Exploring The Appropriateness of the Royal Initiative for Housing for The Low-Income Group in Jordan

Abstract

This research explores a large scale affordable housing scheme in Jordan, the Royal Initiative for Housing (RIH) 2008-2013, directed for low-income groups and implemented by the Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDC). The scheme aimed to enable, within five years, one hundred thousand citizens with monthly income of less than JD300, working or retired military, governmental and private sector, to own their houses at subsidized prices, in ten housing projects located in five Jordanian governorates. Initial indicators featured a disparity between design intentions and users’ expectations, causing a gap between implemented planning and the target group satisfaction. The purpose of this research was to investigate the appropriateness of RIH for the low-income groups in Jordan. It was hypothesized that the beneficiary’s housing satisfaction was affected by different attributes including project location, housing unit design, project design, financial, infrastructure, environmental, and social issues, which resulted in low selling rates of the housing units. A mixed methods research design was used. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected from the archives of HUDC and newspaper, face-to-face interviews with the beneficiaries, and telephone interviews with the non-beneficiaries, and field observations. For the face-to-face interviews, a proportional random sampling technique was used to select the subjects, which consisted of 385 household heads who lived in the ten housing projects of the scheme. In addition, 30 non-beneficiaries were randomly selected from the applicants’ names list available at HUDC for telephone interviews. Housing satisfaction was defined by satisfaction with the housing unit and satisfaction with project selection. Initial results indicated that the implemented scheme suffered from planning and design shortages, financial difficulties, infrastructural, environmental, and social problems. It was concluded that the implemented scheme did not match up all planning attributes, and did achieve the vision of providing affordable housing for the target group. Findings implied a deficiency in the pricing methods implemented by HUDC, as well as in the financial issues. It indicated that beneficiaries from the scheme were from a higher income group. Beneficiary’s satisfaction was not based on financial issues. Findings also indicated the importance of providing and operating infrastructure, facilities, and services in each implemented project, as these attributes proved significant to the beneficiary’s housing satisfaction. It is hoped that the learning lessons will enhance future initiatives and provide an additional value to low-income housing initiatives in Jordan. The solution for such initiatives is not by providing new residential units, but by building an integrative housing setting and by providing for the target group.