Abstract
ABSTRACT: In parts of the Global South there are both state housing initiatives and state welfare, but these are often not viewed in combination when analysing housing. Yet the wider picture is crucial to understanding how people survive in government-provided housing when state policies do not offer subsidised rental, and forms of work are scarce, low paying and often precarious. Apparent in the practices and narratives of households is a constant hustle across different resources, which may include receiving or appropriating assistance from the government as well from kin. Drawing on a multi-site research project in Durban, South Africa, this article discusses the practices and interactions of poor households with state housing of different typologies and origins, in which the nature and extent of state support varies. Findings show how households work to minimise their living costs, maximise income, and manage obligations and gains. The article argues that these practices, although maximising state assistance as far as possible, should not simply be viewed as deepening dependency on the state. Rather, this research augments the views that welfare assistance widens forms of inter-dependence, adding an important state housing dimension to the discussions. These relationships of interdependence extend spatially to places and people beyond the housing itself, and arguably increase agency.