of the property they can make decisions about the future use of the property and/or
share any profits made from the increased value or the selling of a property (Damewood & Young
Laing, 2011). The method of setting the tenant ownership structure can be carried out in several
ways. Limited equity cooperatives give tenants cooperative ownership and control over their
housing. A lease purchase agreement gives individual tenants the right to purchase their home for
a set buyout price after a set amount of time, while an installment land sale contract allows
tenants to build equity and purchase their home over time. A right of first refusal gives a tenant
association the right to decide if they wish to buy their housing before it can be sold to anyone
else.
Global Social Work Interventions
A key challenge in social work practice is to help those who reside in slum communities gain the
power to fulfill their needs for safe and sanitary affordable housing, as well as the regular
resources to provide for those needs, while honoring the fact that slums, for many residents, may
be valued spaces where they feel rooted and whole. Removing the barriers that inhibit access to
safe, affordable housing is a social justice issue (NASW, 2007). The impediments to achieving this
goal are firmly ingrained in the social, cultural, and economic power structures of a given society
(Fox, 2013). However, in this review on social work literature on slums, no writing specifically
exploring social work practice in slums was located. It appears that only normative approaches to
addressing needs of slums dwellers have been developed. Table 2 shows global social work
interventions and how these might be directed toward slum improvement.
Table 2. Global Social Work Practice Methods by System Level, Practice Method, and Correspondence with UN
World Bank Slum Intervention Models
Systems Level/ Global Social Work Practice Approach UN/World Bank Model
Role
Micro resource • Provision of material support, direct aid to address • UNICEF

management and basic safety needs • WHO
consultancy
• Empowerment
program
• Micro lending
Page 13 of 22
Systems Level/ Global Social Work Practice Approach UN/World Bank Model
Role
• Empowerment/conscientization: helping individuals

and families understand the causes of their oppression
and gain access to the power holders, self-groups, and
other institutions they can participate in to make
permanent change
Meso • Conflict resolution and management • Pro-poor planning

• Efforts to build consensus • Promoting good
• Create peace among community factions and larger- governance
scale institutions • Peacekeeping
• Truth and reconciliation processes
Exo • Institution building • Shack and People

• Policy development Who Live in slums
Alliance
• Program development
Macro • Nation building/global world building • Cities Alliance

• Shack and People
Who Live in slums
Alliance
Table 2 shows the interventions social workers use to address the personal, familial, group,
organizational, and community needs of people who live in slums by system levels. At the micro
level social workers help clients make changes in their level of personal empowerment via
consciousness raising, coaching, and training, while also using advocacy and brokering skills to
help secure material supports (relief). At the meso level social workers help clients apply
empowerment skills to participation in varying types of self-help groups and also help with
conflict resolution between individuals and groups. At the exo level, social workers help clients
communicate their needs to power holders (political, cultural, or social). At the macro level they
help to formulate domestic and international policy change and consult with domestic and
international bodies such as the UN to provide material resources to alleviate the impact of
absolute poverty and to create safe, sanitary, and affordable housing (Guo & Tsui, 2010).
In assessing the situation of a particular set of clients, one may be forced to consider whether the
inequality of people who live in slums is a natural product of capitalism (Park & Pellow, 2011). If
so, this creates some ethical challenges. Social workers committed to achieving social justice may
need to choose between notions of empowerment and whether that includes struggling to wrest
the power to secure basic resources and rights from power elites and modifications to the social
Page 14 of 22
order (Ritter, 2012) or working to build awareness of elites with regard to the conditions faced by
people who live in slums, so that they can act to bring resources or other changes to bear to make
housing safe, sanitary, and affordable.
Challenges and Future Trends (Directions)
The challenge of addressing the poverty and the lack of affordable housing that creates slums has
garnered concentrated attention from some of the world’s most influential and well-resourced
institutions. Bodies including the UN and the World Bank are developing models for planning and
economic policy that are designed to include the perspectives of poor people in housing
development. In addition, people living in slums have created a variety of creative self-help
approaches to improve their quality of life.
In accordance with the International Federation of Social Work (IFSW) ethical principle 3: “Social
workers advocate and work toward access and the equitable distribution of resources and
wealth” (IFSW, 2018). As work to improve the quality of life of people who live in slums goes
forward, social workers will need to consider what opportunities may be present to develop
intervention models and/or policies that increase access to safe and sanitary affordable housing.
A significant contribution social workers working in communities with slum conditions could
make is to foster dialogue among people who live in slums, policymakers, social work
practitioners, and academics to in order craft models to guide social work practice in slums, and,
further, to assess effectiveness of these models.
In working to develop models, it is essential to keep in mind that slums are not the unfortunate
product of too many poor people living in the same area coupled with a lack of affordable housing.
Slums result from a multitude of factors including the historical legacies of colonialism, poor
planning, and economic policy (i.e., SAPs and peasant modernization efforts). Slums also result
from policies of “benign neglect” that do not offer comprehensive solutions to address the
tangled web of social, economic, and educational challenges facing poor and otherwise
marginalized people.
Removing the barriers that inhibit access to safe affordable housing is a social justice issue
(NASW, 2007). Thus it is imperative to help those that reside in slum communities to gain the
power to meet their need for safe and sanitary affordable housing.
In keeping with the age-old practice directive to meet clients where they are, it is important to
honor the fact that for many of the people who reside within slum communities these are valued
spaces where they feel rooted and whole. Many of those who live in slums have developed a host
of survival and self-help strategies to transcend their social and economic challenges. For
example, some have made use traditional models of financing with familial or communal groups.
People who live in slums are also using creative and, in some cases, eco-friendly efforts to
improve their dwellings and surrounding spaces and have also advocated for and won land rights
and other policy reforms that increase opportunities for affordable housing (subsidies,
inclusionary zoning, and other policy reforms).
Page 15 of 22
In some cases, people who live in slums have used civil disobedience and other measures to try to
prevent the destruction of existing affordable housing. The response of governmental bodies has
sometimes been severe enough to result in the injury or death of protesters and professionals
who support their efforts. A key implication here is that working with clients to bring about the
necessary change to address their housing needs may involve real personal and professional risk,
as the factors that create slums are firmly ingrained in the social, cultural, and economic power
structures of the various countries where such communities exist (Fox, 2013). Social workers will
need to determine whether they are willing to take the risk of working in this arena, given that it
may mean challenging ingrained power relationships. The position any given social worker takes
in response to this concern may literally mean the difference between life and death for people
who live in slums.
Further Reading
Chaundri, S. (1975). Slums <http://www.jstor.org/stable/4537241>. Economic and Political Weekly, 10(28), 1035.
Motoc, C. (2013, June 13). You can’t give up; you have to fight for your rights! LiveWire <https://www.amnesty.org/en/
latest/campaigns/2013/06/you-cant-give-up-you-have-to-fight-for-your-rights/>. Amnesty International.
Murray, C. (1987). Displaced urbanization: South Africa’s rural slums <https://www.jstor.org/stable/722745> African
Affairs, 86(344), 311–329.
Richman, N., & Pitkin, B. (2002). The case of Los Angeles, U.S.A. <https://www.ucl.ac.uk/dpu-projects/Global_Report/
pdfs/LA.pdf>
Ross, A., & Undurraga, R. (2013). Shelter from the storm: Upgrading housing infrastructure in Latin American
slums <http://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2296901>. SSRN Paper.
Šabic, D., Knežević, A., Vujadinović, S., Golić, R., Milinčić, M., & Joksimović, M. (2013). Belgrade slums: Life or survival
on the margins of Serbian society? <https://doi.org/10.3176/tr.2013.1.03> Trames: A Journal of the Humanities & Social
Sciences, 17(1), 55–86.
Sumila, G., Bassett, E., & Talukdar, D. (2011). Living conditions, rents, and their determinants in the slums of Nairobi
and Dakar. Land Economics, 88, 251–274.
Tracy, J. (2019, November 26). What do housing groups think about Dems’ affordable housing plans? <https://
shelterforce.org/2019/11/26/what-do-housing-groups-think-about-dems-affordable-housing-plans/> Shelterforce.
Zeidel, R. F. (2004). Immigrants, progressives, and exclusion politics: The Dillingham Commission, 1900–1927. Northern
Illinois University Press.
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Related Articles
Homelessness
Housing
Human Rights Overview
Poverty
International Social Work: Overview
Other Resources
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Affordable Housing: An International Perspective

