UNCONVENTIONAL URBAN SETTLEMENTS: AN ANALYSIS OF THE NATURE, CAUSES AND RESPONSES OF HOMELESSNESS IN ACCRA.

ABSTRACT

The ongoing breakdown of the extended family support system and the economic hardships brought about by the Economic Recovery Programmes of the 1980s have contributed to visible expressions of urban poverty. These are manifested in two types of precarious urban settlements which have sprung up throughout many parts of Accra, the slum and the non-slum. This study perceives the latter as homelessness. It analyses its nature, causes and responses from the public towards the phenomenon. The study applies the concepts of social exclusion, structural poverty and the interconnectedness of home and work in the informal sector in examining the phenomenon of homelessness in Accra. To achieve this, four locations in the Greater Accra region which bear two types of homelessness are observed and dwellers are interviewed. In addition to this, institutions that, and individuals who, interact with the homeless are also examined. These yield the results that the homeless people of Accra are clustered at the town/city centres and dispersed within the residential areas. They also have few personal possessions and engaged in economic activities that principally dictate the nature and place of their accommodation. Few of them benefit occasionally, in clothes and health care, from

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charity events organized by some institutions such as Joy Fm and the Maternal Health Channel. More significantly most of the homeless are engaged in daily interactions with non-homeless members of society. These interactions establish relationships of trust and reciprocity which revolve round the daily lives of the homeless making urban life less difficult. This study shows that the homeless of Ghana do not exist outside of the community as it is in most countries but are rather integrated within the community. The study also established that social exclusion results in long term deprivations of the excluded and used the colonial and post colonial government relationship with rural areas of Ghana to support this.