Substandard housing and accommodation

Substandard housing is associated with an absence of public sanitation measures such as: clean, uninfected drinking water; human waste disposal; and garbage removal. It is also associated with communities which have inadequate medical, educational and other services. Substandard housing units are often stations on the way in and out of houselessness. Their inhabitants are often characterized by an insecure economic situation. An indicator of the sub-standard housing problem is that demand for accommodation in government-sponsored council houses and low-income-family apartment developments exceeds supply.

Even in the more developed countries, housing stocks contain large numbers of dwellings that are unfit and even not repairable. In the developing countries, corresponding to the distribution of incomes, a certain duality has come to characterize the major urban areas: the city proper is often barely distinguishable from its counterparts in the high-income countries, while alongside it and linked to it in the economic nexus are the barricados, bustees, bidonvilles, favelas and shanty towns that house what has become known as the marginal or transitional population.

In the UK, for example, nearly 20% of the housing stock is classified as unfit or in an unsatisfactory condition. Government statistics show that over 3.8 million dwellings require expenditure totalling £18.84 billion at an average cost of £4,900 per dwelling. Twenty percent of all primary schools are house unmodernized buildings which are over 80 years old. A quarter of all schools also have outdoor lavatories and one in 10 children are taught in temporary accommodation.

1. Much of the world's population lives in substandard housing, even judged by local conditions. This may not necessarily indicate a total absence of plumbing, electricity or telephones, but it does imply: unhygienic and unsafe overcrowding both in dwellings and in the density of dwellings per given area; dwellings that are structurally unsound, or open to the elements; dwellings that are infested with vermin; and general living conditions that give rise to stress and a sense of despair, and which motivate crime.

1. Violations of private law
2. Inadequate housing
3. Denial of right to sufficient shelter

1. Unstable house structure
2. Unsafe house electrical wiring
3. Uninsulated buildings
4. Unhealthy housing
5. Low-quality construction work
6. Insufficient storage space in homes
7. Insufficient domestic electricity supply
8. Excessive proximity of worker housing
9. Alienating public housing

1. Sick building syndrome
2. Inadequate sanitation infrastructure
3. Illegal occupation of unoccupied property
4. Depressing effect of poor housing construction
5. Demolition of homes by government authorities

1. Unprofessional building management
2. Unethical practices of landlords
3. Socially sterile rental accommodation
4. Restrictive building codes in urban areas
5. Prohibitive construction cost of community buildings
6. Overcrowding of housing and accommodation
7. Neglect of property maintenance
8. Irresponsible social designers
9. Insecure lease tenure
10. Ineffective self-regulation in the housing construction industry
11. Inadequate building standards
12. Haphazard building design in rural villages

1. Socially inappropriate housing
2. Reduced stock of low-income housing
3. Paralyzing complexity of urban structures
4. Inadequate housing among indigenous peoples
5. Inadequate hospital facilities
6. Abandoned private homes

1. Raising standard of housing and accommodation
2. Providing adequate housing
3. Abiding by housing codes

1. Violation
2. Substandard
3. Double-standard