Mutual Aid in Low-cost Housing

The United Nations—long active in facilitating international co-operation in the housing field—will carry out, from 1961 to 1965, a world-wide program whose central theme is the mobilization of individual and group efforts for the im provement of housing for lower-income groups. According to estimates for the world made around 1950, as many as 150 million families in the industrially less-advanced areas required more adequate homes and better physical surroundings. In the industrially advanced countries, there was a housing deficit of roughly 30 million units. At the mid-point of this century, characterized by the greatest technological advances in man's history, there was indeed no country without a housing prob lem. While marked strides had been made in health, educa tion, and nutrition, no comparable advance could be reported in housing. With very few exceptions the supply of housing for most families is in fact deteriorating, especially in the less- developed countries. Practical experiences clearly indicate that self-help and mutual aid combined with economic co operation could contribute towards alleviating the extreme shortage of housing for many income groups and the utter lack of adequate community facilities in most parts of the world.