When governments encourage self help housing they oppress the poor Discuss
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Introduction
In Latin America, some people and agencies believe self-help housing is a mechanism by which poor people can become owner-occupiers of dwellings that suit their needs at a specific moment in time. Ward (1982) suggests that self-help housing is a process whereby households take responsibility into their own hands and squat upon, or purchase (often illegally), lots at the urban periphery. Dwellers erect provisional shelters which, depending upon the opportunities that they are given, they hope to be able to improve gradually as their resources allow. As this essay will demonstrate, self-help housing, or squatter settlements, has become important in the debates about housing deficits and possible solutions to the crises of many Latin American cities. I will explore what impacts the encouragement of such settlements has had on the urban poor.
Traditionally, self-help housing has been looked down upon by the State, as it often involves illegal land invasions or sub-divisions. Housing is constructed by the dwellers and gradually consolidates over time. Self-help housing can be a solution to the lack of cheap housing available to the urban poor (Mangin, 1967), and is an important component of the functioning of the Latin American city. Since the late 1960s, most governments have continued to invest in conventional housing projects, but there has been a definite shift towards support for unauthorised settlements. New settlements have been developed where the housing construction has been left mostly to the inhabitants themselves, while the State has provided a basic range of services (Gilbert and Ward, 1985)...