ABSTRACT
How do the rural and urban poor obtain shelter? When seeking to obtain shelter, people are more interested in social relationships which enable them to meet this need. It is for this reason that they make use of multiple and diverse social relationships to obtain shelter. Their multiple personal networks are constituted of kin ties, strong ties with friends, and disposable ties with new acquaintances. Whether people use kin ties or disposable ties is not always driven by economic forces. Often it is based on social considerations. It is due to social considerations that, although kin are willing to provide shelter, some individuals deliberately turn to disposable ties.
