Housing outside of official government control, regulation, or protection
Informal housing settlement in Soweto, South Africa
Informal housing or informal settlement can include any form of housing, shelter, or settlement (or lack thereof) which is illegal, falls outside of government control or regulation, or is not afforded protection by the state.[1] As such, the informal housing industry is part of the informal sector.[2]
To have informal housing status is to exist in "a state of deregulation, one where the ownership, use, and purpose of land cannot be fixed and mapped according to any prescribed set of regulations or the law".[1] While there is no global unified law of property-ownership,[3] the informal occupant or community will typically lack security of tenure and, with this, ready or reliable access to civic amenities (potable water, electricity and gas supply, road creation and maintenance, emergency services, sanitation and waste collection). Due to the informal nature of occupancy, the state will typically be unable to extract rent or land taxes.
The term "informal housing" is useful in capturing the informal population other than those living in slum settlements or shanty towns. UN-Habitat more narrowly defines slum housing as lacking at least one of the following criteria: durability, sufficient living space, safe and accessible water, adequate sanitation, and security of tenure.[4]
Common categories or terms associated with informal housing include: slums, shanty towns, squats, homelessness, backyard housing and pavement dwellers.
^ abRoy, Ananya (2009). "Why India Cannot Plan Its Cities". Planning Theory. 8 (1): 80. doi:10.1177/1473095208099299. S2CID 145580709.
^"The Informal Economy: Fact Finding Study" (PDF). Department for Infrastructure and Economic Cooperation. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 October 2011. Retrieved 20 November 2011.
^Fernandes, Edesio; Varley, Ann (1998). Illegal Cities: Law and Urban Change in Developing Countries. London: Zed Books. p. 4.
^"Slums: Some Definitions" (PDF). UN-Habitat. 2006. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 October 2013.
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transitional housing, to non-market rental (also known as social or subsidized housing), to formal and informal rental, indigenous housing, and ending...
associations Housing estate Housing First Housing in the United Kingdom Housing in Japan InformalhousingInformal sector List of housing statutes List...
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multidimensional poverty and more than 400,000 people continue to live in informalhousing. Income disparity in the country is one of the world's highest with...
collection of slums which contain around 500,000 people. In Zambia, the informalhousing areas are known as kombonis and approximately 80% of the people in...
"informal" housing ('ashwa'iyyat), meaning housing that was built without any official planning or control. The exact form of this type of housing varies...
towns with little or no services. About 85% of Kliptown comprises informalhousing. The Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee argues that Soweto's poor...
living in informalhousing. There is a 20 percent yearly housing demand increase in Abuja, Ibadan and Kano. Generally, private market housing can only...
A komboni is a type of informalhousing compound or shanty town common to Zambia, particularly the capital city of Lusaka. It is characterized by a low...
PMID 23508368. S2CID 25227108. Serafeim POLYZOS Dionysios MINETOS (2009). INFORMALHOUSING IN GREECE: A QUANTITATIVE SPATIAL ANALYSIS. Research Centre in Public...
of informalhousing. A distinct use of the term "housing crisis" refers to financial crises related to the housing sector. Rapid swings in housing asset...
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northern suburbs are mainly formal, with no significant areas of informalhousing, or housing that lacks a permanent structure. Although this is an established...
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for carrying out the Acts’ objectives”. The policies associated with informalhousing have slowly taken a neoliberal path, as seen through the Slum Redevelopment...
encompassing housing policy, informalhousing, and urban regeneration. Her housing research encompasses topics such as affordable housing, social housing, and...
appropriation of urban spaces in Casablanca. Moroccans residing in informalhousing were cleared out of the center and displaced, notably to Carrières...
development has been accompanied by forced eviction of residents in informalhousing zones, however, and groups such as Human Rights Watch have accused...
Pavement dwellers refers to informalhousing built on the footpaths/pavements of city streets. The structures use the walls or fences which separate properties...
were informal. Statistically, over two thirds of housing built between 2008 and 2018 was informal. Though not all informal or self-built housing is inadequate...
residents live in shacks. In 2020 the city had a total of 41,900 of these informalhousing structures, accommodating close to 100,000 inhabitants. Windhoek has...
Festivals Association. Kapetanović, Mišo; Katurić, Ivana (2015). "The InformalHousing of Privatnici and the Question of Class Two Stories From The Post-Yugoslav...
sanitation services and costs in formal housing". City of Cape Town. "Water and sanitation services in informalhousing". City of Cape Town. "Agricultural...
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