The Africa Report: Africa’s Social Housing: Homes For All

theafricareport.com. October, 2, 2013. With a housing shortage across Africa, governments and developers are creating new models that enable people on modest incomes to buy their own homes.

Shantytowns, slums, squatter set­tlements – everyone has a word for it, but solutions are less easy to come by. Booming African cities and towns are drawing in rural migrants eager for jobs.
Urban dwellers are sett­ ling down and starting families. Often based on colonial­ era plans and infra­ structure, African cities are struggling to cope. Informal settlements flourish both beyond the city limits and tucked within established urban architecture: under bridges, next to highways and in marketplaces.

African leaders have not always been receptive to the plight of the poorly housed – the view from the windows of State House is often of manicured gardens rather than plastic­strewn, open­gutter tenements. But the North

African uprisings have focused minds at the highest levels. Though by no means the only factor, it is pertinent that the Moroccan government, which survived protests by angry citizens, has the most active social housing policy in the Maghreb.

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