Urban Squatters and Slums

Defining Squatter Settlements

Hari Srinivas
Concept Note Series E-036. April 2022.

Definition of a squatter settlement varies widely from country to country and depends on a variety of defining
parameters. In general, it is considered as a residential area in an urban locality inhabited by the very poor who have no
access to tenured land of their own, and hence "squat" on vacant land, either private or public.

I. Introduction:
For the millions of poor in developing areas of the world, urban areas have always been a means for improving their
quality of living and environment, besides getting better jobs and incomes. This, in contrast to deteriorating conditions in
the rural areas has generated a considerable flow of migrants to cities, particularly in the last three decades. Priorities of
urban migrants change over time, depending on various conditions that they find themselves. But one of the first
dilemmas that they face and which persists for a long period, is the question of an adequate house. With little resources,
financial or otherwise, skills or access to them, the drastic option of illegally occupying a vacant piece of land to build a
rudimentary shelter is the only one available to them. The problem is further compounded by the apathy and even anti-
pathy of various government agencies who view the "invasion" of urban areas by "the masses" and the development of
squatter settlements as a social "evil" that has to be "eradicated". Such a confusing and knee-jerk reaction and attitude
towards squatter settlements has not helped the more basic question of "adequate housing for all". Qualifying definitions,
characteristics, quality and examples of squatter settlements vary widely, with the inherent danger of generalization, but
an attempt has been made to identify key features which are common to such areas and distinguish them.

II. Definition of a Squatter Settlement:

A squatter settlement therefore, can be defined as a residential area which has developed without legal claims to the land
and/or permission from the concerned authorities to build; as a result of their illegal or semi-legal status, infrastructure
and services are usually inadequate. There are essentially three defining characteristics that helps us understand squatter
settlement: the Physical, the Social and the legal with the reasons behind them being interrelated.

a. Physical Characteristics:

A squatter settlement, due to its inherent "non-legal" status, has services and infrastructure below the "adequate"
or minimum levels. Such services are both network and social infrastructure, like water supply, sanitation,
electricity, roads and drainage; schools, health centres, market places etc. Water supply, for example, to individual
households may be absent, or a few public or community stand pipes may have been provided, using either the
city networks, or a hand pump itself. Informal networks for the supply of water may also be in place. Similar
arrangements may be made for electricity, drainage, toilet facilities etc. with little dependence on public authorities
or formal channels.

b. Social Characteristics:

Most squatter settlement households belong to the lower income group, either working as wage labour or in
various informal sector enterprises. On an average, most earn wages at or near the minimum wage level. But
 household income levels can also be high due to may income earners and part-time jobs. Squatters are
predominantly migrants, either rural-urban or urban-urban. But many are also second or third generation squatters.
c. Legal Characteristics:

The key characteristic that delineates a squatter settlement is its lack of ownership of the land parcel on which they
have built their house. These could be vacant government or public land, or marginal land parcels like railway
setbacks or "undesirable" marshy land. Thus when the land is not under "productive" use by the owner, it is
appropriated by a squatter for building a house. It has to be noted here that in many parts of Asia, a land owner
may "rent" out his land for a nominal fee to a family or families, with an informal or quasi-legal arrangement,
which is not however valid under law.

In general, there are several attributes that act as generative forces and determine the quality and size of a
settlement. Such attributes could be either internal to the settlement or external:

Internal Attributes External Attributes

Religion/Ethnicity Land owner
Work place Tenure security
Place of origin Municipal/city government policies
Language Length of stay in city
Length of stay in settlement
Investment in housing
Construction activity
Presence of renters

III. Historical Development of the term, "Squatter Settlement":

Squatter settlements have been in existence from a long time, in the sense that an individual other than the land
owner has built houses with or without the consent of the land owner. But they were not illegal "squatter"
settlements as we define and categorize them today. The term "squatter settlement" is infact a more recent western-
initiated development, which came about by the writings of Charles Abrams and John Turner and particularly
during and immediately after the Habitat Conference of 1976 in Vancouver, Canada. This delineation of such
informal or spontaneous settlements as "squatter" settlements represented a growing change in attitude from
outright hostility to that of support and protection.

