Over one-third of the country’s urban population resides in Addis Ababa. Like many other metropolitan areas in developing countries, the city is growing at a rate faster than what the existing employment opportunities, infrastructural set-ups, hous- ing and social services can cope with (Solomon 1993). In the industrialised countries where urbanisation goes hand-in-hand with industrialisation, societal agencies have gradually taken over familial and community roles. However, the net effect of urban- isation in Ethiopia is breaking down the traditional supportive system rendered by nuclear and extended families and the community at large, often leaving the people without alternative supportive systems.