Development schemes aided by UN and foreign assistance programs have helped alleviate housing shortages in Mogadishu and Hargeysa. Town planning and housing are under the jurisdiction of municipalities, and assistance is given by the central government only when it has approved a project submitted by the municipality. The typical Somali house is either a cylindrical hut with a conical thatched roof or a rectangular hut with an angular roof of thatch or metal. According to the latest available information for 1980–88, the total number of housing units was 710,000 with 6.8 people per dwelling.