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16Understanding Urban Safety and SecurityInsecurity of tenureis at once a causeand an outcome ofpoverty andinequalityAt least 2 millionpeople are forciblyevicted every year,while a similarnumber isthreatened byevictionsTenure insecurityincreases the vulnerabilityof the urbanpoor to naturalhazardsWithin the field of urban policy and research, insecurityof tenure has long been recognized as a constraint to thephysical improvement of low-income communities throughinvestment in housing and infrastructure. 64 Householdslacking some guarantee of occupancy simply have notinvested in housing improvements. As a result, the actualcondition of housing has not always reflected the incomelevel of its inhabitants and frequently is considerably worsethan it could be if some security of tenure existed. Studies inmany urban slums in developing countries demonstrate thatresidents often have more money than the quality of theirshelter would suggest. The absence of secure tenure has alsoinhibited the granting of mortgage and home improvementloans by public and private financial institutions, even whenthese same individuals might have the income and assets toserve as forms of collateral for housing loans. 65 This significantdepressive impact on the housing sector in manydeveloping country cities has largely been the result ofinadequate public policies regarding housing, land and urbaninfrastructure.This leads to the conclusion that insecurity of tenureis at once a cause and an outcome of poverty and inequality.People are poor because they have inadequate living conditionsand, at the same time, they are also unable to improvetheir living conditions due to the tenure arrangements underwhich they live. Among the victims of tenure insecurity areparticular groups such as women, indigenous peoples, ethnicminorities, refugees, tenants, the displaced and the disabled.Their problems are elaborated upon in Chapters 5 and 6.What is apparent is that tenure insecurity is a significantcomponent of the numerous disadvantages facing the poor.Several important examples of forced evictions arewell known. In Zimbabwe, Operation Murambatsvinadisplaced an estimated 700,000 urban residents in 2005.Soon after this operation by the Government of Zimbabwe,thousands of people faced forced evictions in Nigeria and,more recently, in Zambian cities in early 2007. Datacollected by the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions(COHRE) suggests that at least 2 million people are forciblyevicted every year, while a similar number is threatened byevictions (see Chapter 5).The scale of insecurity of tenure and forced evictionsis largely a result of public policies and private-sector behaviours.Urban growth places great demands on public policiesand strategies to enable the provision of shelter, whether bythe public or private sectors. Many governments often arguethat they need to displace urban residents from locationsplanned for other uses. In some cases, these actions simplyreflect official intentions to eliminate ‘eyesores’, oftenaround the time of major international events bringingimportant guests and tourists. In some cities, governmentsview slum areas as threats to public health or as the breedingground for urban crime.These arguments in favour of forced evictions,however, can also be seen within the larger picture that mostgovernment policies have not been effective in providing anadequate legal framework for the rapid provision of legaloptions for shelter and occupancy of land. Constraints suchas ineffective land tenure and administration systems, poorinfrastructure design and construction, as well as lack offinance, have limited the availability of legally accessible landand shelter options for growing urban populations. Providersof infrastructure services such as water supply or publictransport use the absence of tenure as excuses for notproviding services to low-income communities. 66 As notedearlier, with a backlog of 1 billion people living in slums andanother 1.2 billion expected urban residents in developingcountries by 2020, this problem is acute (see Table 1.1).Insecurity of tenure contributes significantly to otherproblems as well. By seriously undermining the performanceof the housing sector in many countries, tenure issues limitthe overall supply of housing, thereby raising both prices andcosts. These, in turn, contribute to homelessness and thepressure on the urban poor to find whatever land is availablefor squatting, whether between railroad tracks in Mumbai,on dangerously unstable hillsides in Ankara or Caracas, oralongside canals filled with human waste in Bangkok orJakarta. The plight of these people is well captured in theterms ‘pavement dwellers’ in India or in ‘villas miserias’(villages of misery) in Buenos Aires. It is also clear from thisthat tenure insecurity increases the vulnerability of theurban poor to natural hazards.Despite 50 years of public and, indeed, global debateon these issues, it is remarkable that many national and localgovernments continue to believe in the bulldozer as thepreferred instrument of public policy in the clearance ofthese slums and slum populations, whether in Harare orMumbai. 67 In addition to the direct impact of slum clearanceon the urban poor, it should also be recognized that thesocial and economic exclusion of this large and growingpopulation – more than 1 billion people worldwide and 6million people in greater Mumbai alone – has a negativeimpact on local finance and economic productivity. A total of1 billion people living in slums is not only a severe socialproblem, but also a major drain on urban-based economicactivities since slum dwellers are likely to be less healthy andless productive than more fortunate urban residents. 68Sending the urban poor to remote locations on the peripheriesof cities further inhibits their opportunities for earningincomes and meeting their own basic needs. Indeed, studiesof these phenomena in many cities such as Abidjan, Lagos orRio de Janeiro demonstrate conclusively that urban relocationreduces incomes and further impoverishes already poorpeople. 69 If the importance of security of tenure should notbe minimized, it is also possible to assign a disproportionateinfluence to this constraint on the quality of human settlements.Experience in many cities demonstrates that securityof tenure is a necessary, but insufficient, condition forhousing investment and housing quality. Access to residentialinfrastructure such as water supply, sanitation and otherenvironmental infrastructure, such as drainage, is equally ifnot more important in ensuring the basic needs of individualsand households. Having a title to a plot of land withoutreasonable access to water supply does not solve the housingproblems of an urban household. 70Tenure, therefore, should be recognized as a legalprotection and human right against uncertainty aboutwhether public authorities will bulldoze so-called illegal