In many parts of the state, cooperative housing development programmes has provided a large number of houses to people with small and marginal incomes. Group housing cooperatives in the major cities of the state have come up which have not only built houses and apartments but undertaken their upkeep and maintenance as well.

It is however, general experience that there is inordinate delay in allotment of land to cooperative housing societies. There are also problems with arranging the required finance at low interest rate by the members of the society. Also, the affairs of some societies are not properly managed and the cost of housing construction and the installation of the essential services are now rather high.

These problems need to be eradicated by obtaining greater cooperation of relevant public sector institutions and government departments. Housing cooperatives for the poor and the economically weaker sections of the society should be promoted through procedural simplifications and motivational measures.

In Kerala houses for the urban poor has become a reality only through the sincere efforts of such cooperatives, which took great pain in bringing this issue to the notice of the government. Thus the government has now set aside sufficient amount of money in the annual budget to ensure a roof over the head for people with marginal incomes and living in urban slums.

The slums in Kerala were known until recent times as a hotbed of violence and other anti-social activities. In recent times the sincere efforts of the government in improving the lot of the people of these areas have started to bear fruit. Today people of these localities do have a changed outlook and thus to implement certain development programmes in these areas is not a difficult task.