Housing for Poor People in Cairo, Egypt

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The condition of housing for people in Cairo, Egypt is in dire straits. Three of the world’s 30 largest slums are found in Cairo and 45 percent of Egypt’s population is living in slum conditions. It has been stated that there are about 8 million slum dwellers in Greater Cairo and almost 70 percent of the city’s residents live in informal areas or settlements that are called ashwa’iyyat (Kipper, 2009). Informal housing areas in Cairo are inhabited by heterogeneous group of people and these areas spread throughout Greater Cairo and there is lack of support from the government to tackle the spread of such slums (Bayat and Dennis, 2000). In 2005, Egypt’s UN Human Development Report (EHDR) reported the precarious situation of housing for poor people in Cairo. Following the report of 2005, the government announced a series of planned projects to tackle the housing problem in Cairo along with the cooperation of UNDP. Further, international aid organizations such as the USAID and GTZ also came forward to help in several housing projects. However, in spite of such measures there is need for further development to control the continued encroachment on agricultural lands and lack of proper housing for the poor. There is a view expressed by several scholars that informal housing is actually a solution to provide housing to the poor people in Cairo (O’Donnell, 2013). While the government of Cairo fears that slums harm the modernisation of Cairo but at the same time, informal housing is a blessing in disguise for the poor in Cairo. Some organizations such as the Ashoka and Ashoka Arab World have come up with Housing For All (HFA) imitative that aims at improving the purchasing power of the poor so that they can afford safer, cleaner and better homes. Another NGO organization, Habitat for Humanity Egypt, and the organization Cities Alliance aims at creating affordable housing

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