The self-help approach to housing aims at creating an enabling environment. An environment in which occupants of a piece of land, especially the poor, build their affordable houses fulfilling their current needs and progressively expand and/or improve the house to meet their changing needs. The Million Houses Programme in Sri Lanka ‘aided’ self-help incorporated participation in decision-making, and support for planning, design, construction, and financing. The project further expanded to enhance the skills of settlement residents in taking-up community contracts for the construction of community assets. Currently, when relocation of slum dwellers into built-housing is becoming the preferred option, this article very briefly revisited the lessons learned and the lessons that could still be learned from the experience of the Million Houses Programme and of the ‘People’s Process. It argues that an ‘enabling environment for increasing access to housing involves multi-pronged support through facilitators. The experience of the Million Houses Programme offers insights, even now, into effective strategies for aided self-help housing.