Affordable housing - Question of Cities

Lessons for Mumbai from New York’s social housing of 1930s

Cities around the world have adopted social housing as an inalienable aspect of city-making. Understanding it as an ecology within cities will determine its design and success but it needs active government involvement to frame policies and principles. New York’s…

Public housing calls for governments to regulate land prices

High land prices in our cities, which do not follow the supply-demand equation, determine how land is used, what kind of houses are built and in which areas, what amenities and infrastructure are accessible to whom. There’s no way that…

‘Private interests accumulate land through force or power. That’s a big problem’

If governments want equitable, sustainable and inclusive cities, they should understand how policies and planning can influence land use and the creation of the ‘public realm’, especially for the marginalised. “Governments seem to valorise the idea of private interests because…

How Delhi’s poor and homeless beat the heat on their own

The country’s capital recorded this year’s first heat wave in early April, with temperatures touching 40.2 degrees Celsius. With summer making an early and harsh onset, the most vulnerable people – the homeless – have only themselves to rely upon…

M-East Mumbai: Votes don’t improve lives but they vote anyway

The cramped, polluted and neglected civic ward in the city, which houses migrant workers and project-affected persons displaced from other parts of Mumbai, shows the failure of politics to respond to people’s needs, in a sense. The triad of roti-naukri-makaan…

Dharavi makeover: Public loss, private gain in this mother of all redevelopment projects

Among the largest informal settlements in the world, Dharavi in Mumbai, is finally set to undergo redevelopment. Aptly called an informal city within a city, the vibrant settlement, though lacking in basic amenities, is home to nearly a million people…

Mumbai needs a master plan for slum land, not mere populism

Slum land was seen as a huge profitable space in which slum dwellers could be pushed into small areas while the larger spaces could be used to construct five-star hotels and homes. When the Slum Rehabilitation Authority was launched in…

Mumbai: The way forward from slums to affordable housing

That Mumbai’s slums are a perpetual feature of the city and there is not enough land for affordable housing are manufactured myths. It is possible to use slum land to make affordable houses. A scheme for the redevelopment of slums,…

India’s urban housing crisis: Chasing the affordable dream

Cities in India are centres of commercial activity and infrastructure development. The urban poor, often employed as informal labour, live in informal settlements because they cannot afford houses in cities. With the urban population set to increase, the shortage of…

Housing rights: Mill workers continue struggle for a roof

Forty years and counting – that’s how long the mill workers in Mumbai have been fighting for their dues. The mill strike in 1982 was for bonus and wage hikes, but it eventually turned into a historic struggle for housing.…