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Designing
sustainable models for housing delivery :
learning from experience
Zeenat
Niazi
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Social
housing programs the world over are now being critically examined for parameters
of "sustainability". These concerns relate to both socio-economic and
techno-environmental sustainability in habitat improvement which are critical to
the success of a housing program.
In
response to the above concerns, delivery aspects of social housing programs are
finally being given as much importance as the design and tec
hnology aspects. The contractor or government agency based construction of
social housing projects is giving way to "people’s housing
processes".
New
programs now insist on "people’s participation" and set out a
"mandatory measurable contribution" from the family being targeted.
This assumes that families will participate and develop enough stake and
ownership in their own house. Extensions to the house will naturally follow,
leading to a sustainable improvement in the quality of habitat.
Practice,
however, is still far removed from policy ideals. The facilitators of habitat
upgrading processes often turn into implementers themselves and the mandatory
minimum contribution stays exactly that - minimum and mandatory requirement
necessary for the fulfillment of project formalities. This rarely expands to enable
the family to take complete control over and manage its habitat improvement
program. Under such conditions the replicability and continuity of a housing
project becomes even more difficult when alternative building technologies and
construction systems are introduced in the housing program. This adds another
dimension to housing delivery - that of acceptance of new building systems by
traditional societies.
Sustainability
concerns in housing programs
Environmental
and resource constraints along with the need for cost effective systems for
construction have led to the inclusion of Sustainable Building Technologies (SBT)
in housing programs. The acceptance of SBT technologies and their continued
utilization in the long run are critical indicators of the "success of a
housing program".
This
article is based on the learnings derived from two Social Housing programs: The
Viviendas del Hogar de Christo in Ecuador (refer Box 1) and the Azadpura
Sahariya Housing Project in Orchha, Central India (refer Box -2). It summarizes
the critical components of housing delivery and describes how these lessons are
being incorporated into new reconstruction programs in India.
Each
of the two programs has its own context related response strategy but their
common features are:
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Targeting the poorest in a region
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Introduction of new sustainable building
technologies
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Involvement of benefiting families
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Training of local artisans and communities
From these two
programs, we learn that a housing program designed for continuous upgradation of
habitat conditions in a region needs to build the following critical components
in its delivery process :
Lesson
One: Enhance the capacity of communities to make informed choices.
Building up
capacity, till not so long ago, was synonymous with only training artisans and
families in skills needed to produce building material and construct houses. It
is now clear, that much more is required.
Information
and knowledge: The ability of a family or community to make informed
choices to build can only come with knowledge and information. A transparent
flow of information about the housing program and education of the community
with respect to new designs and building systems being proposed, builds up an
appreciation of the new technologies. Acceptance of alternatives follows.
Housing
finance: Inputs, either through a credit
mechanism or through support to livelihood creation and enterprise based systems
etc. results in demand creation and local capacity. This enables families to
repair, maintain and extend the houses acquired through the program long after
the program has phased out.
This was particularly
evident in Ecuador where information guidance and a housing credit mechanism has
built up the capacity within families to continue to upgrade their houses. In
Azadpura, income generating activities have been introduced to enable families
to create surpluses for investing in upgrading their habitat and new families to
construct their houses.
Lesson
Two: Ensure availability of housing products and services
Capacity building is
not complete without an assured and continuous supply of building materials and
skills. While raised capacities will make building materials and services
accessible to a community, if the supply source of new technologies dries up the
community will not be able to utilize its new found skills. Improvement in
habitat quality, sought through the introduction of improved skills and building
materials, will therefore be cut short.
The sustainability of
supply depends on constant demand and demand creation involves enhancing people’s
knowledge about the values and benefits of new technologies. At the same time
the source for the supply of building materials and technologies needs to be
relatively independent of the project per say, and economically viable on its
own.
Both Azadpura and
Hogar del Christo projects have benefited from the fact that a reliable and
constant source for building products and services is locally accessible to the
communities. These production centers also serve as centers for dissemination of
information and training, thus technical guidance is also easily available. In
both the cases, the production centers are run in a businesslike manner.
