Building the Just City in Tanzania: Essays on Urban Housing 1. Introduction For decades urban planners have been struggling to find the right balance of private sector and public sector solu­tions to housing the urban poor. This is especially difficult in countries like Tan­zania, where informal settlements and high poverty rates dominate the urban landscape. Informal settlements are of­ten self-built by residents themselves and lack planning that could provide a long-range vision and coordinate an incremental urban development ap­proach. Tanzanian urban authorities lack the capacity to cope with the rap­id rate of urban population growth, though legal frameworks promise the right to own property and access hous­ing. Despite these promises, the reality is that many people struggle to access adequate and affordable housing, and state-led solutions cannot meet de­mand. Given these realities, a mix of housing providers are needed. Article 24 of the Tanzanian Constitu­tion recognizes that every citizen has the right to own property while the Draft National Housing Policy(2018:35 Draft Policy) envisions,“a well-func­tioning housing sector that delivers ad­equate and affordable housing for all inhabitants in the urban and the rural areas.” This Draft Policy(2018:7) de­fines adequate housing as,“housing comprising security of tenure; availabil­ity of services, affordability, habitability; accessibility;[and] location and cultural adequacy.” However, low-income urban residents are often unable to access adequate housing due to a number of factors. (i) Low-incomes and the desire to live in proximity to liveli­hood sources compel them to live in sub-standard housing often rental; (ii) Informal often risky set­tlements accommodate most houses that are self-built, self-fi­nanced incrementally; (iii) The cost of housing in­puts such as planned land, hous­ing finance and construction ma­terials are unaffordable; and (iv) In the absence of social assistance/protection, vulnerable groups such as women, the elder­ly and persons with disability face even more hardships in terms of access to decent housing. Financial constraints force some to rent or build in under-serviced informal or precarious locations deprived of ser­vices, overcrowded, and in poor condi­tion. Most urban residents in Tanzania (about 70%) live in informal or un­74