INTRODUCTION

The shelter crisis

Everyone needs a home. People need roofs over their heads for protection from the elements. They need security of tenure; they need a safe and healthy environment in order to live full lives. A home is somewhere to raise a family; in many cases it is also a place to work. Thus, shelter is not only about satisfying a basic need, it is intimately connected with livelihoods and economic development. For many people, however, satisfying this requirement for shelter is a very difficult proposition. The problems faced by home seekers are wide ranging. Often land to build on, housing finance and affordable building materials are almost impossible to obtain.

The world is facing a shelter crisis; and it is at its most acute in the countries of the developing world. The statistics make for gloomy reading. At a conservative estimate, over one-fifth of the world's population – more than one billion people – are homeless or inadequately housed. Predictions for the future are even gloomier: according to the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (UNCHS, 1996), this number is set to double by 2010.

Population growth and increasing urbanization exacerbate the problem. In the face of declining rural economies, people continue to flood into towns in search of jobs. Large informal settlements, slums or squatter camps surround almost every major population centre in the developing world. In many cases, the area and population of these settlements exceed those of the formal town or city itself. Newsweek's first edition of the millennium forecasts that from 1995 to 2025:

• the percentage of the world living in urban areas will rise from 45 to 61 per cent;

• the number of slum dwellers will increase from 810 to 2100 million;

• but, conversely, the number of people with no access to shelter will fall from 1500 to 700 million (seeming to imply that slums will come to be considered adequate shelter).

(Newsweek, 2000, quoting from Encyclopaedia of the Future)

Meanwhile, the population in rural areas, too, will continue to grow. This means an increasing need for land, shelter and building materials.

However the problem is viewed, all statistics indicate that very little impact is being made on the world's huge housing deficit. As late as the 1980s, governments in some developing countries conceived rallying calls such as 'Shelter for all by the year 2000!' In retrospect, the exclamation mark appears sadly ironic. In relation to the escalating problem and the ineffective global response, the contribution of non-government organizations (NGOs) has been very small. Nevertheless, there are many examples of good practice that can inspire those willing to learn. There have been successes, and the housing situation in numerous communities has been improved. The challenge now is to disseminate these experiences and promote the adoption of shelter solutions on a mass scale. Building houses, assisting people to build, attempting to increase building materials production and choice, and lobbying for more appropriate building standards: all these activities can help to pave the way forward.

In view of the daunting size of the crisis, however, it is tempting just to give up. When the solution involves building low-cost housing over vast tracts of countryside, and increasing the sprawl of towns and cities, we may wish to turn our back on the problem. This option is not open, however. From whatever perspective the problem is viewed, be it humanitarian, communitarian or through the pragmatic lens of self-interest, the shelter crisis cannot be ignored. The slum areas that surround most Third World cities are a cause of suffering not only to their inhabitants: they are also a threat to the nearby enclaves of the better off; and they are a blight upon the economic development of the whole city. Bringing people into secure accommodation in safe and sanitary neighbourhoods (the so-called three S's, which are the aim of many shelter programmes) also opens up new markets among them for products and services from both local and international companies. Business cannot keep catering only for an elite, which is declining percentage-wise, who can afford their products and services.

Just as the environment cannot be preserved with a quick fix, so the shelter crisis requires a long-term view and will ultimately have to involve rich people in developed countries making sacrifices in their standard of living. The fact is that the solution cannot be found in the developing world alone. The world as a whole cannot afford the energy-intensive 'first world' lifestyle that it is being encouraged to seek: we simply do not have the resources – or the sinks for the quantity of waste that would be generated. So, there will have to be major changes in thinking. The shelter situation might be compared to food shortages in the world: there may be enough food to go around; but the problem is one of distribution and excess. We must not be afraid of saying that the shelter crisis is intolerable and that the individual must play his or her part to change things. We have a moral obligation to be courageous on behalf of the homeless and the ill-housed. And their overwhelming numbers make it imperative to develop new and creative shelter solutions.

The trend towards a more open global economy has meant that governments in the developing world have been obliged to be more market oriented and export driven. Public sector budgets have shrunk, and this has meant that state support for the social sector has declined. An example of this is in Peru, where the Housing Ministry and Housing Bank were actually closed in the early 1990s. Increasingly, the provision of shelter is being left to NGOs and the private sector; and their efforts are not enough to make more than the smallest impact on the problem.

Given these arguments, it is evident that the problem certainly cannot be solved by technology alone – appropriate or otherwise. Technology is only one component of the solution. In most cases the technology – or at least the knowledge component of technology – exists. Given the opportunity, we can choose, produce and use a variety of appropriate roofing, walling and binding materials. Naturally, there are always improvements possible in costs, energy efficiency and environmental...