Housing
According to the characteristics of nature, the ancient method of house construction was using natural soil, wood and thatch. Royal palaces and royal houses were bigger in size, sculptural and other facilities. During the reign of the king, it is seen that special residences were built here for those specially invited from other countries. With the arrival of foreigners, buildings with different architectural styles began to be constructed. In 1941, the population of Thiruvananthapuram was 128365 and the number of houses was 21370. About 25000 people were landless and homeless.
In the 1997-98 development document of the Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation, it was estimated that by 2001, there would be 186,000 families in the city and about 17,000 families would be homeless. It was estimated that 29% of the existing households in the city belong to the crude category, 40% to the middle category and 31% to the improved category. The improved category have washing machines, air conditioners and TV sets installed in their houses.
Apartment complexes of the Kerala State Housing Board, Regional Provident Fund quarters, Reserve Bank of India staff quarters, MLA quarters, various government quarters, flat complexes built and marketed by the private sector have also emerged as new faces of housing. Thiruvananthapuram is also the headquarters of the famous manufacturing center.
In 2000, Atipra, Katakampally, Ullur, Nemam and Thiruvallam panchayats which were peripheral panchayats of Thiruvananthapuram were added to the municipality. The municipality, which had 50 wards, became a sprawling area of 86 wards.
Today’s urban habitat
As per the data available with the municipality, the population of the city is 744983, the number of families is 248346 and the number of houses is 221436. There are 26910 families without habitable house. A large proportion of this number are landless, destitute, non-scheduled and non-scheduled caste slum dwellers, fishermen and below poverty line population. More than 29% of existing houses are in urgent need of repair/upgradation works (eg – lakh houses).