URBAN RENEWAL AND SECURITY ISSUES (Published)
Urban renewal involves the application of urban upgrading techniques which have been developed for the treatment of urban obsolescence. Urban renewal theories provide four main approaches with which to address urban renewal challenges namely redevelopment, rehabilitation/renovation, conservation, and revitalization. Application of redevelopment and rehabilitation/renovation techniques, which are not mutually exclusive options, more often than not involve displacement of occupiers. The displaced persons are often helpless and subjected to series of shocks. This situation raises issue of tenure security because unless the slum dwellers are protected by security arrangements, the less privileged households who are mainly the slum residents must always suffer during any slum clearance programme. This paper therefore recommends slum citizen dislocation insurance, eviction pension, relocation microfinance grants, social welfare funds and the use of the provisions of 1978 landuse decree and the declaration of human rights provisions as an authority to guarantee the tenure security of slum dwellers during urban renewal programmes as security packages to cushion the residents’ shock during urban renewal programmes.
Keywords: Urban renewal, redevelopment, social benefits, tenure security, urban renewal shocks.