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Problem, research strategy, and findings: One promising policy approach to addressing housing needs is liberalizing accessory dwelling unit (ADU) development. Yet, understanding the impact of such policy efforts is fundamentally constrained by the inability to quantify and characterize unpermitted ADUs, which may expose homeowners and tenants to legal, financial, and safety risks and confound policy evaluations. We addressed this gap by leveraging computer vision and human annotations to estimate the population of detached ADU constructions in San José (CA). Our contributions are threefold: 1) We estimated the proportion of unpermitted ADU constructions from 2016 to 2020; 2) we describe the demographic, housing market, and parcel characteristics associated with these informal ADUs; and 3) we provide a data set of labeled small buildings, excluding unpermitted detections, for further research. We found that informal ADU construction was substantial—approximately three to four informal units for every formal unit—and more likely in more diverse, dense, and overcrowded neighborhoods. Though our study was limited to analyzing detached ADUs during one time period, we set the stage for further investigations of informal housing across different typologies and over time. Takeaway for practice: Our approach demonstrates the promise of computer vision and human annotations to enable more robust, comprehensive, and reliable understanding of actual—not just permitted—housing units. We urge planners and other policymakers to consider the growth patterns of unpermitted ADUs to more optimally and equitably address housing needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines real estate platforms and the data they generate to provide new insights into housing markets and practices, focusing on lower-cost and informal sectors, where building or rental regulations are often bypassed or contravened. We examine online listings advertised in Sydney, one of the most expensive cities in Australia and the world, compiling data from four dominant platforms – Realestate.com.au, Flatmates.com.au, Gumtree.com.au and Airbnb.com – each of which offers a particular type of rental accommodation. Using these datasets, we identify a typology of lower-cost and informal tenures and dwelling units, ranging from secondary dwellings and illegally subdivided apartments to shared accommodation and precarious rental agreements. Our study highlights a supplementary supply of rental housing, operating within the conventional private rental market, accessed and made visible via the platforms we examine. Applying a statistical regression approach, we examine relationships between concentrations of informal housing supply and socio-economic variables. The findings reveal intersections between digital platforms and evolving informal market practices and have implications for urban planning and housing policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social housing projects trigger significant urban transformations in adjacent urban areas. Global South countries invest considerable resources in new social housing to reduce quantitative housing deficits, but their effects on urban transformations in neighboring areas are often overlooked. Although informal settlements are widespread in Global South cities, few studies focus on their transformations due to new social housing projects. To address this literature gap, we employed a quasiexperimental method in which we compared urban changes in Bogotá's informal settlements near social housing projects (experimental group) against those outlying new projects (control group). Through georeferencing, satellite imagery, and field visits, we could determine and compare transformations outside and inside informal settlements in the last decade regarding land values, new structures, housing extensions, basic infrastructure, and public space improvements. We observed that informal neighborhoods near social housing experienced larger land value increases, a higher number of new building permits, and basic infrastructure improvements. We concluded that social housing clusters near informal settlements in Bogotá may explain land value increases that encouraged further private and public investment around these areas. Clusters also attract new social housing that reaches informal settlements and produces a phenomenon of informalization of formality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractHousing demolition in urban villages is a contentious subject. Examining the state-informality nexus, this study argues that informality enters the tensions between interpretations of regulations as text or intent. By utilizing the two analytical categories, this paper argues that higher-level government strategically provides an ambiguous regulatory framework that enables district governments utilized informality as a strategy in the urban village redevelopment in Shenzhen. Three specific strategies were identified: finding alternatives, conceding the use value, and reinterpret ambiguous terms in the context of regulatory framework. Thus, the district government has been able to successfully promote the demolition of houses. As demonstrated in the case study, local officials should understand the intent of regulations and policies in addition to enforcing the text of them. If the intent of a regulation is not contradicted, its enforcement is feasible even if it deviates from the text. This study contributes to international debates on informal settlements and housing governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Housing informality in wealthy contexts is an overlooked phenomenon, particularly in the global South. This article addresses the role of public institutions in the production of housing informality among the wealthy. For this purpose, it analyses the operation of public institutions in relation to the proliferation of luxurious villas in the eastern hills of Bogotá. Three villas were selected as archetypes of informal urbanization among the elite in the eastern hills, and their stories—or informality pathways—were reconstructed through interviews, maps and policy documents. The article aims to unveil how public institutions have contributed to the creation of informal spaces, often in collusion with private entities. Specifically, public institutions demonstrated conflicting internal agencies and multi‐level fragmentation, resulting in flexible regulations tailored to fit the construction practices of the elite. These characteristics were instrumental in establishing spaces of exception for the wealthy in the eastern hills of Bogotá and will likely be mirrored in other informal settlements in the global South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effects of tenure security and governance of informal housing. Renters often face