Housing The Urban Poor

Over the past two decades it has become widely recognized that housing issues have to be placed in a broader framework recognizing that civil society in the form of Community Based Organizations (CBOs) and their allies are increasingly networking and emerging as strong players that cannot easily be overlooked.This book brings together different perspectives on multi-scalar approaches within the housing field and on grassroots’ engagement with formal agencies including local government, higher levels of government and international agencies. By moving away from romanticizing local self-initiatives, it focuses on understanding the emerging potential once local initiatives are interlinked and scaled-up to transnational networks.

Poverty, housing and public policy: Foundations of national policy: Economic growth and stability, A Decent home and residential environment: The Redistributive objective, Limitations of existing production subsidies; The Choice of a housing policy: The Nation's housing goals, Strategies for housing the urban poor, Elimination of government subsidies, Relying on the filtering process, Subsidizing new construction for the poor, Using the existing stock, policy constraints, evaluating the alternativestrategies, The Decision rule, Technical note: an exposition of the formal welfare economics; Improving housing conditions: Existing programs: the design of available subsidy programs, federal subsidies and local housing markets, measuring the consumption benefit, Some comparative findings, Technical note: alternative methods of calculating the consumption benefit; Distributing the housing benefits: horizontal equity: serving the neediest households, Vertical equity: Diverting subsidies from the poor, the redistributive goal, Technical note: The Housing condition probability model; Estimating the Municipal fiscal effect; Subsidized housing, jobs, and employment benefits; The Costs of subsidized housing; Evaluating social and environmental effects; Redirecting national housing policy; The Evolution of housing strategies for the urban poor; Leased housingand neighborhood renewal; Development costs, Depreciation schedules, and tax shelters.

It examines the range of strategies, including the most recent experiments in local community - private sector partnership, that have been used to try and improve housing conditions for the very poor and why they have so often failed. It also reviews the state of existing policy-oriented research with a view to understanding the possible future of these settlements.

Originally published in 1990, this book reveals the extent to which petty landlordism is developing not just in the African urban settlements that have sprung up but in government-sponsored low-cost housing estates. The first part of the book traces African governments' changing responses to urban growth since the 1960s. The second presents case studies of housing markets and landlord-tenant relations north and south of the Sahara. The third examines World Bank involvement, and the book ends by considering policy implications.

The global increase in the number of slums calls for policies which improve the conditions of the urban poor, sustainably. This volume provides an extensive overview of current housing policies in Asia, Africa and Latin America and presents the facts and trends of recent housing policies. The chapters provide ideas and tools for pro-poor interventions with respect to the provision of land for housing, building materials, labour, participation and finance. The book looks at the role of the various stakeholders involved in such interventions, including national and local governments, private sector organisations, NGOs and Community-based Organisations.

Economic reform in China has resulted in a widening gap between the rich and the poor, and urban poverty has emerged as a key factor which may affect future development. This new book examines the poverty problem in relation to housing and social changes in large inland cities, and assesses the effectiveness of recent government anti-poverty policies. The book also puts the Chinese experience in the wider context of transitional economies and discusses the similarities and differences between China and Central and Eastern European countries. The book is based on a long period of research on Chinese urban development, and benefited from several research projects conducted in Chinese cities. It is an important reference for all of those interested in housing, urban studies and social change, and is a key text for students of the Chinese economy and society.

Red tape is a significant stumbling block to the provision of affordable shelter to the urban poor and, indeed, slums are largely the result of inappropriate regulatory frameworks. This practice-oriented manual tackles the issue of regulatory frameworks for urban upgrading and new housing development, and how they impact on access to adequate, affordable shelter and other key livelihood assets, in particular for the urban poor. It illustrates two methods for reviewing regulatory frameworks and expounds guiding principles for effecting change, informed by action research. The downloadable resources contain case studies, methods, exercises and tools, references and website links, and a video on reviewing regulatory frameworks.