Identifying opportunities, unlocking informality and leveraging assets to create sustainable housing for Nairobi's majority population

Over the next 15 years, over Kshs. 89.09 billion will be paid by slum-dwellers to informal service-providers for low-quality and high-cost services. This situation is replicated in almost all informal settlements within the city of Nairobi. Developing affordable shelter for the urban poor, and thereby
realizing the Constitutional right to housing, will require new forms of pro-poor shelter finance
and supportive policies at the urban level. But most of Nairobi’s residential construction
has targeted wealthy households, leaving insufficient supply of low-income housing where the
needs are most urgent. This paper argues for a County-level affordable housing fund.