About 1 billion people live in squatter communities throughout the world, and while these communities face significant challenges, life is vibrant and squatters are collectively the largest builder of housing in the world. Based on the experience of living for two years in squatter communities in Brazil, Turkey, Kenya and India, the paper describes the everyday experience as well as the legal, political and organizational challenges of people living in so-called slums. It refutes the three popular myths that (1) squatter communities are emblems of human misery, (2) everyone in these communities is impoverished and starving, and (3) squatters are the enemy of civil society. Instead, the challenges and achievements of everyday life in the communities are contextualized and the paper concludes by emphasizing the need for organizing in the communities to secure title, access to services and avoid evictions through successful initiatives from the squatters themselves, not global institutions.
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