How to set $TERM to xterm-256color for SSH?

When I connect to my android (cyanogenmod11) phone over ssh with:

$ ssh root@10.10.10.131

it prints:

void endpwent()(3) is not implemented on Android

here it's just the regular android terminal, but when i use a command like htop, i get:

root@janice:/ # htop
Error opening terminal: xterm-256color.
1|root@janice:/ # 

Is there a way to permanently set $TERM to xterm-256color?