RESOLVING THE ISSUES OF CONGESTION AND SHORTAGE OF HOUSING IN URBAN CENTERS THROUGH EFFECTIVE URBAN PLANNING

Urban centers face daunting population challenges that have increased over the years, this cannot but be attached to the attractive opportunities for growth and revitalization that these centers provide. In addition, when nations have high level of crime, weak institutions, inadequate infrastructures and high instances of corruption, the propensity for people already on the brink of destitution to become completely incapable of sustaining themselves is significantly increased. These individuals and families rapidly migrate to cities for greater opportunities only to be employed most times in the informal sector with few rights and in some cases, without even the benefit of minimum wage protection.  

Developed and most developing nations had been experiencing an accelerated shift in population from rural to urban centers for a very long time. With this concentration comes increased demand for properties; commercial, agricultural and residential including available resources. The interplay of these challenges and opportunities create germane tasks for policymakers.

Rapid rate of urbanization has brought problems of substandard and inadequate housing, slums, low productivity, poverty, pollution, social delinquency, infrastructural decay, environmental degradation and the likes. For example, nearly one-third of all city dwellers in developing countries live in slums. Living in a slum is not quite the same as being without a home but it is pretty close and without access to decent food, clean water and suitable housing, slum dwellers are certainly well below the poverty line as they are representatives of a vicious cycle of social exclusion and the fact is that from developed nations to the developing and under-developed ones, this is a stark reality ranging from the Hildago County in the United States to Rocinha in Brazil, Dharavi in Mumbai, India, Manshiet in Egypt, Orangi Town in Pakistan, Neza-Chalco-Itza in Mexico among others. The borderline is just that while slums exist almost in all nations the numbers in developed countries are small compared to their developing and under-developed counterpart.

Big Cities are fraught with urban decay, invasion of peri-urban spaces causing loss of land and natural resources. There has been movement to help combat this in times past but its effectiveness is questionable in light of what still holds sway. There is thus the need to adopt a legal policy for development of urban centers and settling of the increasing population bearing in mind not only the high income earners but also the low earners in such a way that the problem of decongestion is not only combated but from the development, revenue can also be generated in form of tax or rent.

Since urbanization is central to the economic and environmental challenge of the 21^st century, the size, form, structure and functions of urban centers are highly critical. This article canvasses for the adoption of a legal framework in respect of urban settlement where all stakeholders viz; private, government and even non-governmental agencies put hands on deck to tackle this issue by putting in place myriads of affordable housing schemes in which all inhabitants can be beneficiaries and in turn increase revenue for the stakeholders therein. It is worthy to note that it is more feasible to access tax thereby increasing collectible revenue on housing in a well structured system than in slums or unmappable areas.

The legal framework advocated for is that which provides for comprehensive urban policy including but not limited to infrastructural development, structural planning, collaborative public-private partnerships, social and economic development, and most importantly collectible revenue generation through taxation. Relevant bodies or agencies should also be put in place to monitor and ensure strict adherence to policy measures by all and sundry.