A leading department needs to take responsibility for supporting backyarders.

Every strategy should be clearly state, without ambiguity and uncertainty, what the city's strategy of improving backyard dwellings is. In this way, citizens can hold their governments to account.

Municipalities should recognize backyarding as an important sector of rental supply. Is the municipality supportive or discouraging of the sector?

Every city with a significant proportion (more than 5% of total city population) of backyarders should have a strategy to improve the living conditions of people living in backyarder shacks articulated in their core municipal doucmentation.

Even though the municpality might not have a backyarder support strategy, there should be evidence of this housing option in municipal plans.

This figure represents the proportion of the city's population living in backyarder shacks. In other words, a bit less than one in ten people live in an informal settlement.

The number of households residing in backyarder shacks across the entire city.

This figure indicates the % of backyard shacks in the Province located in the metro

By multiplying the number of households with the city's average household size according to census data, we get a sense of how many people live in backyarder dwellings.

The growth rate of households living in backyarder shacks is calculated by comparing Census 2011 data and reported figures in the IDP.