From Tenants to Homeowners: Housing Renters After Disaster in Bhuj, India

Abstract

While renters comprise one-third of urban housing markets, the barriers to long-term housing needs of renters following a disaster are significant. This paper examines post-disaster urban housing policy for renter households following the 2001 Gujarat earthquake in India and its implications for the housing recovery of renters in Bhuj city, an urban area close to the epicenter of the earthquake. Employing a qualitative case study method, the study finds that urban housing policy for renter households was defined by an ad hoc approach with multiple shifts over a period of 4 years. The improvised policy eventually lead to the creation of a publicly funded homeownership program that could rehouse less than one-third of impacted renters, whereas issues of equity, land tenure, lack of affordable units, and uncertainty of recovery for the poorest renters in the city remained.