Abrams (1964) illustrates the process of squatting as a "conquest" of city areas for the purpose of shelter, defined
both by the law of force and the force of law. Turner (1969) takes a positive outlook and portrays squatter
settlements as highly successful solutions to housing problems in urban areas of developing countries. Payne
(1977) similarly puts the development of squatter settlements in the overall perspective of urban growth in the
third world and its inevitability. A vast number of case studies at the Habitat Conference at Vancouver in 1976
highlighted the conditions in squatter settlements, calling for a concerted and committed approach towards solving
the problems.

IV. The Squatter

A "squatter" (in The Concise Oxford Dictionary) is a person who settles on new especially public land without
title; a person who takes unauthorized possession of unoccupied premises. Therefore, a residential area occupied
by squatters becomes a squatter settlement. But the narrow generalization, especially of settlement type is evident:
everything from a brick-and-concrete multistoried house to a "occupied" cardboard carton become "squatter
settlements". The need is so much more necessary to understand such settlements so that a concerted action can be
taken.

V. Squatter Settlement - Alternative Names:

One common confusion regarding squatter settlements is its relation to the term "slum". Encyclopedia Britannica
defines a slum as "...a residential areas that are physically and socially deteriorated and in which satisfactory
family life is impossible. Bad housing is a major index of slum conditions. By bad housing is meant dwellings that
have inadequate light, air,toilet and bathing facilities; that are in bad repair, dump and improperly heated; that do
not afford opportunity for family privacy; that are subject to fire hazard and that overcrowd the land, leaving no
space for recreational use....." Therefore, while a slum settlement refers to the condition of a settlement, squatter
settlement would refer to the legal position of the settlement. There are a number of names by which squatter
settlement are described by various authors, which highlight the attitudes and approaches towards them, ranging
from a positive to neutral to negative outlook. These are:

Informal settlements
Low-income settlements
Semi-permanent settlements
Shanty towns
Spontaneous settlements
Unauthorized settlements
Unplanned settlements
Uncontrolled settlements

Some of the local/colloquial names for squatter settlements (often also used for slum settlements)

Ranchos = Venezuela
Callampas, Campamentos = Chile
Favelas = Brazil
Barriadas = Peru
Villas Misarias = Argentina
Colonias Letarias = Mexico
Barong-Barong = Philippines
Kevettits = Burma
Gecekondu = Turkey
Bastee, Juggi-johmpri = India

VI. The Development Process of a Squatter Settlement

The key question to be asked here is why do people squat? There are two reasons for this: one is internal to the
squatter, and the other is external. Internal reasons include, lack of collateral assets; lack of savings and other
financial assets; daily wage/low-income jobs (which in many cases are semi-permanent or temporary). External
reasons include, high cost of land and other housing services; apathy and anti-pathy on the part of the government
to assist them; high "acceptable" building standards and rules and regulations; loopsided planning and zoning
legislation.

These reasons leave no option for the low-income householder to squat on a vacant piece of land. The actual
squatting is done either by a "slum lord" or simply a initial small group of core squatters . The slum lord
appropriates a piece of vacant land, subdivides it and "sells" it to various households for the purpose of building a
house. Services like water-supply or electricity may be provided either by this person or by the organization of the
squatters, usually at the community level. The core group squatters are a small number of families who, almost
overnight, occupy a piece of land and build a rudimentary and temporary shelter. Later, depending on the degree
of threat of eviction, this may be upgraded to a permanent and more families may join this group. There are two
distinct processes involved in the formation of a settlement. One is the organic and induced processes. The organic
process refers to the forces and pressures which are initiated from within the settlement and squatter. They evolve
naturally, without any outside intervention and using internal resources of the family or settlement for
development, such as labour, locally available materials etc. The induced process refers to the "inducement" set up
by agencies and organizations which are external to the settlement. Operating with objectives and goals on a
larger, city-wide scale, they initiate programmes and projects for the overall development of the settlement. Both
these put together act on the growth of a squatter settlement, through a series of consolidative stages of
development. These stages are conclusive in their outcome, in the sense that they represent a continuum with one
stage or process overlapping and even running parallel to each other. They are also cumulative in their effects and
not exclusive.