inadequate living environments and overpay utility charges. Meanwhile, variations in tenure security and living conditions constitute different costs involved in enforcing tenure and governance. Utility surcharge is expected to be affected by contractual formality and landlords' governance strength with respect to potential hygienic problem and liveability deterioration based on a case study of Hong Kong's sub-divided units. Results suggest that renters without stamped tenancy contracts and living in buildings with inferior hygienic conditions pay more for electricity surcharges. These provide practical implications for housing and welfare policy implementations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Informal housing accommodates a large number of populations in the worldwide and has received considerable attention. However, there is still a lack of understanding on the diversified informal settlers and their housing incentives, constraints, and risks they face. Based on existing research on property rights and informal settlements, this study presents a conceptual framework that includes four dimensions of property rights (the right of possession, the right of use, the right to earn rental income and the right of transfer) to explore the de facto property rights of Small Property Rights Housing (SPRH) owners for a better understanding on informal housing ownership and its relationship with formal and informal institutional arrangements in China. In-depth interviews with SPRH owners were conducted to explore the de facto property rights of SPRH ownership. Findings reveal that the "small" property rights shaped by formal and informal institutional arrangements have resulted in unique housing values of SPRH. Such housing values have met a wide range of housing needs and motivated heterogeneous social groups to obtain SPRH ownership in urbanizing China. Constructive attempts to clarify the "small" property rights of SPRH should consider the different social groups of informal housing owners and their diversified housing needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article suggests distinguishing between illegality as a practical phenomenon and informal regulations as a structuring feature of everyday life. This allows rethinking the role of the law and regulation in contexts of urban informality, showing that the law, and formality more generally, is connected to the informal in that the formal only receives its meaning and relevance through the informal. The concepts are illustrated by case material from informal housing and what is known as 'beds in sheds' in London. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Secondary dwellings, from 'backyard' and basement units to converted garages or 'granny flats' are increasingly viewed as a potential source of lower cost rental accommodation. However, in many cities of the so-called global north, secondary dwellings are restricted under local planning rules designed to maintain lower density residential neighbourhoods. This article examines the outcome of planning reform to legalise secondary dwellings as a housing solution, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Traditionally, secondary dwelling production has been seen as a form of unregulated/informal dwelling type. In response to a chronic shortage of affordable renting supply, this paper considers how the state has undertaken a process of deregulation of planning controls to permit secondary dwelling production. We call this an example of 'calculated informality'. We examine the case with reference to data on the geography and scale of secondary dwelling production, as well as interviews with secondary dwelling industry groups and local council officers responsible for enforcing planning regulation. Our analysis shows that deregulatory reform enabled an informal rental market in secondary dwellings to grow at scale; however, affordability and secure private rental outcomes remain unclear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the relationship between informal housing and labor informality at the intraurban level, considering these two phenomena' simultaneity and spatial dimensions. Our analysis focuses on the context of a city in a developing country, Medellín (Colombia), characterized by significant housing precariousness and low employment quality, where space seems to play an essential role in understanding this relationship. Using data from 176 analytical regions in Medellín for 2017, we estimate a series of spatial simultaneous equation models that consider the potential cross-equation correlations in the error terms. The results show that these two types of urban informality are highly persistent in space, with noticeable spatial clusters observed in the peripheral and marginalized areas of the city. Additionally, the estimated econometric models reveal that precarious working conditions are key to explaining the spatial choice of housing and its characteristics, and vice versa. These findings emphasize the need for place-based policies that specifically target disadvantaged areas and help improve residents' working and housing conditions to address urban informality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do women and men experience the urban renewal operation of their neighborhood? In what sense do the everyday social and spatial practices in informal and precarious neighborhoods illustrate the significant impact of urban renewal on place and community attachment of rural-to-urban migrants? Our research question revolves around the ways in which women and men are impacted differently by the urban transformation project of Fikirtepe neighborhood, a working-class neighborhood in downtown Istanbul in Turkey. Through a qualitative methodology analyzing how the inhabitants use space in their everyday dynamics, what “being urban” means to them, how they perceive their relationships with their neighbors, our research will expose differentiated gender relations in the urban space. As di Méo points, “gender, as a socially constructed relationship of domination based on sexual differentiation between individuals, provides a notable determinant of urban practices and representations.” [2012, p. IV]. In that sense, this article aims to contribute to the scientific debate on the differentiated uses of cities, such as the research conducted by di Méo [2012] in the city of Bordeaux and that of Louargant [2015] in the city of Grenoble. However, our research is more oriented towards the urban experience in the context of an ongoing urban transformation project. While these research focused mainly on the planning and use of a metropolis for men and women, our article will be more oriented on the representations around the urban transformation, the imaginaries associated with the living spaces from the perspective of differentiated feeling of attachment of the inhabitants.

