 Backyard shacks, informality and the urban housing crisis in South Africa: stopgap or prototype solution?Ivan Turok and Jackie Borel-Saladin Housing Studies, 2016, vol. 31, issue 4, 384-409 Abstract: Rapid urbanisation in the South has contributed to the growth of informal housing on a large scale. South Africa’s experience is somewhat unusual in that the growth of informality appears to have taken the form of backyard shacks in established townships rather than free-standing shacks in squatter settlements. This is potentially important for household well-being (e.g. better access to services) and for the efficient functioning of urban areas. The paper develops a framework for assessing the impacts and applies it to the country’s leading metropolitan region, Gauteng. It finds that people are slightly better-off in backyards than in shacks elsewhere, although the wider benefits for urban areas are equivocal. In some respects backyard shacks are a stopgap for poor households desperate for somewhere to live. In other respects they represent a kind of prototype solution to the urban housing crisis. The government could do more to improve basic dwelling conditions and to relieve the extra pressure on local services. Date: 2016 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:chosxx:v:31:y:2016:i:4:p:384-409 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from DOI: 10.1080/02673037.2015.1091921 Access Statistics for this article Housing Studies is currently edited by Chris Leishman, Moira Munro, Ray Forrest, Alex Schwartz, Hal Pawson and John Flint More articles in Housing Studies from Taylor & Francis Journals |
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