This paper is based on an analysis of the World Bank co-sponsored low-income housing projects in an African country, Zimbabwe over a ten-year period. The project is utilized as an instrumental case study to draw key themes of the housing dilemma in developing countries. The paper applies the theory of social construction to explain how the housing crisis in developing countries continues to persist despite the active involvement of such international agencies as the World Bank, the State, the Private Sector Building Societies, and the households themselves. Using the theory of social construction, the paper traces how the key themes of low-income housing perceived as a risk to financial mortgage business, the problem of the affordability phenomena and the ineffectiveness of partnership arrangements in housing delivery are all socially constructed in so many ways that work against the alleviation of the housing dilemma for the poor.