Urban Squatters and Slums

The Urban Poor and Urban Problems

 M
Click image to enlarge any advocates of urban low-income families Fast Facts
take the view that slums and squatter
The absolute number of
settlements are a solution, developed by the people living in slums or
poor themselves, under the extenuating informal settlements
grew to over 1 billion in
circumstances that they find themselves in cities.[1] 2018 - about 1 in 7
persons.
Slums and squatter settlements, in fact, represent
An estimated 3 billion
four trade-offs for a low-income family: people will require
adequate and affordable
1. A trade off between poor quality of their living places, housing by 2030.
and being in close proximity to their place of jobs Globally, 2 billion people
and local markets; were without waste
2. Trade off between the temporary and poor quality of collection services or
facilities - significantly
their houses and low and affordable (initial) degrading the quality of
investment in housing; their local environments.
3. Trade off between having no housing or place to
An estimated 50 per cent
stay, and living in a place with tenurial insecurity; of urban residents have
and convenient access to
public transport (2018),
4. Trade off between no access to infrastructure forcing residents to stay
services (such as water, electricity or sanitation close to their jobs, and
connections), and informal and intermittent supply of therefore staying on
undesirable and
such urban services. degraded lands.

Low-income families in urban areas find themselves Nine out of ten urban
residents in 2016 were
with low financial and other assets, working in low- breathing polluted air -
income jobs in the informal sector and have few seriously affecting their
skills and education. health and their
surroundings.
On the other hand, local governments face their own In Mumbai the squatter
slew of shortcomings and challenges, in the form of settlement of Dharavi is
now home to over 1
inadequate tax/financial base, ineffective institutional million people. Dharavi
structures and mandates, weak legislation, with their lies between two railway
weak implementation. Lopsided policies are further compounded by lack of staff members with the lines and is one of the
biggest squatter
appropriate skills and knowledge to address urban challenges. settlements in the world.

These shortcomings, on the part of the urban low-income families and the local government agencies, Many governments
manifest themselves in the impact they have on the urban character of a city - poor housing conditions for refuse to acknowledge
the existence of informal
low-income families, lack of formal credit access, land ownership structures, poor infrastructure services settlements. These
provision that result in the slums and squatter settlements that we see today. settlements continue to
be geographically,
economically, socially
We always also need to remember that slums and squatter settlements are always in a constant state of and politically
change, where people do invest time, money, and resources to upgrade their homes - particularly over time, disengaged from wider
as a sense of "perceived" tenure is developed.[2]. Governments have not been idle either, and have in urban systems and
excluded from urban
several cases provided utilities, community water taps and toilets, etc. as well as "sites-and-services" opportunities and
programmes that have enabled families to build their own homes on serviced land parcels.[3] decision-making.

The complex web of needs, resources (and who controls those resources), and who tranfers the resources
to the end use - low-income families - calls for innovative solutions that is multi-sectoral, involving different
stakeholders.

Footnotes:
[1] See a GDRC note on ""Defining Squatter Settlements"
[2] See for example, "Field Observation: Squatter Settlements"

[3] More information on "Sites and Services"

Return to Slums and Squatters

Adopting a Rational Approach