Informal Backyard Rental Housing: Policy options and a delineation of responsibility

Informal backyard rental housing has remained largely invisible to public policy and urban programmes despite the sector’s size and growth. Isandla Institute’s latest position paper identifies a range of potential interventions in the sector and explains which sphere of government is responsible for implementing each one (PDF, 932KB). It also outlines a set of general principles that should apply to any interventions in the sector, as well as identifying a range of risks.

The interventions contained in the position paper are not presented as being exhaustive, and are rather meant to stimulate discussion and move policy debates closer to the realm of implementation.