Urbanization in the Developing World and The Acutely Tenure Insecure

While the economic potential of privatizing small-scale properties in impoverished urban areas of the developing world is receiving a good deal of attention, in reality the potential only applies to a segment of the urban poor. ‘Informally occupied property,’ instead of existing as a category, in reality operates as a broad continuum of tenure security. Toward the secure end informal occupation can contain the ingredients that facilitate titling and access to capital via title. But toward the other end, acute tenure insecurity meshes with severe forms of personal, food, and livelihood insecurity. This article discusses the relevancy of the poverty – property rights – capital argument to the segment of the urban poor that is acutely tenure insecure.