
What is a squatter settlement?
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.
What is the main cause of squatting?
Economics are the biggest cause, but some squatters are anarchists who see squatting as a form of protesting. Squatter settlements are most often formed by rises in the numbers of homeless people.
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.
How many people live in shanty towns or squatter settlements?
Two-thirds of the population of Calcutta live in shanty towns or squatter settlements and nearly half of the 19.4 million people in Mexico City, Mexico , live in uncontrolled, unauthorized shanty towns and squatter settlements.

What materials are squatter settlements made of?
They provide housing for many of the world's poorest people and offer basic shelter. They are often constructed with poor materials initially, including plastic sheeting, corrugated metal, wood and cardboard. These are all materials that are available either freely as waste or cheaply.
What are the main characteristics of a squatter settlement?
The key characteristic that delineates a squatter settlement is its lack of ownership of the land parcel on which they have built their house. These could be vacant government or public land, or marginal land parcels like railway setbacks or "undesirable" marshy land.
What are squatter settlement?
The term squatter settlement is often used as a general term to encompass low-quality housing, occupied by the poor, usually on the periphery of cities in the Global South.
What is an example of squatter settlement?
In Bhopal, India , and Mexico City, for example, squatter settlements were built next to deadly industrial sites. In such cities as Rio de Janiero, Brazil; La Paz, Bolivia; Guatemala City, Guatemala; and Caracas, Venezuela, they are perched on landslide-prone hills.
Why are squatter settlements made?
Squatter housing arises out of a variety of circumstances, including an inadequate supply of old depleted formal housing near the central business district. Squatter housing is attractive to migrants and others in low-income and insecure employment.
Why are squatter settlements formed?
Squatter settlements are most often formed by rises in the numbers of homeless people. The homeless people then seek shelter off the street in abandoned buildings. Some of the buildings may still have power and water, which causes the homeless to flock to the "free" resources.
How do you describe a squatter area?
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).
Where are squatter settlements found?
Squatter settlements, widespread in urban Africa, Latin America, and South and Southeast Asia, are a characteristic feature of contemporary urbanization.
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.
Are squatter settlements illegal?
In the United States, squatting is illegal and squatters can be evicted for trespassing.
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.
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.
What are the effects of squatter settlements?
In terms of environmental challenges in the squatter settlements and slums, air and water pollution, lack of personal hygiene and poor environmental sanitation, and health, noise, and cultural pollution are among the most visible ones. Sprawling, litter, and polluted waterways are most prevalent in most urban slums.
Where are squatter settlements?
Squatter settlements, widespread in urban Africa, Latin America, and South and Southeast Asia, are a characteristic feature of contemporary urbanization.
Squatter Settlements
Squatter settlements or informal settlements have been a very important part of many cities in the Global South. Shifting government and international agency attitudes toward them since the 1960s have reflected a growing recognition of the capacity of the urban poor to adapt and sometimes to thrive in very difficult circumstances.
Towards sustainable urban redevelopment: urban design informed by morphological patterns and ecologies of informal settlements
Informal settlements, as prevalent neighbourhood types in rapidly transforming cities, possess high-density and heterogeneous morphological patterns. They provide affordable housing and employment opportunities for low-income populations while also supporting cities' operation and development.
Potential for Energy Efficiency: Developing Nations
Randall Spalding-Fecher, ... Wolfgang Lutz, in Encyclopedia of Energy, 2004
Integrating WSUD and Mainstream Spatial Planning Approaches
Elizelle Juanee Cilliers, Hildegard Edith Rohr, in Approaches to Water Sensitive Urban Design, 2019
Probing for resilience: Exploring design with empathy in Zanzibar, Tanzania
Abstract In the Global South, the fast growth of informal settlements and increasing numbers of disasters and refugees are challenging current architectural practices.
E-waste recycling slum in the heart of Accra, Ghana: the dirty secrets
Our study illustrates a clash of rationalities in dealing with informal settlements in the global South: the neoliberal visioning of a modern, globally competitive, and orderly city, and the right of city authorities and the private sector to “upgrade” the city and the rights of ordinary citizens for access to services, housing, space, and a decent life.
Can the urban poor reach their jobs? Evaluating equity effects of relocation and public transport projects in Ahmedabad, India
Mark Brussel, ... Martin van Maarseveen, in Measuring Transport Equity, 2019
Shanty towns
The United Nations estimates that at least one billion people — 20% of the world's population — live in crowded, unsanitary slums of the central cities and in the vast shanty towns and squatter settlements that ring the outskirts of most Third World cities. Around 100 million people have no home at all.
SHANTY TOWNS
SHANTY TOWNS as an American social phenomenon first appeared during the lag in reemployment after World War I, rising on dump heaps or wastelands within or at the edges of large industrial cities. Such communities also existed during the Great Depression, when they received the indulgence if not the approval of officials.
shanty towns
shanty towns Improvised housing settlements, usually but not exclusively associated with Third World cities.
1 Economics
Squatter settlements are most often formed by rises in the numbers of homeless people. The homeless people then seek shelter off the street in abandoned buildings. Some of the buildings may still have power and water, which causes the homeless to flock to the "free" resources.
2 Politics
Anarchists believe that no government is legitimate, nor is any associated national market. Anarchists do not even believe in the concept of property. Anarchists will squat in abandoned buildings as a form of protest. Arguably, most "anarchistic" squatter settlements are just normal squatters who claim a political reason for their illegal acts.
3 Artist Colonies
Some artists will squat in abandoned factories for the working room the buildings provide. Some real estate developers will actually encourage the formation of these artist squatters to gentrify an area and attract young urban professionals.
4 Religion
In some countries there is a rigid religious caste system that brands people as "untouchable." These individuals are then forced to live on the fringes of society, with little opportunities for work. The untouchables will squat in abandoned buildings for shelter and to protect themselves from attacks.
5. Characteristics
Shanty towns are also known as squatter settlements. These improvised housing developments are often made up of corrugated metal, plywood, cardboard boxes and sheets of plastics, with these impromptu homes often called shacks.
4. Historic and Modern Examples
Shanty town history in the U.S. dates back to the year 1929 when the unemployed people were thrown out of their houses, and they started building these shanty settlements. In the year 1930, when the economy saw a setback, the condition also worsened as more and more people settled here.
3. Sanitation and Disease
Shanty dwellers suffer from sanitation problems, and diseases are caused by the poor upkeep in these shanty towns. They have to drink poor quality of water, which results into diseases like Cholera and Typhoid. Even some of the natural disasters may occur in the areas formed near the hillsides which can result in death sometimes due to hill slides.
2. Economy and Crime
Areas with shanty towns often pop up where the economic output is lower, and there are minimal levels of access to schools, hospitals, and other needful facilities that are often seen provided by the government and the private sector alike in more affluent areas.
1. Solutions and Alternatives
Effective solutions to make the shanty towns better may come in the form of help from the government or nongovernmental organizations, and they should be given education regarding public cleanliness. The self-help schemes should be introduced and they should be provided with the loans for making improvements in their lives.

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 …
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…
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, disorganized, and unreliable. They also lack va...
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…