Self-help Housing Research Articles

Building low-carbon and disaster-resilient communities: integrating climate mitigation and adaptation into the assessment of self-help housing design

Housing is not only one of the major sources of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, but it has been increasingly vulnerable to climate-induced disasters, particularly those sheltering the urban poor. Both mitigation and adaptation measures are therefore required for the design and construction of low-income housing to encourage low carbon development and improve resilience to disasters. As self-help housing—the common type of housing for the urban poor in developing countries—is usually built by ordinary people with participatory approach, it is crucial to develop a low-carbon and disaster-resilient assessment tool for assisting them in making informed decisions during planning process. The objective of this article is to propose a new approach for developing a low-carbon and disaster-resilient assessment tool for self-help housing (LoDAT-SH) by combining opinions from experts and community residents to assign weights, identify indicators, and establish benchmarks with the aim to develop a simple, relevant, and practical tool for non-expert users like self-help residents. The application of the proposed methodology to a case study of a developing country, Thailand, shows the ability of LoDAT-SH, which contains 45 indicators in the four categories of low carbon development, disaster resilience, community participation, and financial consideration, in enabling self-help residents to assess the performance of their housing design, identify potential measures to create a low-carbon and disaster-resilient housing, and prioritize such actions. To support the creation of a low-carbon and disaster-resilient housing as the mitigation and adaptation strategy for urban development at the global level, the study suggests that the methodology of LoDAT-SH should be replicated to develop a more comprehensive assessment tool applicable for the use in self-help housing design in other developing countries, which will house about 900 million of the urban poor by 2020.

SLUM, SQUATTER, AND QUASI-SQUATTER HOUSING DEPRAVITY IN YOGYAKARTA

This studyaims at deepen our understanding of the slum-squatter housing issue in relation to thedifferences in household socio-economic factors. The theoretical basis of the study comes from literatureon self-help housing,consolidation, and marginality especially by J. Turner and colleagues. Threehousehold factors are key to the processes of taudification and consolidation in this city namely, income,dependency burden, and land tenureship.This studyattempts to synthesise a facility allocation model i.e. a Client-Oriented model; and to establish thetheoretical background of the concept of Self-Help housing advocated by Turner and friends. The study findsout that self-help housing as proposed by these researchers lacks a theoretical and philosophical setting. Inthis context, the study advances the Self-Care Ethic philosophy and a Covering Law theory as the departureof self-help and housing consolidation policies in urban settlements. With this in mind, the Client-Orientedmodel is instrumental because its purpose is to determine the degree of housing and facility in a settlement.

The Nature and Extent of Self-Help Housing in Texas

Despite regulatory efforts in Texas aimed at preventing the spread of “colonias”—self-help settlements with inadequate water and wastewater infrastructure—since the early 1990s hundreds of new self-help “model subdivisions” have formed throughout the state. Using aerial photography and parcel-level property records, I provide the first systematic analysis of these subdivisions. Their proliferation poses considerable challenges for local planners, and although most model subdivisions appear to have basic infrastructure, housing conditions are exceedingly poor because of the protracted nature of the self-help process. The study highlights the need for renewed attention by scholars, policymakers, and planners toward self-help settlements in Texas.

The Implication of Small Scale Land Sub-division for Formal Housing Towards Sustainable Living and Environment

Research on Indonesian housing market in 1990 showed that at least 85% of the housing stock, was produced independently. This includes the procurement of resources and construction. Small scale land sub-division for informal urban housing usually happen when the price of agricultural products could not cope with the production cost. The narrow plots of agricultural land available for conversion are usually yielding only 20 – 45 housing units. The procurement patterns of this kind is to provide low-cost housing for low income people. However, some important facets were not given enough attention or not widely known. As a result there are no policies or interventions to reduce problems for future residents from such a housing procurement pattern. In terms of orderly urban development, there are problems associated with this kind of housing procurement. Street patterns do not always support the existing roads system, the unavailability of adequate public infrastructure, and the safety and comfort of occupants are neglected factors. This study challenges that a pattern of land acquisition for self-help housing is inevitable. If such patterns are recognized, accommodated and united with the development of general urban housing patterns, it will undoubtedly contribute to the benefit of all parties, especially those who need homes but faces financial limitations. This research is particularly relevant in the context of sustainable development. The pattern of self-help housing land acquisition will support effective spatial planning to minimize the problem, especially in terms of access to services and housing infrastructure, as well as the comfort and safety of the occupants.

