On the hills that ring Lima, many neighborhoods began the same way: a family arrived from another region, found open land on a slope and built a home with whatever materials they could afford. Years later, the community may have schools, small shops and footpaths worn into the hillside, but still no running water, no sewage connection and no legal proof that the land belongs to the people living on it. That is the reality of many informal settlements.
According to UN-Habitat, more than 1.1 billion people worldwide live in slums or informal settlements. In this article, you will learn how informal settlements in Lima take shape, why land titles matter so much for access to basic services, and how community-led infrastructure projects can help families move toward legal recognition.
Lima is a city of about 10 million people. Over the past decades, families from across Peru moved to the capital looking for work and opportunity. With little affordable housing available, many built homes on the steep, rocky hillsides at the city's edges. Today, close to a million people live in these settlements, often called pueblos jóvenes or human settlements.
Many first homes are made of lightweight materials like reed mats or plywood. Construction usually happens without architects or engineers, on loose sand and unstable rock. Families improve their homes over time as they can, but the ground beneath them stays the same.
Lima sits in a seismically active zone, and El Niño years can bring heavy rain and mudslides to a city that rarely sees rain. You can read more about El Niño in Lima's settlements and how it affects hillside communities. Without stairs, railings or retaining walls, everyday trips to school, work or a clinic carry a real risk of falling.
The contrast between Lima's formal and informal neighborhoods can be stark. The story of Lima's Wall of Shame shows how physical barriers once separated wealthy districts from the settlements beside them.
A land title is the legal document that recognizes a family's right to the land where they live. In informal settlements, many households don't have one, and that gap shapes almost every part of daily life.
In many settlements, legal land recognition is often required before families can access public utilities like water and electricity. Without it, households may depend on water trucks, shared connections or informal arrangements that cost more and offer less. As our article on why safe housing is scarce in Peru explains, the cost of living makes these extra expenses even harder to absorb.
When families aren't sure their claim to the land will be recognized, building a stronger home is a bigger gamble. Legal recognition gives households more confidence to invest in safer walls, floors and roofs over time.
This is where community infrastructure comes in. In neighborhoods like these, permanent, engineered infrastructure is often a key requirement when residents ask local governments for land titles and public utilities. The chain looks like this:
Community infrastructure → supports land title efforts → titles open the door to water and electricity → safer, healthier homes
Safe Homes Movement works with communities in Lima's informal settlements on the infrastructure they prioritize. Every project follows a 50/50 model: residents identify the need and work on site, while local architects and engineers lead the design and supervise construction.
In the 2 de Diciembre community, families faced dangerous slopes every time they walked to school, work or the clinic. Residents, local professionals and student volunteers built a concrete staircase together. Beyond safer access, the project supports the community's efforts to secure land titles.
Retaining walls help hold back loose soil and rock that could otherwise slide onto homes and paths. Like staircases, they are permanent infrastructure that strengthens a community's case for recognition and services.
For students in engineering, architecture and urban development, these projects show how infrastructure, law and daily life are connected. On the development service learning trip, students take a Reality Tour of the settlements, then join residents and local professionals on the build.
Informal settlements are residential areas where homes are built without legal recognition of land ownership and often without formal planning. They frequently lack basic services such as water, sewage and electricity.
Many families moved to Lima from other regions of Peru seeking work and opportunity. With limited affordable housing, they built homes on available land, often on the steep hillsides around the city.
Land titles legally recognize a family's right to their land. In many settlements, that recognition is often required to request public utilities like water and electricity, and it gives families more security to improve their homes.
Informal settlements are not just a housing issue. They connect land rights, safety, health and opportunity. Seeing that connection on a real hillside, working alongside the families who live there, changes how you think about infrastructure.
If you study engineering, architecture or urban development, fill out the form to get dates, eligibility details and next steps for the Development Service Learning Trip in Lima, Cusco and Tena.