This paper builds upon the discussions on how a city may become a flexible resource for organizing everyday lives, with the homeless not only grasping various opportunities that come their way but also positively impacting urban modalities. By understanding the reasons behind why people adopt such an option, the findings can help policy makers develop policy in an informed manner. There are also theoretical implications as there is minimal research in this area. The analysis has been done through documenting spaces accessed by the homeless, the characteristics of these places, the livelihood associations and the administrative responses towards them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractMigration movements have been happening worldwide, and Latin America has also been part of this global phenomenon, particularly through increased intraregional migration. Chile has emerged as an economically appealing destination, leading to a rapid rise in migration, posing substantial challenges for Chilean cities. The central question guiding this paper is: How is the migrant experience of accessing housing through the informal rental market in the innerburbs areas of Santiago, Chile? This research considers a descriptive analysis of migrants in Santiago, followed by the analysis of the experience of migrants accessing the informal rental market in three districts of Santiago (Conchalí, Cerro Navia, and El Bosque) looking at (1) the available housing supply in online advertisements and (2) analyzing interviews with migrants and key actors. This article argues that migrants residing in innerburbs areas experience a state of ‘in-betweenness’ under a ‘gray’ housing status. This notion considers the legal and spatial aspects of being in an intermediate position. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Incomplete property rights are a prominent feature of informal housing that differs from formal ones. Without complete property rights, dwellers' behavior might be constrained by formal institutions; therefore, informal houses tend to be valued lower in the market. However, more empirical evidence is needed to disclose the interaction between property rights status and informal housing prices, because of variations in the formal systems between regions. Looking at a type of informal properties named small property rights housing (SPRH) in China, this study aims to investigate the impact of incomplete property rights on informal housing prices. The findings of the empirical estimation demonstrate that: (1) because of incomplete property rights, the average price of SPRH units could fall by 69.15% compared with the equivalent formal housing units with full property rights; (2) the detrimental effect of building age on the housing price can be depressed by incomplete property rights, because a long duration can give dwellers confidence to hold their informal properties stably in the long term; and (3) although communal facilities, such as lifts can make dwellers' lives more convenient, the lack of complete property rights lowers the value contribution of communal facilities to the overall price of housing units. This study provides valuable evidence from China to enrich the current literature on the informal housing market in the global south, and the findings could help formal authorities to understand the valuation principle of housing products in the absence of complete property rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, International Political Economy (IPE) scholars have increasingly turned their attention to cities. However, their primary focus has been on the role of a select few global 'cities' that regulate global flows of capital, goods, and services. Nonetheless, a significant gap in the IPE literature pertains to the limited exploration of how processes of neoliberal globalization are impacting and regulating the low-income 'informal' housing sector in cities located in the global South. To address this gap in the existing IPE literature, this paper critically analyzes the processes of formation and demolition of informal housing settlements against the backdrop of the neoliberal regime of accumulation. Informal housing settlements have been extensively examined by critical geographers and scholars in the field of urban studies. What distinguishes this paper is its unique contribution to the literature on IPE, that is, it utilizes the political economy of informal housing settlements as an entry point to critically analyze social ontology and the inherent contradictions of the postcolonial state. The paper argues that the relationship between informal housing settlements and the postcolonial state can be better understood through the lens of the 'institutional hybridity.' This concept refers to the fusion of contradictory socio-economic and institutional impulses within the postcolonial state, which aims to manage social reproduction and capitalist accumulation simultaneously. The inherent tension between social reproduction and accumulation manifests in the informal housing settlements in the form of a dialectic of 'benevolence-violence.' On one hand, the postcolonial state attempts to appear 'benevolent' towards marginalized groups by 'allowing' them to establish informal housing settlements through a multi-layered network of clientelism. On the other hand, the postcolonial state resorts to violent displacement of marginalized groups as soon as they pose obstacles to real estate-led capitalist accumulation. Thus, the paper contends that IPE scholars should carefully consider the political economy of informal housing settlements, as it provides captivating insights into the mechanisms through which the postcolonial state becomes subject to regulation and is pulled in different directions by the socio-economic forces of neoliberal globalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Access to housing is a fundamental necessity for individuals. Even though the motives of informal housing are complex, analyzing the issue from a political economy perspective needs to be adequately addressed. This study analyzed why informal housing continues and is challenging to eradicate. It motivated researchers to understand the phenomenon from a political economy approach, assuming it offers a holistic understanding. A mixed research design was adopted by considering the nature of the problem and the research objectives intended to be achieved. Three hundred eighty-four respondents were randomly selected to substantiate research questions. Empirical findings indicated that informal housing had become the prevailing housing market. Researchers identified that the motives of speculators, the shelter needs of individuals, the motives of brokers, the interests of farmers, and the level of structural hospitality are significantly associated with the prevalence of informal housing. However, gain motives, need motives, and structural hospitalities were significant variables that significantly predicted the intensity and prevalence of informal housing.In contrast, brokers' motives and farmers' cooperation did not significantly predict the informal housing scenario. Thus, prospective intervention is expected to reverse the scenario by implementing a political economy analysis-based intervention framework, expanding adequate, affordable housing for the urban low-income people who need shelter, developing land and housing database to reduce structural hospitality, and taking proactive measures against the structural actors who are rent-seekers and exploited opportunities of informal housing. Furthermore, researchers seek to analyze informal housing issues in a political economy approach to understand the problem holistically.

