The Interface between Socioeconomic Activities of the Urban Poor and Sustainable Affordable Housing Provision

The continuous growth of urbanization across the world complicates the achievement of sustainable development goals for housing. Governments across countries have been mostly unsuccessful in providing sustainable affordable housing for the urban poor; suggesting an urgent need for other means of providing sustainable affordable housing (SAH). This study carefully reviewed literature that have considered the provision of sustainable affordable housing for the urban poor across the world, in the past five years; being when SAH became more of interest. This review compiled 71 papers that were published up to date in 2021, of which 46 were subject to detailed review following screening. The focus was on the recommendations of these articles with respect to the prevalent housing challenges of the urban poor. 85% of included studies made recommendations suggesting that policies considerate and incorporative of the socioeconomic activities of the urban poor will enhance the successful achievement of SAH for the urban poor. This study successfully demonstrates that majority of scholars homogenously opine that the socioeconomic activities of the urban poor are essential considerations for effective SAH provision in developed and developing economies alike. Findings from this study are beneficial for policy formulation and informative for future research direction