Sustainable Housing and Building Materials for Low-income Households

The access to affordable housing in the Global South is very limited for millions. Many households have chosen for incremental self-construction; herewith sustainability does not have the highest priority. The main question is whether affordable housing for the urban poor and the need for sustainable housing and urban development can be combined. Transference of knowledge to (self) builders is a key issue, as is the role of assistance in self-help housing. It is argued in this paper that sustainable goals for low-cost housing and applications are achievable. Measures concerning the physical development of neighbourhoods, such as urban density and connectivity are equally as important as measures concerning community development. The latter include support for communitybased organizations, small housing cooperatives (or similar forms of cooperation) and individual households – or small groups – that build and improve their houses incrementally. Adequate planning and social organization and cooperation are preconditions for achieving sustainability in incremental housing.

The challenges of post-disaster recovery after the Great East Japan Earthquake through the case of individual self-help housing recovery with relocation

The challenges of post-disaster recovery after the Great East Japan Earthquake through the case of individual self-help housing recovery with relocation

J. Bredenoord, P. van Lindert and P. Smets (2014) (eds): Affordable housing in the urban global south—seeking sustainable solutions

The scope and intent of this edited book on seeking solutions to questions of affordable housing in the urban global south is admirable. Twenty-six chapters written by academics, practitioners and activists engaged in issues of affordable and sustainable housing collectively present a comprehensive overview of housing issues and practices across the urban global south. The structure of the book combines a thematic and regional approach, with the first seven chapters establishing the themes present in current housing debates, e.g. affordable housing finance, questions of sustainability from an ecological perspective, the role of vibrant land markets, self-build and self-help housing, and community-led development. These chapters establish the macro-issues that are picked up in rich empirical cases from across three regions: six chapters on Asia, six on Latin America and five on Africa. Each country chapter attains a level of depth that really informs the reader of particularities in housing debates, and tangentially raises questions of conceptualisations of ‘housing’ and ‘home’ in ways that challenge the normative value of ‘affordable’ ‘sustainable’ ‘solutions’ in the book’s title. The editors propose the book provides ‘ideas and tools for pro-poor interventions’ (synopsis on cover) in the arena of housing. To this end, the book has three objectives: to contribute to debate on international habitat and housing agenda; from the empirical examples, to identify innovative and sustainable solutions that can be brought to scale; and (most interestingly) to frame the search for sustainable housing solutions ‘under the umbrella of governance’ (p. 2). The book’s greatest potential contribution is to meeting the first two objectives through a real drive to support assisted self-help housing (where the state, private sector and NGOs play enabling roles). This is a potentially sustainable housing solution that has received little attention in policy circles and large-scale housing programmes. Contributors to thematic chapters argue incremental self-help strategies are affordable to poor households who struggle to attain financial products that would enable a

La ciudad capitalista en el patrón neoliberal de acumulación en América Latina

El desarrollo capitalista es desigual y combinado en el tiempo y territorio; por ello la ciudad latinoamericana tiene características particulares, específicas, que no pueden analizarse mediante conceptualizaciones que explicarían a las del mundo desarrollado. La histórica mundialización del capital – ¿globalización? – no homogeniza a las formaciones urbanas; las diferencia. Explicar la ciudad latinoamericana en el neoliberalismo vigente, implica analizarla en la generalidad capitalista y su particularidad latinoamericana, su combinación de lo nuevo y lo viejo, sus rasgos históricos específicos: subsistencia indígena; urbanización acelerada; industrialización tardía; desindustrialización temprana; terciarización informal; autoconstrucción masiva; mercado informal de suelo y vivienda; desempleo estructural, pobreza, informalidad; regímenes de excepción; baja ciudadanización; diversas posturas gubernamentales ante el neoliberalismo; violencia urbana generalizada; etc.

Impact of slum formalization on self-help housing construction: A case of slum notification in India

This paper investigates the extent to which slum notification, a tenure formalization policy that officially recognises settlements as slums and ensures the occupancy rights of the residents, has stimulated housing investment by the households in India. In using a nationally representative data set, propensity score methods are employed to reduce selection bias. This paper finds that given the observed household characteristics adjusted by propensity scores, slum notification will increase the average amount of money spent on housing construction, though the proportion of households who would improve their houses is estimated to be higher in non-formalized settlements. The findings suggest that not only formalizing slums but also supporting self-help efforts by the residents of non-formalized slums would be effective for improving their housing conditions.