Land use restrictions can curtail housing supply and lead to increased costs of accommodation, which can have adverse effects on livelihood among low‐income groups and thereby compromise sustainable development. However, limited studies have investigated housing supply restrictions in informal housing markets. To address this knowledge‐gap, this article analyzes a range of indicators of livelihood among residents of informal settlements and informal housing supply restrictions in Maputo, Mozambique and Nairobi, Kenya. The findings underscore that informal urban development is restricted to a far higher extent and livelihood in informal settlements is considerably more compromised in Nairobi compared to Maputo, despite that wages are higher in Nairobi and geographic factors likely curtail urban development to a higher extent in Maputo. The empirical evidence and economic theory reviewed in this article consistently indicate that antagonistic approaches to informal urban development in cities with large segments of the population financially excluded from the formal housing markets have comparable consequences to land use restrictions guiding formal urban development. Namely, that informal land users pay a price premium for basic shelter in such contexts due to the increased pressure on the housing markets and risk of loss of investments through forced evictions. On this basis, the article argues that unless viable legal housing alternatives are available, repressive approaches to informal urban development should be abolished while less restrictive standards for building and planning regulation should be adopted to expand provision of affordable legal accommodation and thereby enhance sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Working at home is a ubiquitous practice across the globe with varying degrees of recognition and visibility subject to the context in which it is undertaken. In the Global South, even as home-based work is a dominant mode of informal urban employment, there is limited recognition and scholarship on the sites where it is undertaken and the inadequacies in which these sites are embedded. This essay seeks to provide a framework to think about the spatiality of the workhomes which are sites where users undertake activities related both to their work and the home. We argue that the particularities of cities in the Global South, which are marked by its spatial and economic informality, have specific implications on workhomes. The framework is provided by examining the spatial, material, tenurial, and infrastructural aspects across three scales - that of the individual workhome, at the sett lement scale, and at the meso-level spatial aggregations in the city. Through this, we present implications for planning and policy making to improve conditions for workhomes and those who use their homes for work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nature of tenure ‘contracts’ that exist within the low-income settlements involves more than title deeds. Accordingly, ‘tenure security’ manifests itself beyond legal or de jure construction as it also involves de facto forms of tenure and dweller’s perception of security. The perceived tenure security is in turn a function of people’s lived experiences which shape the trust they may grant to the future effectiveness of land tenure arrangements. Contextual and historical factors, ranging from political patronage to market pressure to policy provisions, govern the perception of tenure security which usually gets overlooked in policy formulations. With a focus on Mumbai and Jaipur in India, this paper aims to generate and examine the viability of a list of indicators that influence perceptions of land and housing tenure security. The intention is to engender a method towards housing solutions beyond the unidirectional aim of titling and in favour of incremental approaches.

