5.2.1.1 Rapid urbanisation
The world is experiencing a global housing crisis due to, among other factors, rapid urbanisation.
According to Potsiou (2010), rapid urbanisation brings with it many problems, such as huge demands for land, housing, water, sanitation, employment, transport, infrastructure and so on. Urbanisation is a major change taking place globally. The urban global tipping point was reached in 2007 when for the first time in history over half of the world‘s population 3.3 billion people was living in urban areas (Potsiou, 2010). This rush to the cities caused in part by the attraction of opportunities for wealth
generation and economic development has created the phenomenon of ‘megacities‘, which are urban areas with a population of 10 million or more. This increasingly rapid growth of urban population causes severe ecological, economic and social problems due to insufficient capacities in government and local authorities to provide for housing and basic infrastructure services, and to manage this growth in a sustainable way (Akrofi, 2006; Ooi & Phua, 2007; Potsiou, 2010).
Urbanisation in the developing world is in sharp contrast to the Western industrial urbanisation process (Okeyinka, 2014). In developing cities of the world, urbanisation and the emergent pseudo-urban economy are breeding widespread poverty among the fast-growing pseudo-urban populations (Ozo, 1990). In most developing countries the urbanisation processes have led to massive housing shortages and qualitative deficiencies (Gilbert, 2004), and a direct consequence of this is that the majority of the urban population cannot afford the costs of conventional housing. The rapid urban growth associated with accelerated tempo of socio-economic development has also seriously aggravated the shortage of dwelling units, and this has resulted in overcrowding, high rent, slum and squatter settlements, which are visible features of the urban scene throughout the third world cities. A large proportion of the urban population in developing countries lives in informal settlements due largely to rapid population growth and widespread poverty.
Research indicates that more than 70 per cent of the population growth currently takes place outside the formal planning process, for instance, vacant state-owned or private land is occupied illegally and is used for illegal slum housing, particularly in urban areas.
Cities have become centres where vast numbers of people compete for the most basic elements of life, for a room within reach of employment with an affordable rent, or vacant land on which a shelter can be erected without fear of eviction; for places in schools; for medical treatment for health problems or injuries, or a bed in a hospital; for access to clean drinking water; for a place on a bus or train; and for a corner on a pavement or square to sell some goods (Ooi & Phua, 2007).
It is estimated that currently more than 50 per cent of the world‘s population lives in cities and that this number is estimated to reach 60 per cent in 2030. The majority of these people will be in developing countries (Potsiou, 2010; Sheuya et al., 2008). It is also estimated that the world‘s 1 billion people in urban areas live in slums, and that 43 per cent of the urban population in developing countries live in slums. The estimation is that around 2 billion people worldwide will be living in slums by 2030 (Nebutola, 2004; Kothari, 2003; Sheuya et al., 2008). According to UN-Habitat (2009), this proportion is high in sub-Saharan Africa, where slum-dwellers make up 72 per cent of the urban population, and in Southern Asia, where they represent 59 percent. Similarly, in the foreword to The challenge of slums (2003), published by the United Nations Settlements Programme, the then
Secretary General, Kofi Annan, wrote: ‗Almost 1 billion, or 32 per cent of the world‘s urban population, live in slums, the majority of them in the developing world. Moreover, the locus of global poverty is moving to the cities, a process now recognised as the ‗urbanisation of poverty‘. Without concerted action on the part of municipal authorities, national governments, civil society actors and the international community, the number of slum dwellers is likely to increase in most developing countries. And if no serious action is taken, the number of slum dwellers worldwide is projected to rise over the next 30 years to 2 billion.
5.2.1.2 Wars, disasters and other negative government policies and practices
Over and above the rapid urbanisation, some housing challenges are as a result of wars; for example, the destruction of housing stock and infrastructure as a result of the war in Croatia resulted in a number of displaced persons and refugees. This caused significant difficulties in the access to adequate housing in Croatia. Since then, the Government of Croatia has made immense efforts to reconstruct damaged houses, restitution of occupied private property, attract ethnic Croats who fled hostilities from other parts of former Yugoslavia to depopulated areas, and more recently to prepare the ground for the return of Croat refugees from abroad. Despite these achievements, the housing situation of numerous families affected by the war still remained unresolved and precarious (UNHRC, 2010).
