Informal Housing Options and Locations for Poor Urban Dwellers in Dar es Salaam City

Access to adequate urban housing in developing countries has been a challenge for the state and citizens alike because of rising urban population that is not matched with adequate affordable housing. The most visible manifestation of the lack of adequate housing is the proliferation of informal settlements in large cities. Dar es Salaam, the primate city in Tanzania, has over 70% of the population living in informal settlements. This paper draws from studies done in Dar es Salaam that indicate how the location decisions of households enable a variety of housing options in the informal housing sub-market. A qualitative approach was employed to collect information-rich data from purposefully selected respondents in two case study areas located in inner and peri-urban informal residential locations of Dar es Salaam city.  Findings suggested that, areas located in the inner, and peri-urban locations of the city; meet varying spatial and non-spatial needs. Informal social processes mediated by the community and other actors; combine to enable residents’ access reasonably affordable land and housing that meets diverse. The preference for informal housing areas sometimes supersedes that of planned areas because the formal market is not only limited but is out of reach of many poor urban dwellers. New planning areas are often times located in remote areas far from livelihood sources hence their lack of appeal. However with the threat of uncontrolled informal settlements’ growth and deteriorating urban environments; appropriate interventions are needed in order to guide housing development and simultaneously meet the diverse livelihood needs of urban dwellers.