What term describes areas of poverty where people do not own land, with little planning and no public services?

• A. Suburbs
• B. Squatter settlements/shantytowns
• C. Urban growth boundary
• D. Zones of Abandonment

Answer: (B)

When people migrate to cities faster than the housing market can supply formal, titled homes, they often occupy land informally and build shelter with whatever materials are available. This creates areas that are structurally unplanned, with little or no access to public services such as water, sanitation, electricity, or waste management. The people living there usually don’t own the land, so tenure is insecure and the settlement can be exposed to eviction or redevelopment pressure. This combination of poverty, lack of land ownership, minimal planning, and deficient services is characteristic of squatter settlements or shantytowns.

By contrast, suburbs are typically formal, planned residential areas with established services; an urban growth boundary is a planning tool used to control where growth happens; zones of abandonment describe areas that have been depopulated or economically neglected, not communities defined by insecure land tenure and absent services.