Squatter settlements may be demolished in slum clearance programs. Nonetheless, many such settlements endure and grow, over time acquiring public services and rights. Well-known slums like Mumbai’s Dharavi, Rocinha in Rio de Janeiro, and Nairobi’s Kibera are populous, established, and diverse cities within cities.
Full Answer
Why do slums have squatter settlements?
Squatter and slum settlements have formed mainly because of the inability of city governments to plan and provide affordable housing for the low-income segments of the urban population [4]. Hence, squatter and slum housing is becoming the housing solution for this low-income urban population.
Do self-help housing programs work for urban squatter settlements?
These self-help housing programs are successful in sub-urban and rural housing areas, where people live in their own addresses. But providing self-help housing loans and construction help for urban squatter settlements, in many cases, has been a dilemma for squatters and the organizations, case studies show that.
How are houses built in squatter settlements?
These houses are initially built using poor materials, which are cheap or free, like cardboard, wood, corrugated metal, and plastic sheeting. Squatter settlements are quite common in developing countries with one of the biggest slums in the world found in Pakistan. Squatter settlements are known as Bustees in India, and Favelas in Brazil.
What challenges do civic authorities face in managing squatter settlements?
The civic authorities face with serious urban planning and management challenges by the presence of squatter settlements and slums. Forced evictions adopted by several governments in various parts of the world put the rights of squatter dwellers at risk and lead to violation of human rights.
What are the solutions to squatter settlements?
Water and improved sanitation and hygiene (WaSH) are the biggest planning and design concerns of informal settlements and adjacent formal settlements as well. The prioritization of inclusive access to WaSH should be encouraged.
What are conditions like for people living in squatter settlements?
They are characterized by a lack of most or all of the basic urban services like infrastructural, welfare, and community services. They lack the basic municipal services, such as water supply, sanitation, waste collection, or infrastructure, and are exposed to diseases, crimes, and natural disasters.
What factors contribute to squatter settlements?
The high building standards of the legal houses, delayed response and procedural problems of the legal land provision system, and high housing rents in the city centre are the major factors identified by interviewees as reasons given for squatting.
How do you manage and improve squatter settlements?
Improving squatter settlementsSite and service schemes. People pay a small amount of rent for a site and they can borrow money to buy building material. Rent money used to provide basic services.Self-help schemes. Government and local people working together to improve life. ... Local authority schemes.
What are the 3 biggest problems of informal settlements?
Informal settlements are characterized by a lack of basic services, pollution, overcrowding and poor waste management.
What are the main characteristics of informal settlements?
Characteristics include inadequate access to safe water and sanitation, poor quality of housing, overcrowding, and insecure residential status.
What are the causes of squatter settlements quizlet?
What are the causes of squatter settlement? Population increase and migration from rural areas for jobs; housing shortage for large number of urban immigrants. Area in a city in an LDC where people illegally establish residences on land they don't own or rent.
How can we solve the problem of slums?
Solutions common to these programs include:Prioritizing on-site, incremental upgrades. ... Ensuring vulnerable groups have a voice. ... Partnering with NGOs and academic institutions. ... Improving transport networks. ... Avoiding displacement of residents and improving access to services.
How can we improve the conditions of living in slums?
Making cities safe and sustainable means ensuring access to safe and affordable housing, and upgrading slum settlements. It also involves investment in public transport, creating green public spaces, and improving urban planning and management in a way that is both participatory and inclusive.
How do you deal with informal settlers?
Talk to the settlers Hold a conversation with the informal settlers in your property. Some of them after all are victims of circumstances. Talk to them with your lawyers until you meet an agreement. But avoid giving them money just so you can have your land free.
What can you say about squatter area?
A squatter settlement therefore, can be defined as a residential area which has developed without legal claims to the land and/or permission from the concerned authorities to build; as a result of their illegal or semi-legal status, infrastructure and services are usually inadequate.
What are squatter settlements AP Human Geography?
Squatter. Settlement. An area within a city in a less developed country in which people illegally establish residences on land they do not own or rent and erect homemade structures.
Are squatter settlements illegal?
In the United States, squatting is illegal and squatters can be evicted for trespassing.
What are the characteristics of a squatter settlement?
Characteristics Of A Squatter Settlement. Due to its illegal status, squatter settlements lack an adequate supply of various infrastructures. These settlements have poor drainage and roads, sanitation, water supply, market places, and health centers among others. Even though these resources are in some settlements, they are poorly maintained, ...
Where are squatter settlements located?
Canada Real, a low-class settlement in Madrid, is considered to be the largest slum in Europe. Squatter settlements, commonly known as ‘’bairros de lata’’ in Portugal, are occupied by immigrants from their previous colonies. Various American cities like Oakland and Newark have witnessed the construction of tent cities in the past. Other towns like Colonias near the Mexican border resemble shanty towns.
