Low-cost shelter in third world countries

Globally, the quest to provide housing for poor peoples Is a pressing concern. In Third World Countries where the constraints for providing housing are often monumental, and there are competing demands for capital, the achievement of adequate shelter has generally been regarded as an Impossible task.

Low-cost shelter, however, has been secured in many Third World Countries through subsidized housing projects, assisted by international aid agencies, private foundations, and national governments. This paper presents an analysis of four forms of low-cost shelter projects that have been implemented or are currently being implemented and studied in select Third World Countries. The low-cost shelter approaches investigated include self-help, sites-and-services, upgrading of squatter settlements, and public housing.

A low-cost housing experiment in Lagos, Nigeria, suggests that esthetically attractive houses can be built using locally produced materials, reducing the costs of housing substantively. The experiment also demonstrated that affordable housing in developing countries is possible but not without problems and tradeoffs.