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Shelter for the Poor in Low Income Cities John D. Nystuen
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Figure 1. Table of Parameters Figure 2. People by the Billions   
 Figure 4. A collage of squatter settlements.  30,000 people live in this complex. Figure 6. Table of Cities of over Ten Million 
      house with lockable door, two windows, and corn crop that must be guarded.  in the Rapki Valley, Nepal  steady improvement.  city-installed outdoor privys for sanitation. Metered electric power supplied direct to houses.  with continuous flow when water is available.  district of New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.  for home with fruit trees. |
Finding
shelter for the poor in low-income cities is a
problem for now and
for the future. The twentieth
century saw huge growth in human
population. This population is now entering
the twenty-first century
with enormous and growing needs for sustenance and
shelter. Millions
of new families are created each year all seeking
ways to sustain life,
to nurture, and to shelter their children.
In the new century, most
of the population growth will be in cities.
Most of these cities
will be poor because their already poor economies
simply cannot grow at
rates needed to raise the level of living while
accommodating their own
population growth. In addition these cities
receive huge waves of
poor, unskilled immigrants who not only are
destitute but who are often
refugees fleeing oppressive regimes. How do
these people live?
All these people need shelter. How, in the past
seventy years, have four
billion more people found shelter? The
parameters of this process
are migration and growth, poverty, homelessness,
and rule of law (Figure
1).
a
Migration
and Growth
In 1930,
there were two billion people on earth. It
had taken 120 years to
grow from one billion. Forty-five years
later, in 1975, the population
had doubled to four billion people.
Twenty-four years later, the
population had grown again by two billion
people. In the first quarter
of the 21st century, another two billion will be
added to the total, at
least, according to the optimistic forecast by the
United Nations, which
sees a decline in world population growth but an
increasing growth in the
urban population. The number of people has
increased by the billions
(Figure
2).
a
Poverty
Basic
human needs must be met or people die. Food
and health are basic.
The first need is to be fed. For poor
people, most of their income
goes toward finding food. Shelter comes
next. Those with extremely
low incomes are homeless (Figure 3).
Generally, opportunities for
making a living have been better in urban areas
than in rural regions.
The consequence has been a vast rural to urban
migration. However,
city economies are not able to keep pace.
Opportunities for making
a living are meager. Many people are
homeless or live in spontaneous
shelters, that is, self-built, squatter
settlements or shantytowns squeezed
into marginal spaces in and around the city
(Figure 4). Such shelters
have different names in different places: bustee
in India, gegucondu
in Turkey, favelas in Brazil. To
meet the housing needs in
poor cities, appropriate technologies for
self-built housing must be utilized.
Hong Kong's population grew eight-fold since
1931. Most of this population
has been housed in high-rise apartment buildings
(Figure 5). Hong
Kong is among the wealthy cities of the world and
its economy is buoyant.
The Hong Kong Housing Authority has provided for
seventy percent of the
housing demand through a building program financed
by loans from the city
government. These loans have been or are
being paid back on time
and with interest. This payback with
interest is possible because
the occupants, whose incomes have steadily risen,
can pay sufficient rent
to meet capital and upkeep costs. This
process is not an option for
cities where the majority of the people live in
poverty.
At
the turn of the twentieth century, most of the
world's poor could not afford
to allocate the recommended twenty-five percent or
more of their income
to pay for shelter. These huge
concentrations of poor people are
a legacy of the last century. In 1975, five
cities had ten million
inhabitants or more. Two of these cities,
Tokyo and New York were
in affluent nations. In the year 2000,
nineteen cities had ten million
inhabitants or more with four of them in affluent
nations (Tokyo, New York,
Los Angeles and Osaka). The rest are in
low-income nations (Figure
6). By 2015 the estimate is for 23
cities over 10 million.
Most of their inhabitants live in self-built
housing constructed by people
with very low incomes and skills who must rely on
building technologies
appropriate for those circumstances.
Consequently, affordable shelter
is frequently inadequate in the extreme. The
shelters are likely
to provide insecure and inadequate protection
against the elements and
intrusions. They lack access to urban
services, and are likely to
occupy land illegally (Figure 7). They are
hazardous to life.
People constantly strive to improve their housing
as a way to improve the
quality of their lives.
a
Homelessness
What
is missing when you have no home? Shelter is
a complex mix of factors
each of which contribute to quality of life (Figure
8). We all seek to create a secure and
comfortable home place.
In fact, most animals do the same by creating
nests or dens in which to
raise offspring. To protect children is a
specie imperative no less
for humans than for animals. Factors that
are important for a home
place fall into the categories site and situation,
terms
that are familiar to geographers. Site
attributes refer to
in-place or inside characteristics such as the
design and type of building
materials used for buildings, the slope and
drainage of the building lot
terrain, the temperature range or number of days
of sunshine. Situation
refers to the position of the home place relative
to other locations.
