ASSIGNMENT
URBAN COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
Explain the concept of slum. Examine the issues and concerns related to slum eviction and relocation.
Submitted by: Kunzes Angmo
M.A. (f)
Semester-3rd
Delhi School Of Social Work
University of Delhi
INTRODUCTION:
The word ‘slum’ has different connotations and different levels and degrees to define according to the socio-economic condition of a country. The first section of this paper attempts to deal with the concept of slum. The next section will highlight the major issues and concerns relating to the slum relocation and eviction through examples in context to slums of India and specifically Delhi. To build a greater understanding of the subject the paper will also incorporate
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The slum settlements are often overcrowded with families staying together in just one room and therefore cramped into small living spaces. These settlements lack basic municipal services such as clean drinking water, sanitation, waste collection, and absence of drainage system, street lighting, paved sidewalks and roads for emergency access. Very often other public welfare facilities like schools, hospitals or community halls to hold meetings also do not exist or are in bad shapes. Another striking feature of a slum is that many slums remains un-recognized or un-serviced for long periods, over 20 years in some …show more content…
Slum upgrading is a process through which informal areas are gradually improved, formalized and incorporated into the city itself, through extending land, services and citizenship to slum dwellers. It involves providing slum dwellers with the economic, social, institutional and community services available to other citizens. These services include legal (land tenure), physical (infrastructure), social (crime or education, for example) or economic.
Slum upgrading is not simply about water or drainage or housing. It is about putting into motion the economic, social, institutional and community activities that are needed to turn around downward trends in an area. These activities should be undertaken cooperatively among all parties involved—residents, community groups, businesses as well as local and national authorities if applicable.
The activities tend to include the provision of basic services such as housing, streets, footpaths, drainage, clean water, sanitation, and sewage disposal. Often, access to education and health care are also part of upgrading.In addition to basic services, one of the key elements of slum upgrading
With increasing housing prices, it is not bearable to indigenous residents. The author reiterates that many residents of gentrifying neighborhoods fear the possibility of being displaced and are unsettled by the feeling of being pushed out. The issue of displacement in gentrifying areas is one of the biggest issues implied in this chapter. This relates a lot to my research because of the fact one of the main concerns mentioned in my research is figuring out what occurs to residents who are displaced from their homes because they are not able to afford their rent? There must be a certain mechanism that tap the wealth created by gentrification for the benefit of indigenous and poorer residents who may wish to one day live in a neighborhood.
Gentrification is defined as the process by which the wealthy or upper middle class uproot poorer individuals through the renovation and rebuilding of poor neighborhoods. Many long-term residents find themselves no longer able to afford to live in an area, where the rent and property values are increasing. Gentrification is a very controversial topic, revealing both the positive and negative aspects of the process. Some of the more desirable outcomes include reduced crime rate, increased economic activity, and the building of new infrastructures. However, it is debated whether the negatives overwhelm the positive. An increase in the number of evictions of low-income families, often racial minorities can lead to a decline of diversity
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention defines gentrification as “the transformation of neighborhoods from low value to high value…gentrification is a housing, economic, and health issue that affects a community’s history and culture and reduces social capital often by shifting a neighborhood’s characteristics by adding new stores and resources in previously run-down neighborhoods.” Gentrification disproportionately affects special populations, including but not limited to the poor, women, children, the elderly and a vast majority of minority groups.
A new phenomenon happening in our city is the rebirth of many of our older and rundown areas. One of the best examples of this is the "Soulard" area of town, which now has an established nightlife as well as exquisite historical antique homes. Lafayette Square has also enjoyed the same type of success as Soulard. It is still in the middle of a high crime area, but is populated by upper-class people with beautiful homes with elaborate wrought iron fences and intricate security systems. This trend of fixing up old flats is spreading out from the areas of Soulard and Lafayette Square to neighboring communities at a rapid pace. The Compton Heights area is coming back with rebuilt old Victorian styled houses and private gated streets that contrast the French styled flats of Soulard. The Shaw and Tower Grove area are also following the lead of revitalization similar to these charming old neighborhoods.
