Scaling low-income housing delivery in Kenya and the Philippines: community participation and livelihoods outcomes

Abstract

The intersection of community participation and livelihoods for the urban poor who move into formalised, low-income housing is the focus of this paper. Drawing on case studies from the Philippines and Kenya, and working with Real Equity for All (Reall) and their partners, we critically examine the dynamic changes to communities moving into new housing funded through the Community-Led Infrastructure Financing Facility (CLIFF) programme of affordable homebuilding. The two contexts contrast different levels of community involvement, savings practices and scales of housing construction. We explore how at-scale construction of low-income housing may mean communities feel more disengaged, whilst noting the challenges of fuller participation. We find that moves to both in situ housing and peri-urban relocation sites have mixed and complex impacts on livelihoods, although livelihood changes are balanced by beneficiaries against quality of life. Construction itself generates work, but direct and indirect community benefits are not straightforward. Our findings fill an important gap in research evidence, addressing how communities and livelihoods change as low-income home builders seek to achieve scale, and how notions of community are generated and reconstituted through savings and homebuilding processes.