Intensive Case Study Methodology for the Analysis of Self-Help Housing Consolidation, Household Organization and Family Mobility

The paper describes an innovative methodology developed as part of a major “mixed methods” collaborative and multidisciplinary research project across several Latin American cities. It offers a systematic “hands-on” methodology about how to conduct multi-disciplinary and team-based intensive case studies of low-income household dynamics and trajectories in self-help dwelling structures in (now) consolidated low-income settlements of Latin America. The research project describes how to collect information about family genealogies, household organization and individual member mobility, tied to materials that allow for the construction of detailed housing plans and architectonic diagrams resulting from self-building in informal settlements over a thirty-year period. The majority of the original “owner” self-builders still reside in these (now) consolidated properties, and the methodology provides for cross generational analysis of household behavior in relation to the dynamics of dwelling construction and use of space, household organization, inheritance and heirship.

Will the Revolution be Funded? Resource Mobilization and the California Farm Worker Movement

Based on archival and qualitative field research, this paper describes how the philanthropic investments of the Max L. Rosenberg Foundation contributed to the emergence of the historic California Farm Worker Movement. The author argues that foundations do not always have articulated or clear-cut political agendas to dilute organizing campaigns; instead moments of agreement (and antagonism) emerge and are fluidly negotiated as points of convergence appear and disappear. This paper reveals the three critical periods in which the Max L. Rosenberg Foundation invested in farmworker organizations in California's Central Valley: the dustbowl migrant education period of the 1930–1940s, the self-help housing projects of the 1950s, and the early leadership training campaigns of the Farm Worker Movement of the 1960s. This paper makes a significant contribution to resource mobilization theory by showing how private funding of a particular social movement (and therefore perhaps others if examined) was most aligned with the goals of the movement at the open-ended idealist beginnings. This alignment ruptured during the heat of the late 1960s when demands were made on picket lines and through international boycotts and became most problematic in the wake of significant defeats when movement organizations reshaped and professionalized themselves around foundation grants and ceased to represent their original constituents.

Scaling-up or going viral? Comparing self-help housing and community land trust facilitation

Community-led housing organisations innovate in the resolution of local housing issues by adopting a specialised local focus and emphasising community leadership and engagement. In order to meet their objectives they require access to finance, skills and legitimacy; resources that are often secured through frameworks of intermediary support and external partnerships. This article uses two sector-based case studies of community land trusts (CLTs) and self-help housing to explore the importance and effect of intermediary support in securing access to these resources. These sectors have grown in size and importance in recent years through different forms of intermediation that replicate community-led housing in different locations. The article compares the ‘scaling-up’ of CLTs and the viral spread of self-help housing, highlighting differences in the emphasis that each approach places on community leadership and links with technical experts. We then discuss the implications of this for future housing initiatives and wider relevance for facilitating community-led innovation.

Landlords and Tenants in Informal ‘Colonia’ Settlements in Texas

Owner-occupied self-help and self-managed housing has been the norm in colonias—low-income informal settlements along the US–Mexico border—so scholarly treatment of renting in these settlements has been limited. This article adds to the scant literature on this topic and is the first to document the nature of renting in multi-unit rental complexes in colonias. The article explores the characteristics of landlords and their motivations for pursuing landlordism by drawing upon key informant interviews with owners of rental property. The results of 47 surveys conducted with households in multi-unit complexes throughout 18 colonias in Starr County, as well as the results from intensive, conversational case study interviews with selected households, are used to illustrate the precarious and informal nature of renting in colonias and provide a limited portrayal of the housing preferences and needs of renters. The article ends with an evaluation of the policy implications of these findings.

The Importance of Design in Affordable Housing: Lessons From Mutual Self-Help Housing in California

We focus on three nonprofit organizations developing mutual self-help housing and analyze their projects to examine how they are addressing cost increases. We find that instead of using simpler designs, they are developing more elaborate homes through intricate financing. We are critical of this evolution. First, we suggest that the original modest house design of mutual self-help housing allowed for more affordable housing through post-occupancy improvements and de facto incremental development. Second, after the modest design was replaced with a larger model, development costs increased. Despite financial innovations, including longer loan terms and secondary financing, participation by poor households dropped. Third, we urge a return to the modest housing idea. Fourth, we call for policymakers to better integrate design-based thinking in housing policy.

The peoples housing process … getting the quality in the quantity?

This paper introduces the PHP (People’s Housing Process) approach to housing provision in South-Africa as a noteworthy third way that allows housing provision for the urban poor. In this contribution we will illustrate how, in an assisted approach of self-help housing, the government can play an important role in safeguarding the production of homes rather than merely providing dwellings. In doing so taking into account the more intangible and symbolic meaning of the house and home, which we argue is a central factor for a sustainable housing strategy. This assisted self-help housing scheme was approved in 1998 and was inspired by the work of the homeless people’s federation and saving and housing schemes from around the globe. The further development of the scheme has been a challenging process but we argue that the PHP programme deserves more attention as a housing provision mechanism. Additionally, one of the strengths of the PHP approach is its applicability in a wider area of project types, from township upgrading to hostel redevelopment projects, and illustrated in this contribution by introducing the hostel redevelopment poject Ilinge Labahlali in Cape Town. In what follows, the PHP approach is introduced, and the increasing interest of the government illustrated. Then, using two case studies, the importance of the assistance of the government and NGOs is elaborated upon. In conclusion the challenges that still need to be met are highlighted.

