The World - News from March 5, 1985

New housing in most major Third World cities consists primarily of the illegal, largely self-built shacks used by the urban poor, an international environmental group said. A 140-page report by the Earthscan information service, which has offices in London and Washington, said this expansion is unplanned and uncontrolled and that the proportion of illegal squatters is rising. “The true builders and planners of Third World cities are the urban poor,” author Patrick McAuslan wrote. “They build their settlements where they can, largely illegally: on unused land, on hills and over swamps.”