Abstract: Access to land for housing in urban areas in Nigeria is fraught with many problems ranging from high cost to multiple buyers of the same parcel of land. Most of the associated problems arose due to land management system. This study examines the strategies used by cooperative societies in overcoming myriad challenges militating against access to land in Benin city. Questionnaires were used to elicit information from cooperative organizations involved in land acquisition and from the communities where lands were acquired. Findings show that cooperative land acquisition enables cooperative members of all categories of income earners to gain easy access to secure and cheap urban land for housing purposes. The study recommends that since government has failed to provide shelter for the citizen it should support cooperative societies by encouraging banks to give soft loan to cooperatives to acquire land for its members. This will not only reinforce government objective of shelter for all but also serves as instrument for poverty reduction since such lands are acceptable as collateral security by financial houses.