Lesson
Three: Seeing is believing
Technology
acceptance is a critical factor in continuity of a housing program. Acceptance
of a new technology is possible through good quality demonstration and visible
use of buildings built with these technologies by other people.
The Azadpura Sahariya
Housing Program has revealed that it is possible to have rapid jumps in the
level of technicity in a community through information, knowledge and
demonstration. Within a matter of three months, the community users had
internalized the new technologies - tested these themselves with crude methods -
like soaking a Stabilized Earth Block in water for 1 week and then loading it.
The use of the alternative technologies by the facilitating agency themselves at
their own campus, TARAgram built confidence in the families. Regular technology
orientation and organized visits of families to TARAgram further boosted people’s
confidence in the new systems.
House
construction may not necessarily be the first building activity. Initial
confidence building in new technologies throgh community and institutional
buildings can go a long way towards their acceptance.
Lesson
Four: People in need are willing to pay and are willing to make themselves able
to pay for products and services that improve their habitat.
The long perpetuated
attitude that poor families and communities are "beneficiaries" and
therefore, know not, can not and will not be able to be the prime drivers of
their habitat upgrading program is clearly not true.
In Ecuador, the
enabling environment supported by an ongoing housing finance mechanism and a
supply source for building materials and information and knowledge systems have
made it possible for families to access adequate housing. The poorest of
families buy a house; are willing to pay a
registration deposit; get trained and are guided to install their house, access
the available cheap and quality materials and take on the job of subsequent
maintenance and extensions.
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Viviendas
del Hogar de Cristo project, Guayaquil, Ecuador
The
project won the World Habitat Award in 1995 for its pioneering work in
developing a low-cost housing production and credit system for the poor in
Guayaquil in Ecuado.
The
dwellings supplied by Viviendas del Hogar de Cristo are made of
pre-fabricated bamboo panels. With simple guidance and the help of friends
and family these can be assembled in a single day. The dwellings cost only
one seventh of the cheapest government built house. Low cost credit
facilities enable the beneficiaries to purchase their homes over a two year
period and the dwellings are thus affordable to the poorest in the city. The
title of the house rests with the mother and her children in order to ensure
future family stability. The prefabricated panels are produced in the
Viviendas del Hogar’s own manufacturing plant, providing employment
opportunities to local people. Although, established with a social purpose -
the VDH is organized on the business criteria of efficiency and productivity
and seeks to offer affordable homes rather than hand outs. VHC also supplies
prefabricated panels for the construction of community buildings thus
increasing the economies of scale.
The
dwellings are simple but provide security and stability to families who have
nothing. Families can extend and improve their dwellings as their needs and
resources increase. The material is local and grown in Bamboo plantations
thus providing an environmentally and socially replicable model.
The
project targets marginalized families especially single women headed
households.
The
primary advantages of the approach of the project are:
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Speed (a house can be assembled in a day)
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Guided self-help. (families assemble the house themselves)
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Reduced cost (pre-fabrication and economies of scale help to keep the costs
down)
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Participation of the beneficiaries
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Availability of low cost credit
The
process is simple and efficient. A family expresses its needs to the VHC
office, organizes the land where the house is to be constructed. A social
questionnaire is filled and a VHC personnel checks the vulnerability status
and land. The family is then helped to fill in the required papers to obtain
necessary finance. Credit facility is provided by the Banco del Progreso
managed by the Project.
The
houses are similar to those a family would build itself but have additional
features to strengthen the foundations and are raised to take care of
flooding. Easy instructions are provided for the self-assembly of a VHC home
and families are guided by the VHC personnel while building their houses.
The dwellings are easy to maintain and can be extended when needed.
Originally
started 25 years ago by a group of Jesuit priests, the project has provided
more that 30,000 homes and continues to extend its activities.
