Changing attitudes to housing provision: BLISS in the Philippines?

Since 1979 the Philippine state has been adopting a vigorous new approach to the problem of providing housing for its poorest people. Earlier approaches are reviewed, but the paper focuses on the Bagong Lipunan Improvement of Sites and Services (BLISS) scheme which aims to provide cheap housing of a reasonable standard. Conditions required for the establishment of a scheme are identified, and it is shown that some measure of success has been …