To date, housing still remains a problem to many Nigerians. Despite the fact that various housing policy has been formulated and implemented in the past, there is a severe shortage of adequate and affordable housing for the poor who constitutes a high percentage of the urban populace. In examining this developmental challenge, this article emphasises the need to understand the values of housing among the poor and the application of appropriate development strategies that could enhance optimum utilization of existing resources for effective housing delivery. A brief background information on the Ilesa settlement and housing situation is discussed. Also, the socio-economic characteristics of the poor in Ilesa are well enumerated. The paper also presents the respondents on various issues on housing values (e.g., house type, house size, preferred tenure status, position of housing on the list of needs and willingness to pay for housing). The survey approach was adopted and the instrument used was the questionnaire. The questionnaire was administered to three hundred and fifty (350) household heads in two wards located in the core of Ilesa, using the systematic sampling technique. The questionnaire elicited information on socio economic characteristics, perceptions, values and preferences in housing. Three hundred and twelve (312) questionnaire were returned and used for the analysis. The data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Analysis of the result indicated that family well being (52.6%) ranked as the highest housing value followed by economy (34.3%) while personal/social expression ranked lowest (13.1%). The results of the study also showed that majority (99.7%) of the respondents’ preferred home ownership to other forms of tenure and (68.6%) would rather build with mud blocks. The preferred house types among the poor in Ilesa are self contained bungalow (51.5%) and rooming apartment (32.1%), there is also the preference for few numbers of rooms in their houses due to financial constraints. Willingness to pay for housing and infrastructure was high among the respondents. The paper concludes that researchers and designers needs information on values to explain housing preferences as a basis for design criteria.