that somewhat reduced the costs, but not enough
to reach the bulk of the urban poor. As a result,
the public sector abandoned direct provision of
housing to urban residents in favour of strategies
that would enable social housing processes. These
included, for instance, easier access to finance,
performance standards to replace prescriptive
standards, and simpler compliance processes. In
the private sector, there has been far less change.
Informal urban housing processes have become
the most common solution to shelter the urban
poor. They often start with a very simple and cheap
core, but, if resources allow, will grow and improve
over the years in a truly incremental process. Villa
El Salvador, now a municipality of Metropolitan
Lima, started forty years ago as an invasion of
desert land, with shelters of poles and bamboo
mats. Nowadays the municipality contains many
good two to three-storey houses with concrete
frames and brick masonry. In many developing
countries, more than half of the urban population
lives in informal housing. Amongst the key reasons
for this are: the scarcity and high cost of urban
land; lengthy and costly standards and procedures;
and difficultly in securing sources of finance. Some
poor urban households rent, others squat on public
or private land. Frequently the urban poor prefer a
central location, close to livelihood opportunities,
rather than a settlement on the fringes of town
which area long and costly ride away. They are often
aware of the disaster risks that certain sites pose,
but have to weigh those against their immediate
need for survival. Informal urban housing tends to
be the most disaster-prone of the three processes.
Informal rural housing processes are the
predominant form of rural housing. They can be
incremental, similar to informal urban housing.
Houses are often designed to also cater for
livelihood activities, e.g. with spaces to work, to
keep livestock, or store produce. Rural housing
makes wider use of the resources available in
the natural environment than urban housing, but
Informal urban housing such as this in peri-urban Lima is
located on very hazard-prone sites
Dharavi in Mumbai is Asia’s largest slum, with densely packed
housing at risk of various hazards
Factors that influence disaster performance of informal urban housing
+ people with self-build experience have certain
building or organisational skills, and where theseare
lacking they often know where to get them.
+ over time, much informal housing will improve
provided tenure is secure enough
+ popular housing processes can empower people and
give them greater voice, which may improve their
access to housing and reconstruction resources.
+ informal settlements can have a tradition of
mutual aid as well as strong social and community
organisations which can be invaluable to help
communities prepare for disaster, and to organise
relief and organise reconstruction.
- a lot of informal housing is poorly built, lacks
maintenance, and if land tenure is insecure, there is
little incentive for improvement. This is thesame for
much of the rental housing market as landlords look
to maximise profit.
- when improvements do take place, there are limits
as to what is feasible withoutstarting anew. The
same does apply to retrofitting disaster-resistant
components.
- Informal urban housing is often located on disaster-
prone sites, e.g. flood plains or steep and unstable
slopes.
- Informal housing is densely packed, with little space
between the houses for people to flee, take refuge, or
for the access of emergency services
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