VII. Approaches towards a Squatter Settlement.

Considering the magnitude and scale of the housing deficit and the lack of concerted action or inadequate response
of government agencies, there is no doubt of the positive role that squatter housing plays in housing the millions of
poor families. The main question of land ownership and overutilized infrastructure and services will, however,
always remain unanswered. Successive generation of governments have recognized this and a number of
approaches have been adopted in finding a solution to the dilemma of squatting. The two popular approaches used
by the public authorities have been settlement upgradation and sites-and-services. Settlement upgradation has been
an option where a compromise has been reached by the land owner and on a sharing basis, the squatter has been
allowed to continue on the land parcel, but with a significant upgradation of the settlement's infrastructure and
services, including, in some cases, land leases or ownerships. Where such land compromises or sharing has not
been possible, the squatters have been relocated to another location, where varying levels of "sites"-and-"services"
have been provided, with, again land lease or ownership. Land sharing is an approach which has brought about
considerable settlement improvement by the initiative of the people themselves. The squatter, after having
organized themselves into a viable organization, have initiated negotiations with the land owner and have "shared"
the land, giving the prime locations of the land (for example, the side facing a road) to the owner and using the
remaining for their housing, but in a more organized and improved manner. The role of non-governmental and
voluntary organizations has to be emphasized in this respect, in mobilization of the people into an organization, in
training and educating them, in forming a link with the authorities, and in various other catalystic ways. As a
complement to this, the participation of the community of squatters, in improving the quality of their settlement is
also an important resource that has to be tapped for improvement. Commonly, community credit programmes, for
example, are used as a rallying point for bringing the squatters not only because money itself is important, but also
because of the externalities that it can generate.

VIII. Future Role of Squatter Settlements in Urban Housing.

Squatter settlements in urban areas are an inevitable phenomena. As long as urban areas offer economies of scale
and agglomeration economies, large cities will always continue to grow attracting migrants from rural and smaller
urban areas, leading to more squatting. There is no universal "quick-fix" solution that can solve all the problems of
squatting in all parts of the developing world. Considering the inevitability of squatting, the need is primarily for a
change in attitude towards squatting, squatters and squatter settlements. One such approach that has been receiving
considerable attention from various government and public authorities has been the "enabling" approach, where
instead of taking a confrontationist attitude, governments have strived to create an enabling environment, under
which people, using and generating their own resources, could find unique local solutions for their housing and
shelter problems.

Bibliography:
Abrams, Charles (1964), Man's Struggle for Shelter in an Urbanizing World. Cambridge: The MIT Press.

Abrams, Charles (1966), "Squatter Settlements: The Porblem and the Opportunity. " Ideas and Methods
Exchange no. 63. Washnigton D.C.: Office of International Affairs, Department of Housing and Urban
Development.

Dwyer, D.J., People and Housing in Third World Cities. London: Longman Group Ltd.

Keare, Douglas H. and Scott Parris (1982), Evaluation of Shelter Programs for the Urban Poor: Principle
Findings. World Bank Staff Working Papers no. 547. Washnigton D.C.: The World Bank

Mangin, William (1967), Squatter Settlements in "Cities: Their Origin, Growth and Human Impact".
Readings from Scientific American, pp. 233-240.

Payne, Geoffrey K. (1977), Urban Housing in the Third World. London: Leonard Hill.

Srinivas, Hari (1991), "Viability of Informal Credit to Finance Low-Income Housing: Case Study of Three
Squatter Settlements in Bangalore, India" Unpublished Masters Thesis Report. Bangkok: Division of
Human Settlements Development, Asian Institute of Technology.

Turner, John (1968) "Uncontrolled Settlements: Problems and Policies" International Social Development
Review No.1. New York: United Nations

Turner, John (1968) "Housing Priorities, Settlement Patterns, and Urban Development in Modernizing
Countries" AIP Journal November, pp. 354-363.

Turner, John (1969) "Uncontrolled Urban Settlement: Problems and Policies" in G. Breese (eds.) The City in
Newly Developing Countries: Readings on Urbanism and Urbanization. Printice Hall pp. 507-534.
 UNCHS [HABITAT] (1976), The Vancouver Declaration on Human Settlements. Vancouver: United
Nations Conference on Human Settlements, Canada, 31 May - 11 June, 1976.

UNCHS [HABITAT] (1987), Global Report on Human Settlements. London: Oxford University Press.

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CITATION TEXT:
Srinivas, Hari, "Defining Squatter Settlements". GDRC Reseaarch Output E-036. Kobe, Japan: Global
Development Research Center. Retrieved from https://www.gdrc.org/uem/squatters/define-squatter.html on
Wednesday, 11 January 2023

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Contact: Hari Srinivas - [email protected]