Abstract
One reason that community involvement in local improvement projects does not work is because this activity is based on the assumption that local residents are owners of their housing. In a growing number of cities, a very significant proportion of residents are no more than the renters of the property they occupy. The number of renters is growing largely because they are part of a group which cannot afford the cost of house purchase due to their poverty. Much urban development policy ignores this important fact and, as a result, improvements through upgrading do not occur. Based particularly on evidence from East Africa, but from other countries as well, the paper concludes that there is an urgent need to develop new approaches to the human settlement situation. These must include a wider approach to the various options of tenure, the development of community organisations dealing with a broader set of issues than just housing, the training of technicians and social workers to help organise improvements and the establishment of legal frameworks.
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