One of the main challenges of the Third World City is that of providing adequate
shelter to its residents. In many developing countries, millions of people live in
squalid conditions, shacks, squatter settlements, backyard shanties and substandard
housing. This situation reflects the mismatch between housing demand and supply
in these cities. Although various strategies have been applied to address the problem,
they have yielded little or no success in alleviating the problem especially among
the poor. This paper examines the problem of housing in the city of Mutare, one of
Zimbabwe’s major urban centres. Taking an historical perspective, the paper shows
that the solution to the problem of urban shelter has been, and continues to be a
daunting task more than two decades after Zimbabwe’s independence from Britain
in 1980. This scenario prevails in spite of the numerous strategies that have been
employed over the years to address the problem.