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1. Introduction
Aside from the impact of natural disasters, conflict and, sometimes, “place renovation” (Baeten et al., 2017), people’s displacement is also seen to proceed from giving way to development projects (Harms, 2013; Madebwe et al., 2011). Historically, the problem caused by involuntary displacement or development-induced displacement is unattended or not recognized (Cernea, 1995; World Bank, 2004). That scenario sidelined the displacees for the sake of progress, forcing them to resettle somewhere in exchange of “development” (Cernea, 2006), and thus become “victims of development” (Kothari, 1996). It was only when the matter became too apparent that displacement was recognized as a legitimate concern (Hartman, 1979), which continues until today (Goetz, 2013).
Lower-income families and minority tenants remain the most vulnerable to displacement by eviction. Thus, effective social policies should be in place to address their concerns (Cernea, 1997; Desmond and Kimbro, 2015; Hartman and Robinson, 2003) not only for short-term housing needs but also for long-term ones including health care and transportation access among others (Levine et al., 2007). Recommendations have been made to address and reduce the impact of involuntary displacement. These include social impact assessment and the restoration of income and livelihood among others (Gutman, 1994) as well as reforming policies for public housing to show interest to improve the conditions of the displaced (Hyun, 2008; Keating, 2000). World Bank even released policy guidelines to make sure that they finance projects that reduce impact on the involuntarily displaced, (Cernea, 1998), as the bank recognized the inherent threats of displacement to human population (Downing, 2002a). Governments must be particularly open to similar initiatives especially as international laws, in which they adhere, are responsible for the fundamental right to housing (Audefroy, 1994).
At any rate, however, aside from the homelessness as the most direct and obvious result of involuntary displacement, other unintended consequences which surface are the disintegration of families and community networks (Audefroy, 1994) and increasing material hardship and depression (Desmond and Kimbro, 2015). These consequences are often attributed to the lack of commitment to uphold the well-being and rights of the displaced (McDonald-Wilmsen and Webber, 2010), which happens in the form of unfulfilled promises of compensation (Madebwe et al., 2011) as well as jobs and markets for locally produced...