The exponential growth of the global population and the increasing rate at which societies are urbanizing presents a monumental challenge to all major cities of the developing world. The growth of urban populations is happening at a rate many times faster than the capacity to plan, build and manage urban settlements to meet this demand. This means the majority of new housing stock in the developing world is being built informally; a piecemeal development process that can result in hazardous neighborhoods lacking the basic conditions to create economically vibrant communities and strong societies. Informal settlements are often built with substandard materials and without sufficient infrastructure to ensure standards for the health, safety, and sanitation of their residents. In reality, informal settlements satisfy the huge demand for low-income housing units, a market often neglected by the formal housing sector in developing world cities. The advantage of informal housing construction is the pace and self-sufficiency in which housing units are constructed, and the simplicity of the final product meets the financial constraints of the multitude of low-income and impoverished urban residents. By combining the positive aspects of informal housing developments with an innovative support structure from governments and development institutions to mitigate the impacts and dangers of informal settlements, it is possible to produce decent housing units to meet the immediate and future needs of expanding cities in the developing world. “Incremental Housing” is a strategy to achieve these goals by combining the tools, services, and expertise to build safe and vibrant urban communities with the resourcefulness and motivation of the informal sector.