Affordable Housing: An International Perspective

Updated in this version

Scope and Nature of the Problem

Table 1. Definitions of Slums

UN Habitat An area with:

Colonialism, De-Peasantization, and Structural Adjustment Programs

De-peasantization or modernization programs sought to move sustenance farmers to increase

Poverty and Insufficient Income

Slums of hope: areas in which government bodies, nongovernment organizations (NGOs),

War and Displacement

Impact of Slum Dwelling

Approaches to Slums Across the Globe

Countries with slums vary with regard to population-level descriptors, perspectives on

Strengths of People Who Live in Slums

Programmatic and Policy Interventions

Good Governance, Social Inclusion, and Empowerment

“Pro-Poor” Planning and Participatory Slum Upgrading

Right to the City Policies in Developed Countries

Living Wage Standard

Global Social Work Interventions

Micro resource • Provision of material support, direct aid to address • UNICEF

• Empowerment/conscientization: helping individuals

Meso • Conflict resolution and management • Pro-poor planning

Exo • Institution building • Shack and People

Macro • Nation building/global world building • Cities Alliance

Challenges and Future Trends (Directions)

Brunick, N. J. (2004). Inclusionary housing: Proven success in large cities <http://inclusionaryhousing.ca/wp-content/

Cities Alliance. (2013). Slum upgrading <http://www.citiesalliance.org/About-slum-upgrading#What_are_slums>.

Clean Clothes Campaign. (2016). Labour on a shoestring <https://cleanclothes.org/file-repository/resources-

Davis, M. (2006). Planet of the slums. Verso.

MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). (2020). Minimum wage calculator <https://livingwage.mit.edu/>.

Partnership with Native Americans. (2019). Living conditions <http://www.nativepartnership.org/site/PageServer?

Semuels, A. (2015, August 9). The resurrection of America’s slums <https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/

Slums Dwellers International. (n.d.). Making cities inclusive <https://sdinet.org/video/making-cities-inclusive/>. Slum

WHO (World Health Organization). (n.d.). Washington consensus <https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/

World Bank. (2012). Poverty and equity data <http://povertydata.worldbank.org/poverty/home/> .

Human Rights Overview

International Social Work: Overview

Forthcoming Articles <http://oxfordre.com/socialwork/page/forthcoming/forthcoming-articles>

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