Khuda-ki-Basti is a grid-like, planned layout within the 5500-acre Gulshan-eShabbaz housing development located in Hyderabad. It is the site of a development scheme devised by the Hyderabad Development Authority (HDA) to help the poorest families house themselves. In this sector homeless Pakistanis are given the chance to settle on land, and to obtain permanent. Given security of tenure, the families build their houses and provide infrastructure incrementally, as resources become available. Alongside resolving the problem of housing for the urban poor and reducing the unplanned growth of slums, was a second, social objective to upgrade the living standards of the needier sections of the population by making land accessible for permanent ownership in a planned housing scheme, thereby integrating the urban poor into the mainstream of society.