China’s Low Income Urban Housing

In this paper, firstly we briefly outline the historical legacies of inner-city housing that are the focus for redevelopment today, and then summarise the legacy of mass housing built by the work-unit or danwei in the Maoist era. The bulk of the paper, however, is then concerned with the switch to privatisation (via ‘market socialism with Chinese characteristics’) in the Reform Period under Deng Xiaoping and his successors, and the role of land policy that forms an important constraint on housing provision. Demand for low-income housing is in part due to the continuation of the Maoist hukou registration system which acts as a major barrier to full participation in the housing market and consequently China’s cities now have a huge migrant non-hukou ‘floating population’ (liudong renkou) that must be housed via alternative means, preferably as cheaply and effectively as possible. There is also the situation of the ‘ant tribe’ of young low-paid college graduates to consider. For people like these renting in overcrowded conditions is one option, but because of China’s unique development trajectory, (driven by the Chinese Communist Party since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, self-help housing is not a major form of housing provision, therefore there are few examples to consider. Hence, we discuss several examples of China’s low income urban housing.

The Community Architect Program: Implementing participation-in-design to improve housing conditions in Cuba

The Community Architect Program was created in Cuba in 1994 to support self-help housing construction. Since the creation of the program, the community architects have used participatory techniques to provide technical advice to residents who wish to build, expand or renovate their homes. The article documents the codification and implementation of a new participatory design method, and its use by more than a thousand professional community architects on the island. The research looks at the institutional features characterizing the Community Architect Program and examines how these institutional features facilitate the practice of participatory design within the context of existing land use and building regulations. The paper analyzes the Cuban experience within the context of ongoing debates about participation in urban and housing processes.

Low-Income Access to Urban Land and Housing in Botswana

Like most developing countries, Botswana—a middle-income country—has experienced rapid urban growth, which has brought in its wake many social and economic problems. One of the key challenges has been the lack of access to land and housing for the poor who have moved into the urban centres in large numbers in search of employment and economic survival. Many programmes and strategies have been introduced by both central and local governments to address this problem. These include: squatter settlement upgrading; public housing through site, service and self-help housing; subsidised plot allocation; financial incentives for housing construction, etc. Many challenges have hampered the implementation of these strategies and programmes including fast urbanisation, which outstrips supply of land and housing for most urbanites; unaffordability of many of these schemes; poor targeting; high defaulting rates and poor management of these schemes. This paper calls upon the government, the private sector and local communities to devise holistic solutions to enable low-income households to procure decent accommodation in urban areas.

Housing Policy, Neighborhood Development, and Civic Participation in Cuba: The Social Microbrigades of Santa Clara

The article will introduce the reader to the Cuban situation concerning neighborhood development, civic participation, and housing policy. Its intention is to demonstrate a concept of government-introduced self-help housing in Cuba called microbrigades, using case study analysis of Santa Clara, Cuba. Comparing Cuban microbrigades with other self-help housing projects from different countries highlights the particularities of this extraordinary concept.

THE IMPACTS OF THE TAMAN DAYU RESIDENCE DEVELOPMENT TO SELF-HELP HOUSING SURROUND IN EFFORTS TO CREATE ECOVILLAGE

To respond to the rapid growth of residential area needs, the sub urban area become an alternative area of housing and business developments. The Taman Dayu, as a new residential developments in the middle of rural areas, assumingly brought several impacts to the human settlements. The things to consider is the impact on the self-help housing area nearby, whether the residential housing developments can assist the developments of the self-help housing area (kampung), or in contrary it will vanish the characteristics and life of rural settlements. This research describes the positive and negative impacts of the developments of The Taman Dayu Residence to rural settlements nearby. Furthermore, the potential concept which can be created by self-help housing will be formulated to create ecovillage. Exploratory methods is utilized with qualitative data analysis and presented descriptively by the consideration of progressing research which refers to the time sequence of The Taman Dayu Residence and settlement development nearby. The results of this research may give a positive and negative representation of a changes in residential environments, so as to the concept of potential optimization which is appropriate with existing conditions can be formulated by directing to the development of rural areas.