The silence of the experts: “Aided self-help housing”, 1939–1954

Those who have discussed aided self-help housing (“site-and-services”) have generally assumed that the idea was first developed in the 1960s and became influential only after it was adopted by the World Bank in the 1970s. In fact, the theory and practise of aided self-help became well-developed during the 1940s and early 1950s. It was articulated most fully by Jacob L. Crane at the Housing and Home Finance Agency in Washington, DC. It was …