The centrepiece of the upgrading project is an innovative land tenure system called ‘Community Land Trust’. A community land trust differs from other housing and community development organisations in its approach to property ownership and the way it is governed. In its approach to property ownership the CLT treats land and buildings separately. All land acquired by the trust is held perpetually for the community’s benefit, but homes and other improvements on the land can be owned by the resident households. The land is leased to the residents on terms that give them long-term security and removes this land from the speculative market. The CLT model effectively removes the opportunity for beneficiaries to obtain windfall profits by selling their newly allocated land.

The other project component was the assistance to the construction of more than 750 units of permanently affordable housing. When designing the upgrading project it was generally agreed that the construction of housing should not be of prime concern for the project. This was based on the fact that previous upgrading experiences showed that linking settlement upgrading efforts to housing standards and shelter delivery were one of the major reasons for non-affordability for low-income beneficiaries. Also, it was believed that the improved security of tenure was a big enough incentive for people in Voi to invest and improve their houses.

However, one input was made towards providing affordable building materials by involving the University of Nairobi’s "Housing and Building Research Institute" (HABRI), which collaborates with various actors in Kenya to promote appropriate low-cost building technologies. HABRI provided training to 20-30 youths from the informal settlement in the production of cement earth blocks (CEB), or stabilised soil blocks, as they are known in Kenya. A demonstration house was completed by the group in 1994, using CEB and Micro-concrete roof tiles (MCR). The building now houses the Resident Committee’s offices.

Since then, a real building boom has arrived in the settlement involving all kinds of different building materials – simple cement blocks and burnt bricks, stabilised and even unstabilised soil blocks. While many home owners utilised CEBs, the use of MCR tiles for roofing was less successful, mainly due to the lower price of corrugated iron sheets. It was realised that the main factor involved in the choice of building materials was the price tag. Rather than prescribing one material and inappropriate standards, a freedom of choice was given to the beneficiaries which has given the settlement a lively appearance – a great improvement on the drab "low-cost housing schemes" so often propagated by governments and institutions out of touch with residents’ needs and tastes.

This case study of successful product acceptability by low-income homebuilders illustrates two things:

(i) providing access to land with long-term security is paramount for improving informal settlements and is the single most important factor initiating further private investments in shelter;

(ii) A low-key non-dirigiste approach to the introduction of appropriate building materials, which must be affordable, is the way forward in settlement upgrading. q