ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to survey the more important and common of the approaches and to identify alternatives which might deserve further exploration and where additional research would be useful. The social and psychological requirements for a good community are essentially the same everywhere in a given society if not in all societies. Housing and the residential environment per se and in terms of physical and social linkages with the other elements of the town are critical factors in determining whether requirements for community can be met in resource towns. All self-help approaches to housing have the objectives of reducing the cost of the housing unit while simultaneously providing design features which are more congruent with the preferences of the resident. A common self-help approach involves the notion of "sweat equity" in a formal way. Once basic land use planning, community design and basic unit design decisions have made, the resident is given the opportunity to purchase an unfinished dwelling unit.
