ABSTRACT
Before launching on an examination of alternative approaches to state interventions in urban housing markets on behalf of the lowest income groups, it is useful to review the strategic mechanisms by which low-income urban households and communities house themselves informally, using their own resources. These approaches are generally regarded as illegal and have been actively resisted and obstructed by governments – the police and on occasions in some countries, the military. An important characteristic of informal housing development processes has been the incremental nature of house building, infrastructure installation and provision of urban services. Householders construct, extend and improve their dwellings when these become a high priority for the investment of their resources and energy and when disposable resources become available to them. Incremental procurement of urban housing is not confined to low-income households. Almost all permanent and serviced housing is procured as an incremental process that takes place over relatively long periods of time.
