What’s the Real Cause of the World’s Housing Problem?

An example of urban poverty in this slum in Jakarta, Indonesia
An example of urban poverty in this slum in Jakarta, Indonesia

Over a billion people in the world lack decent housing even though there are dozens of low cost housing methods that could eliminate this problem. Possibilities include building with earthbags, adobe, cob, pallets, bamboo and other locally available materials. These affordable, sustainable housing options are described on our blog in good detail. Additionally, the Internet has thousands of websites, blogs, online journals and forums with even more information about these building methods. There are thousands of low income housing groups working on this cause. And, there doesn’t seem to be a shortage of information on how to build affordable housing, and yet the lack of decent housing persists. So what’s going on? What’s the real problem here?

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$300 Earthbag House Update – What the World Needs Now


Every once in a while I go back and look through my websites to check on things and look for fresh insights. I was very surprised to see this $300 Earthbag House video has received over 180,000 hits. That’s far above the average 2,000 hits on most of my videos and this got me thinking about why it’s so popular.

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