A home place must have access to community
services such as utilities,
schools, and generally to connections to the
larger society. All
these characteristics should be considered when
assessing the viability
of home places or when planning aid in building
human habitats.
a
Locational
(Access) Needs. Three types of
outside connections are needed
for a home place to function effectively.
They are (i) access to
physical services, (ii) access to community, and
(iii) access to status.
a
Access
to Physical Services A modern American
home is serviced by several
physical links such as a motorable road, electric
power line, and water
and sewer lines. There are information links
too for mail, newspapers,
telephone, and radio/TV. Access to
information usually requires a
fixed home address and/or fixed receiver
equipment, e.g., street address/mailbox,
phone jack, or cable TV. Mobile receivers,
laptop computers and homepages
on the Internet have introduced new spatial
dynamics to information exchange
by adding a virtual home to the physical home.
Sometimes,
depending upon local conditions and availability,
services can be provided
on-site, such as, well water or a septic tank and
drainage field.
Such facilities do have neighborhood or locational
implications depending
upon soil type, aquifer capacity, and nearby
housing density. Many
of these attributes are absent in the squatter
settlements of low-income
cities.
a
Access
to Community A home place needs access
to social and economic
exchange. Principal among these is proximity
to work if income is
earned outside the home. The home should
also be conveniently located
relative to other social services, retail stores,
government offices, and
homes of relatives and friends: in sum, the urban
matrix. Schools
are important. In Seoul, families move to
school districts that have
the best schools because students are assigned to
school by place of residence.
Residential land values in the best districts have
soared due to this demand.
In
the giant, low-income cities, the people in
poverty will crowd into marginal
places despite possibly terrible site conditions
in order to get access
to social and economic opportunities (Figure
9). Low cost, subsidized
public transportation is a necessity in large
urban areas with a high proportion
of the population in poverty. Even modest
fares may be a burden to
the very poor. They must walk and must
therefore crowd housing into
places within walking distances of places of
opportunity.
a
Access
to Status A permanent home address is
often a condition of citizenship.
You have to have a permanent address in order to
vote. In some places,
home ownership is a requirement for voting on
property tax proposals.
You need to be a resident for your children to
attend the public schools
or to be eligible for welfare or social
services. Children of migrant
farm workers in the United States are often denied
access to local schools
and social services, which only adds to the
difficulties in obtaining an
education or sustaining health due to their short
tenure in any one place.
People
of means are inclined to invest far more in their
home than is necessary
for mere shelter. The home is used for
displaying wealth and power
to gain or affirm high status in the
community. Ostentatious megahouses
are characteristic of the nouveau riche in the
communities of Silicon Valley
and elsewhere across the United States at the end
of the last century.
The middle class behaves similarly by investing
more than is prudent into
too large a house and lot. Too much invested
in housing leaves assets
too concentrated and debt service too high in
relation to annual income.
The desire to own a large single-family house on a
big lot is a major component
in urban sprawl.
At
the beginning of the last century, Americans
believed that a woman's place
was in the home. At the end of the century,
that attitude had changed
with over half the women in the work force outside
the home. Still,
in many parts of the world, a woman's status is
defined by her role in
the home. If she is not a family member
located in a home place,
she is an outcast subject to harassment and
danger.
a
Site
Needs. The home place is built or
arranged to provide for (i)
restoration, (ii) health, and (iii)
security. Our home is our castle.
a
Restoration
We
have physiological needs that are periodic;
foremost among them is the
need to sleep. We can sleep anywhere but we
find great comfort in
returning to our own beds at night (Figure
10). This desire creates
the great diurnal movement from homeplace into and
back from the urban
matrix characteristic of urban life. Other
periodic needs are for
food and drink. Again, these needs can be
met elsewhere but it is
efficient and comforting to have a place at home
to meet these needs.
A place for toiletry and bathing meets a daily
need for grooming as we
set out for the day. Finally, it is
comforting to have a place to
relax, to retreat from the alertness necessary in
public and/or strange
places.
a
Health
The
dwelling provides a roof overhead for protection
from the elements,
rain, snow, cold and heat. It can also be
equipped to protect against
hazards such as wind, fire, and earthquakes.
Keeping the homeplace
clean and fresh protects against disease and
disease vectors. These
elements are deficient to various degrees in
squatter settlements.
