This guide describes several ways of addressing low-income housing at the program and project levels. It focuses on well-tried methods of improving the housing and living environments of people living in slums and squatter settlements and providing adequate housing for future generations of urban poor. The first part presents concepts essential to understanding low-income housing, and explores the reasons behind the serious lack of decent, affordable housing — and hence the problem of urban slums. Key approaches to address the housing needs of the urban poor are outlined next, by examining alternative strategies for what to do about existing slums and how to avoid future slums through the production of new housing. Finally, the guide examines the main considerations needed to address the improvement of slums and the production of adequate and affordable low-income housing on a city-wide scale. This guide is not aimed at specialists but instead aims to help build the capacities of national and local government officials and policymakers who need to quickly enhance their understanding of low-income housing issues. Not all of Asia’s urban poor live in slums, and conversely, not all those who live in slums are poor. However, the poor quality of housing and lack of basic services that are common in slums represent a clear dimension of urban poverty. This guide will therefore look at slums as the main focus of low-income housing. Urban poor settlements come in a variety of sizes and shapes, and are called by a variety of names — not only ‘slums’. The word slum traditionally describes a neighbourhoods of housing that was once in good condition but has since deteriorated or been subdivided into a state of high crowding and rented out to low-income groups.