ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the actual housing patterns that have obtained among the Cairo poor. As regards the Cairo poor it is important to note that housing had, until the early to mid-1980s, not been regarded as an indication of a particular family's rank or achievements. Housing is a major factor determining the life and welfare of the urban poor, but it is never an isolated issue. Housing must be seen as being integrated with other aspects of life and as contingent on a number of factors at both the macro and micro level. It identifies the factors that have constrained their options and decisions by placing housing within their larger matrix of values and also within a socio-economic context that they have perceived and reacted to in specific ways. Yet through the developments, poor housing retains its character as private and self-financed, based mainly on tenants and single-house-owner landlords.