In South Africa, informal rental accommodation constructed in the backyards of formal houses is the fastest growing housing segment. These backyard dwellings (BDs) are makeshift structures made from timber frames, metal sheets or wooden planks. Despite the proliferation of BDs, national and local governments have done little to improve the living standards of backyard dwellers. The research uses focus groups, interviews and building surveys to examine the current state of backyard dwellings and identify opportunities and barriers for government interventions. We analyse the barriers to home improvements, highlighting the important role of tenant dignity and landlord-tenant relations. Furthermore, the research discusses the challenges of potential government-led interventions, which could easily fail in the context of resistance, mistrust and anxiety over housing. We present four key considerations that any intervention to upgrade BDs in South Africa or similar rental units in other localities must consider. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Socially vulnerable households across the earth tend to live in informal settlements, which also are likely to be in areas that might experience flooding. Given that since the 1980s there have been more frequent and devastating hurricanes, this study asks what is the relationship between informal housing, social vulnerability, and environmental hazards in the context of a US territory? Although most research on this topic has concentrated in the Global South, there are no studies within the US disaster management system on these environmental justice topics—primarily because housing informality is heavily under studied in the US and the Global North. With the purpose of understanding the connection we conducted qualitative analysis using 30 interviews with stakeholders working on different facets of disaster recovery and mitigation in Loíza, Puerto Rico, a US territory. Loíza is a low-income Afro-Caribbean town along the coast, where about half of the homes are located within the 100-year FEMA flood maps. The findings suggest that changes need to be made regarding how local and federal government entities approach informal housing when providing assistance after the 2017 Hurricanes Irma and Maria. It is also important for planners and other decision makers to educate communities and provide recovery funding after a major disaster so that long-term risks could be reduce without displacing the local population.

This research presents a study of the interactive relationship between society and the urban environment on the one hand, and the concept of quality of life through its main indicators that must be available in the society on the other hand, in addition to analyzing the standards and indicators related to the population and the behavior of individuals in this society, as well as the extent of satisfaction of individuals with the residential area in which they live. This is done through studying some local and international experiences that analyzed the concept of quality of life. The research concluded that the concept of quality of life has a broad scope, encompassing many different indicators. The main factor underlying the evaluation process is human beings, and that there is a correlation between the concept of quality of life and the policies dealing with informal housing areas, as improving informal housing policies is to improve quality of life. One way is to integrate community participation into urban improvement to help poor people who cannot take care of their housing consumption needs. This study explores the following topics: (1) quality of life (concepts and opinions); (2) policies dealing with informal housing areas; (3) the results of international experiences in dealing with informal housing areas; (4) proposed quality of life indicators. Finally, the study concludes a set of suggestions to increase the link between approaches to enhance informal housing policies and raising quality of life through indicators that control informal housing policy selection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Illegal housing forms and evolution in Algeria: The case of two small towns (Guelaat Bou Sbaa and Bouati Mahmoud) The objective of this paper is to evaluate the impact of socio‐economic, demographic, financial, and regulatory factors on the design of informal housing in the county (group of local municipalities) of Guelma (Algeria). To do this, 34 dwellings located in the two small towns (Guelaat Bou Sbaa and Bouati Mahmoud) were chosen to be studied. This evaluation was carried out through comparing actual and redesigned plans of existing housing units, during the legalization process supervised by the local administrations. Moreover, we carried out a spatial analysis of the two types of plans for each unit as well as a socio‐economic, demographic, financial, and regulatory study of the housing industry in the selected area. The results suggest the importance of outdoor space in existing dwellings and a trend towards more complexity and spatial interiority in projected dwellings. In addition, the design of housing was found to be dependent on the social factor, while it is independent of the economic, financial, and regulatory factor. Seemingly, economic and financial factors only influence the rate of completion and occupancy of housing, while regulation has no influence on the design of housing given the difficulty of its application. Messages clés: L'étude détaillée des formes et caractéristiques du logement informel permet de comprendre son processus de production et de transformation.On remarque des influences fortes du facteur social et faible des facteurs financiers et règlementaires dans la conception du logement informel au sein des petites villes.Il y a nécessité d'une révision des textes règlementaires de régularisation des logements informels et des modes de production du logement collectif en Algérie. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nature of tenure 'contracts' that exist within the low-income settlements involves more than title deeds. Accordingly, 'tenure security' manifests itself beyond legal or de jure construction as it also involves de facto forms of tenure and dweller's perception of security. The perceived tenure security is in turn a function of people's lived experiences which shape the trust they may grant to the future effectiveness of land tenure arrangements. Contextual and historical factors, ranging from political patronage to market pressure to policy provisions, govern the perception of tenure security which usually gets overlooked in policy formulations. With a focus on Mumbai and Jaipur in India, this paper aims to generate and examine the viability of a list of indicators that influence perceptions of land and housing tenure security. The intention is to engender a method towards housing solutions beyond the unidirectional aim of titling and in favour of incremental approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transportation policies have a valuable influence on the allocation of resources within cities. Therefore, investigating the impacts of transit interventions is relevant, especially in developing countries where informal housing is highly prevalent and spatial disparities are noteworthy. We study the impact of a transit expansion of the Metrocable system in Medellín, Colombia, as a natural scenario to understand the causal links between lowering access costs and informal housing. Using a difference-in-difference identification strategy, we estimate that the expansion of Line H of Metrocable reduces informal housing up to 15 percentage points. We also show that the magnitude of the effect depends on the distance to the intervention. We find that the labor market plays a crucial role when exploring potential mechanisms mediating the analyzed causal relation. • We assess the impact of a transit expansion in Medellín (Colombia) on informal housing. • Difference-in-difference identification strategy is implemented to estimate the causal effect. • We find that the expansion reduces informal housing. • We find that the labor market plays a crucial role when exploring potential mechanisms mediating the analyzed causal relation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus of this paper is the redevelopment of the squatter settlements in Ankara Turkey. Most of the articles focus on gentrification and changing neighbourhood social structures but the redevelopment of the squatter settlements also aims the production of formal low-income housing as well as the integration of previous non-formal housing into formal urban space. Therefore, this article suggests that the contemporary redevelopment project of squatters in Ankara, Turkey is a part of a broader strategy of integrating low-income into the formal housing system by cooperating with a part of low-income groups. The research was made in Altındağ, Ankara by using a deep semi-structured interview, and document analyses method. The researcher conducted 25 interviews with residents and 2 interviews with officials.

