URBAN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS: PEOPLE, PLACE, SOCIETY Presentation at the Urban Design Festival Mary Racelis Research Scientist, Institute of Philippine Culture Professorial Lecturer, Department of Sociology and Anthropology School of Social Sciences Ateneo de Manila University May 17, 2015
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URBAN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS: PEOPLE, PLACE, SOCIETY Presentation at the Urban Design Festival Mary Racelis Research Scientist, Institute of Philippine Culture.
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URBAN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS: PEOPLE, PLACE, SOCIETY
Presentation at the Urban Design Festival
Mary RacelisResearch Scientist, Institute of Philippine Culture
Professorial Lecturer, Department of Sociology and Anthropology
School of Social Sciences
Ateneo de Manila University May 17, 2015
Introduction• Poverty: rural and urban – 2/3 of poor are in rural areas, but
urban poor concentrations are worse off in many ways.
• Metro Manila has 4,035,000 informal settlers and slumdwellers – 37% of the metro population (FIES) living in sub-human conditions.
• Nonetheless, these communities contribute their striving, hard work, resilience, mutual help, social capital networks to make the city a vibrant place.
• People’s organizations/community associations abound – formal and informal
• High levels of community organization: resist and/or engage with government; effective first responders in disasters
• Strong women as community leaders• Government agencies often hostile: eviction and relocation off-city
as their “solutions”; slow-moving bureaucracies; confused inter-agency responses
• Communities overwhelmingly resist relocation to distant off-city resettlement sites – “from danger zone to death zone”; demand onsite upgrading; near/incity as poor seconds
Listen to and learn from informal settlers; get their points of view; understand and respect their People’s Plan; respond with appropriate interactive technical assistance.
Seek flexible win-win solutions in close consultation with the community
Intensify confidence building mechanismsReorient government bureaucracies and systems toward genuine partnerships with urban poor communities.
Change the paradigm!1. Understand that the urban poor make up the dynamic work
force of the city; in effect, they subsidize the lifestyles of the rich; Metro Manila’s elite and middle classes could not exist without them.
2. Support onsite upgrading, and only secondarily
nearsite/incity relocation if onsite not possible;
discard ill-conceived, poorly prepared off-city
resettlement.
3. Identify land for social housing in the city and develop
appropriate social subsidies.
.
Change the Paradigm!
4. Adjust to differential, erratic earning patterns, and levels of vulnerability when establishing installment payment schemes for informal settlers in social housing
5. Recognize the strengths and vitality of urban- poor women leaders.
6. Affirm that poor urbanites have a right to the city and to their dignity as Filipino citizens.