Asia-Pacific’s population of 4.3 billion is rapidly urbanizing and countries are struggling to keep pace with the demand for housing. Urbanization represents not a threat but an opportunity for economic development and for the uplifting of communities. Addressing the security of tenure presents an excellent entry point to tackle the problem of urban slum housing. Security of tenure is often mistakenly understood as the legal right of ownership of land, but there is a continuum of land rights, from the least secure to the most secure with many examples of successful implementation of methods for slum improvement in the region. Forcible slum clearance and involuntary relocation have been repeatedly demonstrated to fail and have far-reaching negative impacts. Successful projects prioritize upgrading slums in situ. They have put the community in the lead and brought them together with municipalities, professionals, the private sector, and nongovernment organizations to solve urban housing problems together.