What are the materials used in squatter houses?
These houses are initially built using poor materials, which are cheap or free, like cardboard, wood, corrugated metal, and plastic sheeting . Squatter settlements are quite common in developing countries with one of the biggest slums in the world found in Pakistan.
What are the disadvantages of squatter settlements?
Disadvantages Of Squatter Settlement. Fire is one of the main dangers in these settlements not only because of no fire station, but the lack of a formal street grid makes it hard for the fire trucks to access the squatter settlements.
What is a squatter camp?
A squatter camp in South Africa. A squatter settlement is a place where the residents don’t have legal rights over the land. A squatter area is composed of numerous buildings that are occupied by people with no legal claim to the land. These residential areas are found in urban localities, and they provide housing to the poorest people in the world.
Where are squatters built?
Squatter settlements are built on the periphery of numerous cities in some of the world’s poorest nations, near trash damping sites, lagoons, rivers, and railway road tracks. They can also be constructed on marginal unoccupied pieces of land like marshy or swampy land and steep hillsides.
Where are the slums?
Some of the biggest slums in the world are located in Kenya (Mathare and Kibera), South Africa, Brazil, Philippines, Venezuela, Peru, India, and Jamaica among others.
Definition
Squatter settlement is defined as a low residential area, which has developed without legal right to the land or permission from the concerned authorities to build, and as a result, of their illegal status, infrastructure and services are usually inadequate (UN-Habitat 2003 ).
Introduction
In this entry, the squatter settlements and slums are discussed critically. At the outset, the concepts of squatter settlement and slum are defined, and the meaning, processes, causes, consequences, and challenges of squatter settlements and slums are discussed. There have been rapid urbanization and unbalanced...
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What are the problems of squatter settlements?
Living condition in these settlements suffer from overcrowding, inadequate accommodation, limited access to clean water and sanitation, lack of proper waste disposal system and deteriorating air quality. Squatter settlements are increasingly seen by public decision-makers as ‘slums of hope’ rather than ‘slums of despair’. There is abundant evidence of innovative solutions developed by the poor to improve their own living environments. This paper will assess the question if ideas of contemporary architecture can be implemented in providing ecological living for squatter settlements, along with a discussion on probable suggestions in relation to their daily living pattern. The paper also presents several case studies of sustainable living in high-density urban areas and slum settlements in different context, finally concludes providing some strategies and policies that might be helpful to the policy makers in providing sustainable settlement for urban squatter dwellers.
Why are squatters in urban areas inevitable?
Squatter settlements in urban areas are inevitable phenomena as long as urban areas offer economies of different scales as means for improving quality of living and environment for millions of poor in developing areas of the world.
How do squatters improve their living conditions?
Looking at the characteristics and formation of squatter settlements all around the world, the living units in the slums are perhaps, the best examples of the most optimum utilization of living space. Moreover, the squatters use minimum building materials to create their living Space, which are easily available, like- old and used tin sheets, timber rafters, joists and posts, country tiles, plastic sheets and other recycled materials. [ 12] Use of traditional building materials in these settlements that are easily accessible from nature is also a character representing these dwellings. What these people mostly need in order to improve their living into sustainable settlements are- monetary help from Government, organized participation into constructing self-help housing along with local and recycling building materials, designer’s participation into making the spaces more comfortable for living within the constraint of structure and space. Solving all these issues together can definitely result into sustainable housing settlement for squatters and slums. Question that comes is- can this way of living not become a typology itself, when provided with all the necessities of a healthy living? These dwellings are using optimum space and resources from nature, which is the indication of living sustainable. How can architects and designers play in these parts, converting these squatter settlements to provide as healthy living pattern, while keeping these positive characteristics intact in the renewed solution? It has been observed that, from the history of improving squatter settlements in different regions, wherever appropriate upgrading policies and healthy living designs have been put in place, have become increasingly socially cohesive; offering opportunities for security of tenure, local economic development and improvement of conditions of their lives. In 21 st century living settlements around the world, when it is predicted, by 2050, two-thirds of humanity will be living in urban regions, and majority of them will be living in squatter settlements, then the question of providing adequate, healthy housing becomes a basic, emerging need for the increasing urban generations. This issue is not only about architect or designer’s role in providing proper housing; this is a complex issue addressing policies, economies and politics also. So, all these different dialogues have to be merged in transforming the squatter settlements as a way of healthy living in context of 21 st century. Lastly, the paper ends up with this question: Will the 21 st century be remembered as golden era of sustainable, socially conscious design, by providing an overall basic healthy living pattern for all?
How does secure tenure affect housing?
