A home isn’t always a house

It is no surprise that much of Jill Wigle’s research focuses on informal housing and human settlement planning in developing cities considering the scholar holds a PhD in geography, is a Registered Practicing Planner in Ontario and a Member of the Canadian Institute of Planners.

Through a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada postdoctoral fellowship, the new geography and environmental studies faculty member spent last year in Mexico City conducting research where some 60 per cent of the city’s 20 million residents live in informal housing. According to Wigle, this isn’t unique to Mexico City. Most of the world doesn’t purchase housing as a finished product as we do in Western countries. Wigle explains that accessing housing is a process for many people: “They begin by purchasing land on the outskirts of a city and establish a precarious shelter without access to urban services such as water, sewerage, or electricity, and try to consolidate their housing and settlement conditions over time.”

This process can take up to 30 years. Beyond the obvious health issues these living conditions create, residents face other hardships such as making long daily commutes into the city for work. Some people may travel up to four hours a day. This places great stress on commuters and families alike, especially single mothers who struggle to balance their roles as care-givers and wage-earners.

Wigle adds that informal housing is a major impetus of urban sprawl. “Not the type of urban sprawl we have here,” clarifies the assistant professor. “This is the unplanned city.”

She says it is important that Western countries and international organizations address these significant urban issues in a more explicit manner, but advises that it is important to work with local organizations that not only know the local issues, but are also part of broader processes of political and social change.

Wigle hopes that by discussing subjects like informal housing in her classroom her students will leave with a “more critical and informed view of important issues like poverty and social inequality.”