AN AFRICAN JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES, LIVEWAYS, AND HERITAGE STUDIES

This sociological study investigates the relationship between rapid urbanization and the development of slum housing in Orerokpe, a semi-urban town in Delta State, Nigeria. While urbanization is often associated with economic opportunity, in Orerokpe it has produced a distinct pattern of housing deprivation, overcrowding, and infrastructural decay. The research adopts a qualitative ethnographic case study design, drawing on in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, and direct observation conducted between January and April 2025. A sample of forty-five household heads was purposively selected from three recognized slum clusters within Orerokpe. The findings reveal that slum development in Orerokpe is not a random occurrence but a structured outcome of weak land-use planning, unregulated private sector housing, and the withdrawal of state-provided social housing. The study further finds that residents experience chronic housing challenges including lack of drainage systems, absent sanitation facilities, insecure land tenure, and exploitative rental arrangements. These conditions reproduce social inequalities and limit upward mobility. The study concludes that slum formation is a manifestation of structural violence embedded in governance failures. Recommendations include the implementation of participatory slum upgrading, the enforcement of building codes, and the provision of affordable housing loans for low-income residents. The study contributes to urban sociology by demonstrating how local urbanization dynamics produce distinct slum ecologies without requiring the megacity framework common in global slum literature.

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