URBAN HOUSING CRISIS

Abstract

Virtually all developing countries, irrespective of size and level of industrialisation, are experiencing rapid urbanisation as limited land for cultivation and growing agricultural populations continue to expel families from agricultural regions into cities and large metropolitan areas. By the year 2000, the urban population of the world is expected to grow by 1,400 million, but 1,100 million of that increase will occur in Africa as the urban population of South Asia more than doubles and that of Latin America almost doubles (United Nations Center for Human Settlements, 1984). Within the next few decades, this phenomenon will present unprecedented challenges of massive proportions to policy makers and planners in these areas of the world. Relevant to the theme of this article, the land and housing needs of low‐ income and disadvantaged groups, in particular, will become increasingly urgent. Indeed, the central characteristic of the Third World urban housing crisis is the fact that the majority of households cannot afford the cheapest legal housing plot, let alone the cheapest legal house. Thus, in the developing nations of the world, a third to three‐quarters of the largest cities' inhabitants live in residential developments consisting mainly of self‐constructed dwell‐ings on illegally occupied or subdivided land with few basic services (Satterthwaite, 1983).

Citation

Jo Huth, M. (1988), "URBAN HOUSING CRISIS", International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, Vol. 8 No. 6, pp. 81-91. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb013062