Secure tenure to slum dwellers transforms their homes into a tangible asset. They can leverage their house to finance their work; they can rent out rooms for income support. Investment in community improvements and urban infrastructure build value into this tangible asset while improving the productivity of home-based enterprises. But even so, securing tenure is not without its complexities and often leads to indirect eviction. For instance, the value of the tenure after development is sometimes so high that the resident is forced by its own poverty to pass it on and instead find a new informal settlement for himself. In this case, simply giving property ownership to urban or rural poor has created an increase in poverty by placing slum dwellers at the mercy of a voracious property market. Developers, with an eye toward entrepreneurial development, tempt the owner to resell or rent the new property. As a result, the owner sells the tenure which they received as a ‘gift’, then go back to live in slum again. One of the main goals to improve living for urban squatters should be, to create tenure situations that work for communities without subjecting them to increased market forces. For instance, slum settlements in Sao paolo, Brazil are called ‘Favelas’, more than 50% of people living in these settlements are self-employed informal workers, who $500 on average per month. A housing development project named ‘Cingapura’ took place in some favelas during 1990’s, targeting these lower-income households. The concept was simple: rationalizing a favela by creating new-construction publicly funded housing, five or six-storey walkup flats, which are then sold to the residents who used to live there. After construction, a typical Cingapura property cost was considered affordable only for the upper-income households of favelas. Therefore, the intended beneficiaries were not helped by this housing program. The units were also considered as larger than families need, and poorly suited for self-employed informal workers living in the settlement. As a result, those who moved back to the new constructed housing project were often quite different from those that moved away [ 9].
How can squatters play a role in the construction of their homes?
The squatters can continue to play a central role in the design and construction of their homes and communities with the help of architects. Contemporary architectural practices and researches can set some design examples of low-cost ecological living settlements with basic living conditions provided (like-sanitation, water, electricity etc); these designs should be adapted to climates of different regions. The designs must fulfill the first condition of being affordable for urban squatters. Then, they should fulfill the criteria to be built in easy, traditional methods by the owners. Squatters have always been the architects, engineers and builders of their settlements, and here they can also play the role. The goal here is to use the knowledge and skills of the formal sector in complement to the skills of the informal sector- building quality houses without foreshadowing the participation of beneficiaries.
How to solve urban squatters?
Many governments around the world have attempted to solve the problems of urban squatter settlements by clearing away old decrepit housing and replacing it with modern housing with much better sanitation. In these specific cases, slum clearance often took the form of eminent urban renewal projects, and often the former residents were prohibited in the renewed housing. According to many critics, forced slum clearances tend to ignore the social problems that cause the formation of slums.
What materials do squatters use?
Moreover, the squatters use minimum building materials to create their living Space, which are easily available, like- old and used tin sheets, timber rafters, joists and posts, country tiles, plastic sheets and other recycled materials. [ 12] .
Characteristics of A Squatter Settlement
Squatter Settlements in Developed Countries
- Even though squatter settlements are not common in developed states, there are numerous European cities with shanty towns. The high number of immigrants has resulted in the growth of shanty towns in the cities situated on the entry points of the EU like Patras and Athens. Canada Real, a low-class settlement in Madrid, is considered to be the largest slum in Europe. Squatter s…
Squatter Settlements in Developing Nations
- The largest Asian slum is Orangi in Pakistan. Orangi became quite famous during the 1980s when the locals initiated the Orangi-Pilot Project after being frustrated by lack of development from the government. Slums are known as ‘’bidonvilles’’ in francophone nations like Haiti and Tunisia. Some of the biggest slums in the world are located in Kenya (Mathare and Kibera), South Africa, Brazil…
Disadvantages of Squatter Settlement
- Fire is one of the main dangers in these settlements not only because of no fire station, but the lack of a formal street grid makes it hard for the fire trucks to access the squatter settlements. They are fire hazards primarily due to the flammable materials used to build some of these homes and the high density of buildings. These settlements have high rates of diseases, drug use, suici…
Introduction
Causes
- The characteristics associated with squatters and slums vary from place to place; slums are usually characterized by urban decay, high rates of poverty, and unemployment. They are commonly seen as "breeding grounds" for social problems such as crime, drug addiction, alcoholism, high rates of mental illness, and suicide. In many poor countries they exhibit high rat…
Measures Already Taken
- Many governments around the world have attempted to solve the problems of urban squatter settlements by clearing away old decrepit housing and replacing it with modern housing with much better sanitation. In these specific cases, slum clearance often took the form of eminent urban renewal projects, and often the former residents were prohibited in the renewed housing. …
Possible Solutions
- In our opinion, to address a solution for urban squatter settlements, firstly the squatters will have to work as a community, that can co-ordinate with their development plans along with Government and other organizations. Even by looking at the formation of this kind of settlements, they are the constructive results of collective efforts of a group or community. Development an…
Concluding Remarks
- From all these discussions, we can say that, squatter people always face insecurity regarding the ownership of the place where they live. But if they are provided assurance from Government organizations for actively participating into improving their settlements, the living condition into these squatters can improve rapidly. Looking at the characte...