Social Sustainability
Squatter Settlement
A settlement built on land occupied without legal title — defined by tenure insecurity rather than only by poverty.
Definition
A squatter settlement is a residential area whose inhabitants occupy land without legal ownership or formal permission, typically self-built on public or private land at urban margins. The defining feature is tenure insecurity: residents face eviction risk and are often denied connections to water, power and sanitation because they cannot prove address or title. Squatter settlements overlap with slums (defined by deprivation conditions) but the concepts are distinct — some squatter areas consolidate into middle-income neighbourhoods over time.
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