The
Azadpura Sahariya Housing project
Implemented
under the Government of Madhya Pradesh Awas Yojna, the project involved
housing for 50 tribal families in Azadpura, Orchha in Central India. A Gram
Sabha meeting selected the 50 most vulnerable families in the village who
needed assistance to build a pucca shelter. The project was awarded HUDCO
– Sir M Viswesvarayya award in 1997 and has been recommended as a best
practice case in the Dubai Habitat awards for 2000.
The
scheme had provided for Rs. 14,000 as inputs from the government provided
the family could contribute a minimum of 10% of this amount in either cash
or kind. Appropriate building technologies new to this region were proposed
as alternatives to the conventional katchha construction. The facilitating
agency was TARA Gramin Nirman Kendra, a Building Centre set up to address
the shelter needs of rural Bundelkhand. The important components of the
project were:
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Regular information and know-how to the families to explain the various
aspects of the housing
scheme, its requirements and how a villager
could maximize his / her benefits from the scheme.
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Regular technology orientation to build up people’s confidence in the
new technologies. The selected
technologies were used to
construct the offices of the facilitating building centre and also
other buildings
around the village  demonstrating their structural soundness and durability.
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Local masons were trained and village based production of
masonry
unit production set up to ensure that local capacities
and skills
were built up.
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Transparency in maintaining accounts and finances of the
project
so that familie were assured that they were not being
shortchanged.
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Designs developed for the new houses were discussed with
each family and
on site alterations made, depending on family
needs and
requirements. . Families were motivated to bring
them into a decision-making mode.
Families
were made responsible to flag quality so much so that they soon figured out
the workmanship quality of each mason and demanded services from whom they
thought was the best.
Families
put in 15 to 20 % towards the cost of construction by way of unskilled
works, transportation of building materials and salvaging old materials or
collecting local boulders etc. for construction. This was more than the
mandatory minimum requirement of the project scheme. The continuity of TGNK
and its proactive efforts in disseminating the new technologies have
resulted in many new structures built with them indicating a general
acceptance of the "new Technologies".
Reference:
The Azadpura Case Study; Developoment Alternatives; E-mail: tara@sdalt.ernet.in |
Lesson
Five: Habitat improvement is a step by step process.
The improved house is
not a final house, it is just the first step - the major achievement being the
building up of confidence in the family that they can do it themselves.
Both in Ecuador and
in Azadpura, the dwellings are simple but provide security and stability to
families who had nothing. Families can extend and improve their dwellings as
their needs and resources increase. This is possible if a process that ensures
building up economic capacity is in place. In many cases, it is not possible to
include income generating activities in a housing program. It is, as Azadpura
taught us, beneficial to link with ongoing development programs in the area so
that the association with concurrent livelihood programs can strengthen the
earning capacity of families.
The Ecuador example,
however, clearly demonstrates that it is the introduction of housing finance -
easy and cheap credit facility that enables rapid jumps in housing quality
improvement.
Designing
a Housing Delivery model
Based on these
learnings Development Alternatives has designed a program to rehabilitate the
families affected by the Super Cyclone in Orissa, in 1999. The Core House
program will be in collaboration with CARE India.
The program responds
to the immediate shelter needs of about 1400 rural families by providing a fast
to construct Core Shelter and at the same time is initiating a process to ensure
long term habitat improvement in rural Orissa.
The housing model is
based on the following concepts:
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Establishing an assured supply of high quality building
materials, technologies and
skills that respond to the needs of a cyclone
and flood prone region.
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Ensuring economic viability of the production centres to achieve cost
effectiveness
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Creating local partnerships with grassroot agencies
and village committees who
are
prime motivators in the implementation process
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Local capacity building being essential for long term sustainability - the
program is
designed to enhance
–
construction skills of local artisans
–
information and knowledge base of the families and communities
Future links with
livelihood programs are being catalyzed to create new economic opportunities for
the community.
q
The
author is Coordinates Housing and Building Systems Design activities
at Development Alternatives
Email: zeenat@sdalt.ernet.in
