User:MJean17/informalsettlement

Informal settlements
Informal settlement s are characterized by poor housing, lack of facilities, overcrowding, and insecure tenure or land ownership. As urban populations increase informal settlements, slums, and poor residential neighborhoods have increased. While there is no global unified law of property-ownership, typically, the informal occupant or community will lack security of tenure, lack of reliable access to civic amenities (potable water, electricity and gas supply, road creation and maintenance, emergency services, sanitation and waste collection). To live in an informal settlement is to exist in "a state of deregulation, one where the ownership, use, and purpose of land cannot be fixed and mapped according to any prescribed set of regulations or the law". Due to the informal nature of occupancy, the state will typically be unable to extract rent or land taxes.

Common categories or terms associated with informal settlements include: slums, shanty towns, squats, and pavement dwellers.

Informal housing includes any form of housing, or shelter (or lack thereof) which is illegal and often do not comply with planning and building regulations. As such, the informal housing industry is part of the informal sector.

The term "informal housing" is useful in capturing the informal population other than those living in slum settlements or shanty towns. UN-Habitat more narrowly defines slum housing as lacking at least one of the following criteria: durability, sufficient living space, safe and accessible water, adequate sanitation, and security of tenure.