The following considerations show how the overall system can be raised to a
higher level within the interdependences which exist. The readiness of squatters
to invest in the improvement of their huts on a plot of public land, with no
formal right of occupation, is, as we have seen, frequently frustrated, although
they often dispose of the necessary resources. However, the financial reserves are
insufficient to enable them to purchase the plot, and hence this solution is impossible.
A quasi-legalisation of the occupation, for instance, by paying a small
leasing rent to the municipality, is extremely difficult in many countries, for
reasons of civil and town-planning law, as well as politics. (For example, this
could give rise to an obligation to develop the land.) But many countries are
particularly afraid of creating precedents, leading to an uncontrolled invasion of
public land by new squatters. Hence, it is to be feared that demands for this kind
of state commitment however well-founded they may be can lead to results
at best only in the long term. That is of little help to those who are involved
today. Speedier and more practical aid, on the other hand, is to be expected from
the development of building technologies which preserve for the squatters all the
advantages of their ‘traditional’ method of building but relieve them of its disadvantages.
They must in fact be cheap and facilitate a continuous process of
construction by self-help, but, in addition, they must be so designed that serious
faults in building and planning do scarcely occur, and that the risks of damage by
storm, fire and earthquake are minimised. Furthermore, they must be capable of
being disn~antled without loss of material, transported and re-built easily, in the
event of an eviction from the original plot of land. Nevertheless, this house should
not have a ‘provisional’ nature but should be up to standard. A system which
largely satisfies these requirements has been developed for Guatemala,3’ but
cannot be described in detail within the tertns of this study. However obvious this
solution may appear to be at first sight, it must be observed that it too harbours
the danger of degrading the marginal population, especially in the cities, and even
more than has hitherto been the case, to a movable mass that can be displaced at
will, since the responsible authorities could be tempted to assume that the inhabitants
of squatter settlements will offer less resistance to an eviction if the losses in
building material, which they fear, are appreciably reduced.