Informal Settlement Upgrading and the Rise of Rental Housing in São Paulo, Brazil

Rental housing was historically a minimal feature of urban informality. Now it is surging amid municipal attempts to “upgrade” informal settlements in São Paulo, Brazil. Drawing upon a mixed-methodological study of two favelas on São Paulo’s east side, we analyze how cycles of upgrading shape informal rental housing at the urban, community, block, and parcel levels, providing detailed comparative data for 2010–2020. Our findings suggest that rental housing redevelopment can increase precarity in urban living, but is an important source of low-income housing in already built-up and “consolidated” settlements where access is declining. Our study emphasizes the need for scholars, policy makers, and planners to further explore the praxis of informal renting and rental housing, which can be effective conduits for channeling public investments across consolidated informal settlements and into individual dwellings.

The Implications of Informal Settlement Upgrading Programs for Access to Water, Sanitation, and Public Health

Most cities in low- and middle-income countries have substantial proportions of their population living in informal settlements—sometimes up to 60% or more. These also house much of the city’s low-income workforce; many informal settlements also concentrate informal economic activities. These settlements usually lack good provision for water, sanitation, and other essential services. The conventional government responses were to bulldoze them or ignore them. But from the 1960s, another approach became common—upgrading settlements to provide missing infrastructure (e.g., water pipes, sewers, drains). In the last 20 years, community-driven upgrading has become increasingly common. Upgrading initiatives are very diverse. At their best, they produce high-quality and healthy living conditions and services that would be expected to greatly reduce illness, injury or disablement, and premature death. But at their worst, upgrading schemes provide a limited range of improvements do nothing to reduce the inhabitants’ exclusion from public services. There is surprisingly little research on upgrading’s impact on health. One reason is the very large number of health determinants at play. Another is the lack of data on informal settlement populations. Much of the innovation in upgrading is in partnerships between local governments and organizations formed by informal settlement residents, including slum/shack dweller federations that are active in over 30 nations. Community-driven processes can deal with issues that are more difficult for professionals to resolve—including mapping and enumerations. Meanwhile, local government can provide the connections to all-weather roads, water mains, sewers, and storm drains into which communities can connect.

Resilience in a Kenyan informal settlement during the COVID-19 pandemic

Informal settlements have been identified as locations both where the spread of COVID-19 has generally been slower than within the Global North and measures to restrain the pandemic have further intensified local peoples’ marginality as income decreases without welfare or financial safety nets. In this paper, qualitative fieldwork is detailed which commenced in Korogocho, an informal settlement in Nairobi, Kenya, immediately prior to national COVID-19 restrictions. This March 2020, pre-COVID phase of the fieldwork focused on a community-based project and the basis for resilience in transforming local lives. During the next 12 months of the pandemic fieldwork continued, exploring experiences and reactions to restraining policies. These findings reinforce concerns about the impact of COVID-19 related restrictions on marginalised peoples’ income, food security, health, safety and gender-based violence. How the local people reacted to these effects highlights their creative resilience and adaptability. The paper concludes by examining the impact of, and responses to, the controlling measures on the social relationships and cohesion that underpins the community resilience.

Architecture for the poor and unprivileged of Jakarta

<p>As the world becomes increasingly urbanised, cities are forced to manage significant population increases. Jakarta, in Indonesia, has a significant population that is visibly living below the poverty line which suggests the city was not fully prepared to accommodate the radical growth. With such a large number of people living in poverty, and there being a lack of affordable housing Jakarta faces an issue where a significant number of these people are forced to live in informal settlements, which are spread throughout the city. These informal settlements, known as Kampungs are typically made up of dense clusters of single or two story residential structures packed together in communal areas. The erection of these houses often results in unplanned but functional networks of footpaths. These urban arrangements normally have a lack of sanitary infrastructure. The government’s current plans to mitigate this issue are by forced evictions, and moving the informal settlement residents into subsidised social housing apartment buildings. Generally, people are against these forced evictions and in many cases they are forced to leave, or simply rebuild on top of the rubble of their old homes. How can architecture support the existing social connections within the community, while improving the living conditions of the residents in the informal settlements of Jakarta? This research proposes a community centre design which is able to provide necessary facilities to the informal settlements. Although the residents are not in need of a new housing design, this research focuses on providing facilities to improve the quality of life. The research takes into account extensive site, literature, and precedent analysis; to develop a design criteria which aims to produce positive neighbourhood development. Traditional Indonesian architecture has a heavy influence on the form and construction material, with the intention to give the opportunity for the community to get involved in the construction and maintenance of the building. The final design result is a community centre with a large auditorium space for community gatherings, and support spaces which include emergency accommodation, teaching facilities, exhibition space, workshop space, sanitary facilities, recycling management centre, and retail spaces. This architectural intervention provides a place for the community to come together and to have a better quality of life while still being able to live in their personally constructed and designed homes.</p>