Perceived tenure security is recognised to affect the socioeconomic behaviours and wellbeing of informal settlement dwellers. The provision of perceived tenure security is centred on the developmental agenda as a key policy alternative of tenure legalisation. Despite the consensus about its importance, the reason perceived tenure security is different amongst dwellers remains unclear. To fill this gap, we introduce social capital theory to understand the formation of and disparity in perceived tenure security. The hypotheses are that dwellers living in informal settlements with higher collective social capital and having higher individual social capital tend to feel more secure on their tenure because of higher backing power attained to deter the threats of eviction. We examine the hypotheses using a structural equation model approach to a dataset collected from three small property rights housing communities, which are emerging informal settlements in urban China. Modelling results support our hypotheses and suggest that female, low-income and migrant dwellers tend to feel less secure on their tenure because of the lack of social capital to deter the threats to their tenure. This study contributes to a new sociological explanation for the disparity in perceived tenure security other than the established psychological explanation. Empirically, this study contributes to the understanding of the rapid development of small property rights housing developments in China from the perspective of how dwellers develop security on informal tenure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urbanization growth in developing countries raises concerns regarding these countries' ability to consider slums, underdeveloped communities, and neighbourhoods in economic, health, and climatic goals. This research proposes a methodology that integrates algorithmic design and analysis strategies to define, study, and measure key parameters that affect the rehabilitation of these areas. Construction scenarios and design dimensions are analysed to establish design and comfort thresholds, and alternatives are simulated and tested to identify possible improvements. The methodology includes an optimisation step integrated in the workflow that maximizes thermal comfort, minimizes costs, and ensures fairness in the rehabilitation of large sets of buildings. This step identifies improvements in thermal comfort for different construction scenarios from which a two-staged rehabilitation plan is defined. The first stage comprises a sensitivity analysis to identify building materials regarding their improvement and cost of application, and the second defines the most suitable construction scenarios considering the results from the optimisation process for each building. Additionally, we research and document guidelines regarding the parameters tested for building design, revealing the existing conflicts between performance objectives, and the architect's role in their prioritization.