Crowded, unsanitary conditions, flimsy
construction, lack of safe water
and accumulation of wastes create hazards that
threaten the entire urban
area with spreading infectious disease or
catastrophic fire, wind, or earthquake
damage.
a
Security
Strong
walls and secure locks can provide for personal
safety for one’s
self and family. A secure home also affords
protection of possessions
and wealth (Figure 11). Physical barriers
work best when attended
to by vigilant concern for who is coming and
going. Protection is
more readily sustained where private, protected
space is buffeted from
open public space by semi-public areas. In
larger houses, strangers
are customarily welcome at the foyer/lobby or in
the living room but not
the kitchen or bedrooms. In some places, an
outside courtyard shared
with immediate neighbors can act as a semi-public
buffer where strangers
are immediately recognized if they enter
unannounced (Figure 12).
A
sense of security has much deeper roots than mere
physical protection.
The home place is where your roots are
located. It is steeped in
memories, memories of childhood, events,
commitment, artifacts, landscapes
not by sight alone but with memories of smells,
sounds, tastes and kinetic
senses. People love their homes. When
separated in distant places
they long for home. They will fight for and
die for their home.
The
sentiment of home arises from symbolic, shared
meaning. Yi-Fu Tuan
said that, "A place is a pause in movement…The
pause makes it possible
for a locality to become a center of felt value"
(Tuan, page 138).
The repeated returns to pause at home creates its
value. Mostly,
however, this is a collective achievement.
Sharing the place with
family and friends is what makes the place a
home. The lonely hotel
room or the empty house after the children have
left and the spouse has
died may be a source of bitterness and sorrow
rather than joy.
To
some the homeplace helps to define an individual's
place or the community's
place in the cosmos. Divine or supernatural
blessings of the home
may enhance a sense of security. In Thailand
and Indonesia small
house temples are placed at the corner of the home
lot to invite spirits
to protect the inhabitants. Sacred places
are usually not in dwelling
places but are nearby in the region accessible for
periodic visits, if
not daily, perhaps annually. Jerusalem is a
Holy City; it is sacred
for at least three major religions and is,
unfortunately, a highly contested
place. People will die to maintain control
over it.
a
Rule
of Law
City officials are often at odds with people who construct inexpensive, self-built houses. Squatter settlements are often hazardous. Public safety is always at issue. Settlements may be located on land unsuitable for housing such as in floodways or on very steep slopes: places unworthy for standard housing. Cheap, self-built structures are built without housing codes or subdivision standards. The properties may not be accessible by motor vehicle, which means fire trucks and other emergency vehicles cannot reach residences. They lack public services such as potable water or sewer and waste disposal or treatment. Health hazards that affect the whole city are the result. City officials are motivated to address such issues because of political pressure from more affluent citizens living in other parts of town (Figure 14). Low-income districts may be overcrowded with too many people per room occupancy. Houses located on property to which there is no title are not eligible for public services. Some of the people living in sub-standard housing may be illegal aliens who shun contact with any officials due to their lack of standing under the law. Financing improvements in squatter settlements is extremely difficult. The economy of the low-income city is not only weak but the government has difficulty in finding funds to provide necessary public services. Urban public transit needs to be subsidized because the clients are too poor to support the system with fare box payments. If public services cannot be provided directly to private properties, it is difficult to recover costs through service charges. For example, if there is only the capacity to provide widely spaced public potable water stands; charging for the water is not possible. The water is free to all users (Figure 15). When this is the condition, water is usually available for only a short time at each stand, perhaps not even daily. The water is distributed piece-meal district by district to avoid complete loss of pressure in the system. Land taxes are not a major source of income for low-income cities. In New Orleans land tax was assessed by linear front foot; hence, the rise of the long, narrow "shotgun house" (Figure 16). The problem is lack of cadastral surveys assigning property to landowners and lack of spatial information management capacity in assessor's offices. The public policy approach to these issues shapes the way the urban fabric develops. Millions of people have moved to the large, poor cities of the world and more are coming. The formal economies of these cities cannot cope with the growth. Some accommodation by public officials to the informal economies and to the capacity for self-help exhibited by those with little means is called for. Tapping the energy of poor but able people has been tried through site and service programs in which the city lays out streets and property boundaries and allows the occupants to build their own houses, sometimes with some simple building restrictions such as minimum wall heights. Ownership title is then given to the occupant. When this happens the house and lot are usually continually improved. In time a very suitable home emerges (Figure 17). a
a
References
Yi-Fu
Tuan, 1977. Space and Place: The
Perspective of Experience
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
United Nations, World Urbanization Prospects: The 1999 Revision, Table 5. http://www.un.org/esa/population/pubsarchive/urbanization/urbanization.pdf (downloaded Nov. 1, 2001). All photos by author. |
Solstice: An Electronic Journal of Geography and Mathematics
Volume XII, Number 2
Ann Arbor: Institute of Mathematical Geography.