Site and Services

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Site and Services is an approach to bringing shelter within the economic reach of the poor. Recognizing that the vast majroity of low income families in the world build their own shelter, which lacks basic hygiene, access and electricity, the strategy was developed. The approach first appeared on a large scale in Madras (now Chennai) in 1972 when the World Bank engaged Christopher Charles Benninger to advise the Madras Metropolotain Development Authority (MMDA) on their housing sector investments. The approach links the user group's Ability to Pay with land prices and the costs of rudimentary and up-gradable infrastructure. The fundamental idea is to market plots with essential infrastructure at market prices, to avoid the resale of subsidized housing, directed at low income groups. The first major scheme planned by Benninger, at Arambakkum in Chennai, created about seven thousand shelter units, within the paying capacity of the urban poor. Within five years the MMDA created more than 20,000 units and the approach became a major strategy of the World Bank to tackle a variety of shelter problems globally.