Backyard Soweto.

What constitutes poor quality housing is culturally defined and varies greatly between cities and countries across the globe. While self-help settlement has become common in many cities in recent years and a certain number of poor households rent rooms in central areas, a significant proportion of poor families occupy a different form of accommodation; they occupy shacks or formal rooms in the backyards of other households. The article compares the South African situation with the pattern found in most other third world countries. During the early apartheid period, when the government was still committed to providing houses for urban Africans, migrants who qualified for urban status found accommodation in hostels or official council housing. Backyard accommodation was the only option during the 1970s and early 1980s because the state was still able to prevent land invasions. Backyard accommodation is unevenly distributed around Soweto, South Africa with the vast majority being located in the backyards of the stands of council houses. In part, this high concentration reflects the dominance of council housing in Soweto, which occupies 74% of all stands and makes up 84% of all format structures.