Mike Davis in his book Planet of Slums, discusses the Third World and the impact globalization and industrialization has on both urban and poverty stricken cities. The growth of urbanization has not only grown the middle class wealth, but has also created an urban poor who live side by side in the city of the wealthy. Planet of Slums reveals astonishing facts about the lives of people who live in poverty, and how globalization and the increase of wealth for the urban class only hurts those people and that the increase of slums every year may eventually lead to the downfall of the earth. “Since 1970 the larger share of world urban population growth has been absorbed by slum communities on the periphery of Third World cities” (Davis 37). Specifically,
It is often easy to castigate large cities or third world countries as failures in the field of affordable housing, yet the crisis, like an invisible cancer, manifests itself in many forms, plaguing both urban and suburban areas. Reformers have wrestled passionately with the issue for centuries, revealing the severity of the situation in an attempt for change, while politicians have only responded with band aid solutions. Unfortunately, the housing crisis easily fades from our memory, replaced by visions of homeless vets, or starving children. Metropolis magazine explains that “…though billions of dollars are spent each year on housing and development programs worldwide, ? At least 1 billion people lack adequate housing; some 100 million have none at all.? In an attempt to correct this worldwide dilemma, a United Nations conference, Habitat II, was held in Istanbul, Turkey in June of 1996. This conference was open not only to government leaders, but also to community organizers, non governmental organizations, architects and planners. “By the year 2000, half the world’s people will live in cities. By the year 2025, two thirds of the world population will be urban dwellers ? Globally, one million people move from the countryside to the city each week.? Martin Johnson, a community organizer and Princeton professor who attended Habitat II, definitively put into words the focus of the deliberations. Cities, which are currently plagued with several of the severe problems of dis-investment ?crime, violence, lack of jobs and inequality ?and more importantly, a lack of affordable and decent housing, quickly appeared in the forefront of the agenda.
The problem however, with these “renewal projects” is that the implemented changes are never usually intended to benefit the long time inhabitants of these communities, these changes are intended usually, to push out the element of poverty that exists in many of these communities (which is a direct result of decades of neglect) in exchange for the opportunity to cater to a more affluent (usually less “ethnic”) demographic. In laymen’s terms, city planners, elected officials, prospective businesses, and even law enforcement, all converge for the purpose of removing poor people from an area by simply making it too pleasant and by exten...
The more we continue to develop new neighborhoods the more we are alienating and avoiding the problem of homelessness. Gentrification is the process of renewal or the rebuilding of deteriorating areas that in many instances displaces poorer residents. This displacement of the poorer residents may have an increase in homelessness since the poorer class of that area cannot afford a higher cost of living in other neighborhoods. While some may believe gentrification helps all economic classes other believe it excludes the lower-class.
In discussions of Gentrification, one controversial issue has been with displacement. Gentrification is the process of renovating and repairing a house or district so that it complies to wealthier residents (Biro, 2007, p. 42). Displacement is a result of gentrification, and is a major issue for lower income families. Gentrification is causing lower-income residents to move out of their apartments because they’re being displaced by upper class residents who can afford high rent prices and more successful businesses. Throughout out the essay, I will discuss how gentrification affects lower income residents and how it results in displacement. Then I will follow on by discussing some positive and negative effects that take place because of Gentrification.
In my experience as a real estate sales representative, I have looked at many rental properties that are owned by people that are commonly known as slum lords. These units are in disrepair with leaks, mold, mildew, holes in walls, ceiling and poor floor coverings. Many people are afraid of pushing these issues to have repairs done as they might lose their shelter or their rent could be increased. There are people living in a rooms in a house, that are also at risk as they don’t realize they are not protected under the tenant act so the owners can remove them from their shelter without notice. I have also experienced people living in abandoned commercial buildings ...
( “Homeless Facts”, n.d.) When a community ensures that housing within reasonable price ranges exists, offers its members living-wage jobs, provides quality schooling to develop individuals’ capacity to hold good jobs, and offers other supports for families and individuals, people can maintain stable housing. ( “Homeless Facts”, n.d.)
Housing in inner city areas was poor quality and in a 1991 census it was found that over 1 million homes in the inner cities still lacked the basic amenities of bathrooms, WC’s and hot water. The occupants have low incomes and are often elderly, young
Gentrification is a term that has come to be associated with today’s modern culture. Gentrification is the process whereby wealthier people settle into a struggling neighborhood to evict existing residents. Justin Gomer states in their article that “[t]he most common feature of gentrification is the rise of property prices as well as house rents, thus pushing out poor residents who are unable to cope with the high prices” (Gomer, 2017). Therefore, gentrification is a term that is synonymous with the displacement of the poor communities that have inhabited an area over time, sometimes over several generations, due to arrival of richer new residents. The act of gentrification causes the displacement of lower income
Norris, M. & Redmond, D. (2009) Private Sector Involvement in Regenerating Social Housing Estates: a review of recent practice in Dublin. Dublin: Combat Poverty Agency[online]. Available at: http://www.cpa.ie/publications/workingpapers/2009-01_PrivateSectorInvolvementInTheRegenerationOfSocialHousingEstates.pdf [Accessed 4 April 2014].
...he squatter camps of the city which they are living. Moreover slums are also the source of all kinds of social evils such as drugs and prostitution because of the lowest security.