Architecture for the poor and unprivileged of Jakarta

<p>As the world becomes increasingly urbanised, cities are forced to manage significant population increases. Jakarta, in Indonesia, has a significant population that is visibly living below the poverty line which suggests the city was not fully prepared to accommodate the radical growth. With such a large number of people living in poverty, and there being a lack of affordable housing Jakarta faces an issue where a significant number of these people are forced to live in informal settlements, which are spread throughout the city. These informal settlements, known as Kampungs are typically made up of dense clusters of single or two story residential structures packed together in communal areas. The erection of these houses often results in unplanned but functional networks of footpaths. These urban arrangements normally have a lack of sanitary infrastructure. The government’s current plans to mitigate this issue are by forced evictions, and moving the informal settlement residents into subsidised social housing apartment buildings. Generally, people are against these forced evictions and in many cases they are forced to leave, or simply rebuild on top of the rubble of their old homes. How can architecture support the existing social connections within the community, while improving the living conditions of the residents in the informal settlements of Jakarta? This research proposes a community centre design which is able to provide necessary facilities to the informal settlements. Although the residents are not in need of a new housing design, this research focuses on providing facilities to improve the quality of life. The research takes into account extensive site, literature, and precedent analysis; to develop a design criteria which aims to produce positive neighbourhood development. Traditional Indonesian architecture has a heavy influence on the form and construction material, with the intention to give the opportunity for the community to get involved in the construction and maintenance of the building. The final design result is a community centre with a large auditorium space for community gatherings, and support spaces which include emergency accommodation, teaching facilities, exhibition space, workshop space, sanitary facilities, recycling management centre, and retail spaces. This architectural intervention provides a place for the community to come together and to have a better quality of life while still being able to live in their personally constructed and designed homes.</p>

Neuropsychological functioning and cognitive reserve in newly HIV diagnosed antiretroviral-naïve South African adults from peri-urban and informal settlements

Despite lower incidences of HIV-associated dementia due to antiretroviral therapy, neuropsychological impairment (NPI) remains a persistent challenge in sub-Saharan Africa. Improving cognitive reserve (CR) can mitigate NPI, but there are few investigations on neuropsychological (NP) performance, and its association with CR in newly diagnosed ART-naïve HIV-positive individuals to inform early treatment strategies. A comprehensive battery of tests were administered to assess various NP domains (International HIV Dementia Scale [for memory, motor speed, psychomotor speed], Digit Span Test [for attention], Action Fluency Test [for language] and Clock Drawing Test [for executive/visuospatial function]), and CR (using Cognitive Reserve Index Questionnaire) among 211 newly diagnosed ART-naïve HIV-positive participants from two clinics that serve peri-urban and informal settlement communities in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Regression models were fitted to assess the association between NP performance and CR controlling for socioeconomic and clinical factors. Test results revealed high levels of impairment across NP domains: language (96.7%), memory and psychomotor speed (82.5%), concentration (17.5%), executive function (15.2%) and visuo-spatial function (3.3%). Low CR and educational attainment were the only factors consistently associated with poor NP performance based on regression. High levels of impairment were found in certain NP domains in a relatively young group of newly diagnosed ART-naïve HIV-positive individuals. Residents of peri-urban and informal settlements face multitude of complex challenges in South Africa. An early multilevel intervention targeting clinical- (e.g. CR) and structural-level challenges (e.g. access to education) is needed for mitigating HIV-associated NPI and promoting long-term healthy living.