Safety has long been regarded as one of the most important functional requirements of buildings. However, building safety in Hong Kong has long been jeopardised by the proliferation of unauthorised building works (UBWs), which are essentially works constructed without any prior approval or consent of the government. Due to the acute problem of housing supply–demand imbalance, the numbers of illegal subdivided units (ISUs) in the city have been increasing since the early 2010s, frequently resulting in injuries and deaths amongst the residents. It is therefore a matter of urgency for the government to tackle the problem. Speculative property owners construct ISUs in their premises for economic gain so the government needs to enforce rules against the construction of ISUs. Building inspection should be carried out to uncover cases of illegal construction for subsequent enforcement actions. In this article, a game-theoretic model for the strategic control of existing buildings in Hong Kong is developed to illustrate that, when the level of punishment against ISU increases, the less frequent ISU inspections needed by the government will be, and concurrently, the chances of ISU construction by property owners will decrease. The model offers valuable insights into why Hong Kong's building control system fails to solve the problem of ISU proliferation in the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This pedagogical paper presents an approach to urban design taught in the "Complex Densities Studio" CDS of the Institute of Architecture and Earth Sciences of Setif (IAST). This approach is based on urban analysis and scenario building, the use of parametric tools, and the constitution of reusable "parametric actions". The parametric approach invites students to state their project intentions. Parametric computing allows building a digital model from certain parameters. The digital model aims to verify the interactions of the student project in the urban context dynamically and iteratively. It offers the possibility of identifying the most efficient models concerning the stated criteria. The urban typologies and ambiances are evaluated throughout the design process, thus allowing for permanent adjustments. The chosen context is the El-Harrach district in the city of Algiers: the population density and the rapid transformation of urban areas offer a stimulating framework to experiment with a parametric approach to the student project. The approach of the CDS is based on numerous and diverse data, transcribed in diagrams, pre-formal plans, and parametric models, allowing to move from an abstract and quantitative dimension to the formalization of urban ambiances in a progressive and qualitative way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Residential space poverty has been a recurring urban phenomenon. This study shows how new migrants in Hong Kong navigate residential space poverty. We used Q-method to understand the subjective experiences of new migrants living in poor informal housing units. These migrants indicate mixed subjective experiences in using public and openly accessible spaces. Some of these spaces act as a "third place" that improves migrants' quality of life, but some socio-economic factors have undermined their role as a spatial solution. Although these spaces can contribute to social vulnerability reduction and social integration, their benefits for the most disadvantaged groups are unclear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many cities in low- and middle-income countries, a sizable proportion of households live in informal housing. This paper proposes a framework for analysing the connections between formal and informal housing markets, both at the city-level in terms of the mechanisms that link the two housing markets, and at the individual-level in terms of the preferences of residents for whom informal housing is a possible housing choice. The framework identifies the mechanisms by which formal and informal housing markets are connected at the city-level, including competition, disamenity or negative spillover, and redevelopment or positive spillover. Informal housing in Mumbai serves as an empirical case to demonstrate the applicability of this framework. Results from field research suggest that the connection between formal and informal housing markets is dynamic – it can work in different causal directions, change over time and vary by scale. The preferences of residents in informal housing are diverse, and have varying implications for urban policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the early 2010s, sub-divided flats have been proliferating in Hong Kong—one of the world's most compact and expensive cities to live in. The growth of informal housing in the city has long been attributed to the shortage of housing supply. Apart from developing new land for housing, one possible approach to deal with the land supply constraint is to speed up the redevelopment of old buildings in the city centre in order to maximise the land use potential. Yet, this approach brings about many socio-economic issues that drive up the transaction costs for its implementation. To get around the hurdles of urban redevelopment, a land management technique called land readjustment (LR) has been recommended, but its use has never been institutionalised in the city. Using declassified archival documents and maps, this article argues that LR was already implemented—albeit informally—in Hong Kong during the 1960s–70s within the Kowloon Walled City. With the historical experience of the City of Darkness, the aim of this article is to shed light on the in situ resettlement of original site residents—very much at the heart of land readjustment—as a means to bring down the transaction costs of deep urban redevelopment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emerging research on sanitation challenges in the Global South increasingly uncovers health and social impacts by gender, particularly lack of sanitation safety. Women may employ strategies to avoid urination or defecation ('holding it') in the absence of safe sanitation, but the practice is not well understood. We quantitatively analyze survey data on women from urban slums across three cities in Maharashtra, India whose households constructed a toilet through an intervention programme. We assess relationships between household versus shared sanitation, perceptions of safety, and women's toilet avoidance behaviours, including diet restriction. At baseline, women have more than three times the odds of reporting avoidance behaviours if they perceive a community toilet to be unsafe, even after controlling for other factors. Household water insecurity is also instrumental in the relationship between avoidance and lack of safety. Finally, avoidance exhibits a significant and major drop upon provision of a household toilet. This study provides substantial support for the prevalence of habitual toilet avoidance among vulnerable urban women without access to safe sanitation. We conclude with recommendations for policy approaches and call for more attention to the health repercussions of habitual toilet avoidance among women as a consequence of sanitation insecurity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an incisive piece in this Journal, Michele Lancione argues