Urban Outcasts

“Squatting [is] a conquest of city areas for the purpose of shelter, defined both by the law of force and the force of law”- Charles Abrams (1964)

The above picture depicts a squatter settlement, or shanty town, known as Sea Lots, located on the outskirts of Port of Spain. It was taken from City Gate, due to security reasons. According to Hari Srinivas (2014), squatter settlements refer to “a residential area which has developed without legal claims to the land and/or permission from concerned authorities to build; as a result of their illegal or semi-legal status, infrastructure and services are usually inadequate”. It is not alarming to see these squatter settlements developing in urban areas by low income earners  as, due to urbanization, urban areas are viewed as the ‘vehicle’ to improve one’s standard of living, as well as overall quality of life. This can be attributed to the promising nature of the pull factors of the city; particularly the ease of access to better jobs and incomes, as well as better education, as discussed in my previous post. However, the influx of these city migrants exacerbates the already-existing battle with a shortage of space in the city. Nevertheless, these individuals venture into the city in search of adequate, low-cost housing but, due to insufficient financial resources, are forced to settle on the fringes of the city- much like outcasts.

Undeniably, the nature of these settlements, which subsequently develop, can be characterized by deprivation. There is a lack of proper physical and social infrastructure, as well as services, including water supply, sanitation, electricity, drainage and other basic amenities (Hari Srinivas, 2014), which leads to the development of slum environments. According to the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT), slum environments constitute settlements that do not provide housing durable to climate conditions, sufficient living space, easy access to potable water, proper sanitation and security of tenure (Fisher, 2014). Therefore, based on the photograph, which reveals a row of haphazardly-constructed wooden and galvanized houses that appear unfit for human habitation, Sea Lots can be seen as a slum settlement. From an outside-looking-in standpoint, beside its visually distasteful appearance, the Sea Lots slums worry me. The disorganized design of the frail structures developed on reclaimed sea land makes it vulnerable to natural disasters, while its overcrowded nature contributes to waste accumulation, thus creating breeding grounds for transmittable diseases. Therefore, to prevent this, the financially-limited inhabitants of slums are forced to spend what little they have to obtain basic necessities for survival such as clean water and vaccinations. However, this compounds their situation of poverty, which drove them to these areas in the first  place! Therefore, you can understand why the cycle of poverty is perpetuated (Practical Action, 2012). By extension, this accommodates a culture of poverty, as coined by Oscar Lewis, which allows this “design for living” to be passed on over generations, leaving individuals feeling “marginalized, helpless and inferior”. This, in turn, creates an environment that harbours negative activities, including crime and delinquency, (International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 2008) which dampens the positive nature of urban development. 

Further Reading:

Fixing Sea Lots and East Port of Spain- http://www.trinidadexpress.com/commentaries/Fixing-Sea-Lots-and-East-Port-of-Spain-204602551.html

References:

Fisher, Jordan. 2014. "Urban Slums." About.com Geography. Last modified 2014. http://geography.about.com/od/urbaneconomicgeography/a/Urban-Slums.htm.

International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. 2008."Culture of Poverty." Encyclopedia.com | Free Online Encyclopedia. Last modified 2008. http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Culture_of_Poverty.aspx.

Srinivas, Hari. 2014. "Defining Squatter Settlements." GDRC | The Global Development Research Center. Last modified 2014. http://www.gdrc.org/uem/squatters/define-squatter.html.