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This paper aims to respond to the need for “socially sustainable settlements for all” and the need for successful integration within the settlements through building strong social constructs among the settlers.

Mixed methods were used in this study. A sample size of 332 households in Pagirinya Refugee Settlement was used. The settlement is divided into six blocks, each block is subdivided into clusters. Each cluster comprises of 100 households. Due to variations in the number of households in each settlement block, the authors used a proportional sampling approach to determine the number of respondent households in each settlement block. Data was collected through questionnaires, interviews and focus group discussions. Chi-square and an interdependent multivariate statistical analysis were performed to establish the relationship between housing and social sustainability.

The study finds a significant relationship between housing and social sustainability when considered jointly on the variables of roofs of buildings and how often the refugee respondents meet with neighbours (p = 0.018) and when considered jointly on the variables of the width of access roads and how knowledgeable the refugee respondents are about their neighbours (p = 0.018). The study also finds a significant relationship between housing and social sustainability when considered jointly on the variables of the number of direct access roads to the households and the number of friends of the refugee respondents (p = 0.019).

With limited literature, this is a novel approach. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no previous studies focused on the specifics of a building and analysed its relationship with the social dynamics, especially in settlement studies.