that the only way to envision new housing futures is to pay attention to places where housing precarity is lived and felt. We respond to such a discursive call by drawing on a wide-range of particular empirics—from our pedagogical engagement with housing informality in Melbourne to in-situ ethnographic empirical work in Manila and Dhaka—to elaborate three aspects of reimagining informal housing practices: a) informal housing as a site for grounding teaching and learning pedagogy; b) informal housing as a space for reflexive research; and c) informal housing as a mode of futuring. Our reflective insights, which put three cities with vastly different socio-political histories in conversation, also answer a growing call from critical urban scholars to abandon the usual comparison of similar cities and to overcome the division between global North and global South cities, offering ideas that stress mutual learning across this divide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholarship on informal housing is broadening to include more studies of cases in the Global North, with many of them taking advantage of ready data availability to produce quantitative estimates of the extent of the phenomenon even in diffuse contexts where studying informal housing has heretofore been difficult. We introduce a novel technique, Informal Housing Addition at the Parcel Scale (IHAPS). Relying on publicly available administrative tax assessment and building permit datasets and drawing inspiration from building science, IHAPS seeks to identify residential parcels within a city that underwent apparent increases in building area but that did not obtain a legally required building permit. Applying IHAPS to Austin, Texas, USA, we demonstrate the basic soundness of the technique in spite of its generation of false-positive identifications. We conservatively estimate that approximately one out of every 2400 single-family residential parcels in Austin experienced an informal (unpermitted) addition between 2008 and 2018. IHAPS has promise to reveal new insights into informal city-building processes in a Global North context, but also raises ethical and privacy concerns that researchers must consider. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does 'informal' housing offer more affordable choices for low-income renters in expensive cities? This paper investigates this question with reference to Sydney, Australia, where planning reforms have sought to deregulate housing development including 'informal' and low cost market accommodation, in response to chronic housing affordability pressures. Examining rental advertisements, housing supply and affordability data, and through interviews with local government personnel, we find that informal secondary units and room rentals dominate Sydney's lower cost market, but rents remain high relative to incomes. Further, and despite reforms to encourage new secondary dwellings and low cost rental supply, substandard and non-compliant housing persists, exposing tenants to serious risks. The findings suggest that in high cost cities such as Sydney, the informal sector occupies an important and unrecognised role in housing low-income renters, but that more systemic reforms beyond the planning system are needed to improve housing outcomes for disadvantaged groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is the first empirical study of income elasticity of housing demand of low-income households living in sub-divided units (SDUs) of Hong Kong. Housing affordability is commonly measured by either price-to-income ratio (PIR) or rent-to-income ratio (RIR), and the latter method is often found to be relatively stable over time and across countries. We contend that RIR cannot accurately reflect affordability situations because of the income elasticity of housing demand. Informal housing markets exist in Hong Kong for low-income households to pay lower and more "affordable" rent by living in units of smaller size and poorer quality, which are often with irregularities. This study found that SDU households have a relatively low income elasticity of housing demand and a relatively high RIR. They face difficulties in adjusting their housing service quality and quantity to balance their income and expenditure budget. Even so, SDU households are observed to further downsize and forgo housing facilities to make their rents affordable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Puerto Rico, after Hurricane María, about 60% of all applications received by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)'s Individuals and Households Program (IHP) were declared ineligible. Why would such a large number of households in Puerto Rico have been unable to obtain assistance from FEMA? To answer this question, interviews with 10 disaster survivors and 15 stakeholders were conducted. The author found that individuals were denied based on their inability to prove homeownership, no contact for inspection, and duplicate application, among other reasons. The article offers recommendations for how nonprofit groups can participate in postdisaster recovery efforts as well as how to advocate at the local and federal level for disaster victims effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As developing nations continue to progress, people of these countries face problems of shortages in building materials and rising production of solid waste. The purpose of this research study is to explore the potential of establishing a circular economy by recycling/reusing solid waste as alternative building materials. Focused on the slum of Dharavi in Mumbai, a settlement well-known for its existing recycling business, this article explores the concept of a circular economy utilizing local informal labor by considering the flow of waste materials in the slum. This article presents an analysis of the case studies where waste is reused as a building product and identifies the gaps, advantages, and disadvantages related to how and where the building materials from the case studies could be adapted in the context of the Dharavi slum.

Informal housing includes the range of practices associated with producing or occupying residential spaces which falls beyond formal systems of urban planning. In this field it is complicated recognize what is legal or illegal and informal self-building and social innovation coexist with urban crime. On the one hand, informal housing is an opportunity for counter-movements against marketisation of the housing sector (squatting, self-construction, grassroots neighbourhood organisations). On the other hand, in the informal housing we can find urban crime, including organised crime groups, which control over the territory, occupy public housing, and manage public housing building. Massive urban security policies tackled informal space through segregation, surveillance, and punitive initiatives. Here the accusation of “mafia” has intensity the criminalisation of urban poverty, and the complexity of socio-spatial inequality is confused under the penal repression. The essay tries to deepen this ambivalence by looking at the outskirts of Rome and, in particular, at the relationship between informal housing in neighbourhoods with public housing complexes, with a high concentration of socio-economic disadvantage and high criminal density.