Energy and housing trajectories: Narratives of vulnerability in self-help housing processes

• Auto-construction accounts for the majority of housing built in Lima. • Develops storylines to illustrate energy and housing trajectories. • Vulnerability is present at every stage of the auto-construction process. • Progress does not mean escaping energy poverty and achieving dignified housing. This paper explores the interconnections between housing and energy as intersecting social challenges that generate complex and evolving states of vulnerability in informal settlements. Addressing a critical gap in the literature, particularly in data-scarce contexts of the Global South, the research challenges the dominant assumption that, given sufficient time and urban consolidation, people can move out of energy and housing poverty. Drawing on focus groups, oral histories, surveys, and participatory video-making in two settlements in Lima, Peru, the research employs a narrative approach to present three composite life stories. These narratives reveal how prolonged processes of neighbourhood consolidation (re)produce cycles of deprivation, that are shaped by spatial and material configurations, social relations, thermal comfort, and everyday energy risks. The narrative method ensures contextual depth while enhancing the accessibility and resonance of findings for policymakers, practitioners, and affected communities. The results underscore the need to look beyond infrastructure-focused and economic interventions and advocate for the need to support the different stages of auto-construction while safeguarding inhabitants’ autonomy. We also argue that the factors examined are relevant across informal settlements globally, offering a comparative lens to address housing and energy vulnerabilities amid climate and compounded crises.