5.2.1.3 Population growth
Sustained urban population growth has resulted in continued urbanisation, that is, in increasing proportions of the population living in urban areas. Over the past decade, the level of urbanisation has increased in all the major geographical regions of the world, with the proportion of the population living in urban areas increasing from 46.6 per cent in 2000 to 50.6 per cent in 2010. During the same period the urban population of developing countries increased from 40.1 per cent to 45.3 per cent. The urban population of developing countries is expected to reach 50.5 per cent in 2020 (UN-HABITAT, 2010). According to UN-Habitat (2011), current rates of population growth and urban–rural migration, particularly in developing countries, have a serious impact on living conditions in human settlements; for instance, in Venezuela, Chavez (August, 2011) is blaming the shortage of housing on population growth and not neglect by government. Without adequate new supply of houses, population growth pushes up the prices for both renting and purchasing dwellings, and therefore causes the affordability of housing to decline (Karantonis 2008).
5.2.1.4 Economic growth
Contrary to the above assertions that with rapid urbanisation it is inevitable that informal settlements and slums will arise, Ooi and Phua (2007) suggest that the formation of slums needs not be inevitable with rapid urbanisation. The proliferation of slums as a housing solution is as a result of governments not linking the economic development trajectory to implications of urban growth and hence housing needs. Ooi and Phua (2007) further argue that governments have first to recognise and then act to establish the link between economic development, urban growth and housing. They further argue that part of the slum problem lies in the coordination among different authorities that are in charge of economic development, urban planning and land allocation. Similarly, Sheuya et al. (2008) suggest that rapid urbanisation is not a new phenomenon in developed countries, but due to elevated rates of economic growth and the presence of strong governments, most developed countries were, after some time, able to put in place mechanisms and institutions that were, to a large extent, able to meet the needs for adequate shelter, clean water and sanitation of their growing urban populations.
5.2.1.5 Changes in household composition
The demand for housing is more nuanced than merely being driven by population growth as indicated above. Demand for housing is also driven by household formation. This is a function of population growth and changes in the household size and hence the number of households is increasing more rapidly than the population. The increase in the number of households is being accelerated by changes in household composition because of trends towards families with fewer children, more marriage breakups and more elderly people living independently (NZIER, 2009).
The shortcomings of policy, lack of political will, limitations of housing finance, poor land management in urban areas, lack of security of tenure, and lack of infrastructure and services are some of the issues that confront citizens and policymakers in developing countries, and provide a strong theme for research, analysis and action (Arnott, 2008).
5.3 BRAZIL
This section looks into housing in Brazil in terms of its housing challenges, housing policies, and programmes developed and implemented to deal with the housing challenge. The review is structured around the following critical themes in the development of adequate housing: housing policies trajectory, housing programmes and housing delivery models. The section also discusses systems, plans, institutions and processes in place to support the development of housing in Brazil. A list of lessons learnt from Brazilian housing studies is also provided in this section.
5.3.1 Background
The largest nation in South America in terms of both area (8 500 000 km²) and population (192 000 000), Brazil is the continent‘s natural economic and demographic powerhouse (Smith, 2008). It is the smallest of four nations (Russia, India and China being the others; collectively, including Brazil, known as BRIC) that make up the quarter most observers believe will be the world‘s rising powers in the twenty-first century (Smith, 2008). Brazil is comprised of 26 states plus the Federal District (Brasilia), and 5 564 municipalities, and has a population of about 192 million people, and covers an area of about 8,5 million square kilometres in size (see Figure 5.1). There is consensus that the current social reality in Brazil is compounded by regional inequality. As a result, Brazil‘s housing deficit is around 7 million units, mostly in the southeast and northeast regions (Malta, 2006; Rosa, 2010; Souza, 2010; Piza et al., 2011). To illustrate the regional inequality, according to Souza (2010), Brazil can be divided into three ‗Brazils‘ composed of (i) an area covering seven states of the South region and the Federal District, who share a high level of human development; (ii) an area starting in Minas Gerais and extending north west, which enjoys a medium level of human development; and (iii) an area composed of the states of the Northeast region plus the states of Para and Acre that enjoy low levels of human development.
These deep-rooted inequalities have a direct bearing on the capacity of local and state governments to respond to the needs of the population, including housing needs, as they limit local autonomy and resources, and the capacity of municipalities to implement policies (Roza, 2010; Souza, 2010). Over 90 per cent of the 7 million housing deficit in Brazil is based in the lower-income housing sector (Selvanayagam & Perreira Pinto, 2012). According to Veras (2003), the international comparison with Gini coefficients revealed that only South Africa and Malawi have degrees of inequality higher than that of Brazil. Veras (2003) further states that the studies on the economic measurement of inequality in Brazil suggest that the average Brazilian income is higher than the poverty line, and therefore the intensity of poverty in Brazil can be associated with income concentration, and therefore concludes that inequality in Brazil is not due to lack of resources but is attributed to poor distribution of resources. Years and years of social exclusion created a sharp contrast between spaces for the better-off and spaces for the excluded (Gutberlet & Hunter, 2008).
Source: CIA Factbook 2016, Map data, 2017 Map 5.1: Map of Brazil