An Analysis of the Relationship between Urban Services Accessibility and Perceived Tenure Security in Informal Settlement

Tenure security is one of the primary rights of households that its lack leads to economic, social, psychological and political challenges. In recent years, special attention has been given to tenure security in improving informal settlements, in such a way that in 2003 and 2006 this has been among the main research topics on informal settlements in UN-HABITAT. Thus, tenure security has become a deprivation index in settlements. Tenure security is much more than simply examining legal title deeds, and now involves social, economic and life-quality indexes. In recent years, scientific and practical experience on tenure security index indicate that the expensive process of title deeds issuance has made the inhabitants reluctant to pursue the mentioned process due to their financial inability, and also because of powerful and influential forces in land market, land hoarding and speculation have come into existence. Indeed, de facto and supra legal and perceived indexes along with legal ones, hold sway on tenure security scale in informal settlements. These days, instead of enhancement of tenure settlement through legal procedures, the application of mediating tools like urban services has become prevalent. In the current research the impact of urban services accessibility on perceived tenure security of inhabitants in Koshtargah neighborhood is examined. Examining urban services accessibility scale reveals that five explanatory indexes of perceived tenure security consist of concern about the informality of neighborhood, concerns about the municipality dissatisfaction with the people living in the neighborhood, fear of homelessness after evacuation, possibility of forced eviction at any moment and possibility of forced eviction in the next five year, and seven criteria, as well as fifteen sub-criteria are identified. Research method is descriptive-analytical, and survey, questionnaire, as well as ArcGIS techniques, fuzzy analysis and statistical methods such as Pearson correlation coefficient and regression are used. The results shows a positive, direct relation between urban services accessibility and perceived tenure security in Koshtargah and the more urban services will be accessible, the perceived tenure security of Koshtargah inhabitants will be stronger, in such a way that about 60 percent of variance of perceived tenure security in this neighborhood is depend on urban services accessibility. According to the results, to formalize the informal settlements, providing the urban services can be considered as a mediating tool in these settlements and providing legal property deeds can be considered a long-term plan. Improving the urban services for residents in Koshtargah Neighborhood has led to reducing fear from forced evacuation and as a result, had increased the residents’ perception of security of tenure. Increased sense of security in tenure housing has led to increased confidence among residents and this has led to the creation of investment in housing and providing some incentives for voluntary cooperation of residents to improve their neighborhood. Access to services could represent the beginning of a movement of formal recognition of the neighborhood and It is a sign of acceptance of the area by urban management authorities in Urmia.