ISSN: 2347-7474
International Journal Advances in Social Science and Humanities
Available online at: www.ijassh.com
RESEARCH ARTICLE
An Evaluation of the Challenges in Housing Development by the
Self Help Housing Agency (SHHA) for the Low Income Group in
Gaborone, Botswana
Johnson Kampamba*, Milidzani Majingo, Winnie Thato Mazeba
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Botswana.
Abstract
Purpose: This research project was formulated to identify the challenges of housing development for the low income group by the SHHA programme in Botswana. Methodology: Probability sampling and non-probability sampling techniques were used to obtain data. The population of the study was a list of 344 beneficiaries known as the sampling frame and the determined sample at 90% level of confidence was 78. To collect data, primary data collection tools were used, the questionnaires were given to SHHA beneficiaries and structured guided interview questions to SHHA offices in Gaborone, Botswana Housing Corporation, construction companies and Department of Lands. The conceptual framework of the study indicated waiting lists, overcrowding and shortage of serviced land as challenges faced by the programme. Findings: The findings from the research study proved the conceptual framework to be true as these were the challenges which have been identified from the data collected. Lack of serviced land was a major constraint to the programme and it was also established that there was a waiting list of 23 000 people for the SHHA plots as opposed to the SHHA loans. Plot transfers, cost recovery were also identified as challenges to the programme. It was further found out that most low income earners were failing to pay back the instalments to the loan because they do not earn enough money to meet their basic needs. Construction companies lamented on the poor quality of materials which they get from the building suppliers and minimal productivity of the workers because of better opportunities. Significance: This study will help decision makers to make informed decisions as far as low income housing delivery is concerned in Botswana.
Keywords: Botswana, Challenges, Gaborone, Housing development, Housing for low income group, Low income group, Self-help housing agency.
Introduction
As a strategic programme engineered to facilitate housing delivery to the low income group in Botswana, the self-help housing agency (SHHA) was introduced in 1978.The research was formulated looking at the fact that the government of Botswana is expected to provide housing for the low income group earning between P3000.00 (US$300.00) and P36 000.00 (US$3,600.00) per annum.
Housing has been described as the provision of shelter; an abode to live in. Shelter should be adequate, affordable and decent. In other words, the need for sufficient good quality rental and owner occupier housing units for low income families because adequate shelter is one of the most fundamental
During the last three decades, most developing countries have experienced growth in urbanization, which has been a world-wide phenomenon since the early 1950’s. The literature by most housing advocates spelt out that urbanisation is the root cause of housing problems in urban areas of developing countries, including Botswana. Botswana like most developing countries has experienced rapid urban growth which has brought in its wake many social and economic problems.
Problem Statement
Housing as one of the basic human needs is very expensive, the government of Botswana has since made efforts for all Batswana to have shelter over their heads at affordable and reasonable prices especially for those of low income group through the SHHA programme.
Despite these efforts, the provision of adequate, affordable and decent housing for low income households is clearly in short supply in Botswana. one of the key indicators of shortage of supply for low income housing is overcrowding of low income households. However, other also identified overcrowding as a key indicator to this shortage. Long waiting lists on Self Help Housing Agency programme arose due to shortage of land and this has since resulted in inadequacy of housing for the low income group.
The private developers in the provision of low income housing are too few and there seems to be a minimal interest of other private sector housing developers to provide low income housing units. These private sector developers are motivated by their success in the middle and high income housing markets which implies that they may have the capacity and skill set to supply the low-income housing required to alleviate at least partly the housing shortfall in the country [1]. The supply of housing is not however commensurate with demand as evidenced by the high prices of residential property and has resulted in cases of fraudulent land ownership claims especially in Gaborone.
Main problem
To evaluate the performance of the SHHA Programme that the government introduced in 1978 to provide housing to the low income group.
Research Objectives
In order to resolve the research problem identified above, the following research objectives were used. These were:
To provide an overview of low income housing provision in Botswana with a view of finding out if there is a shortage of low income housing.
To evaluate challenges faced by developers in provision of housing for low income market in Gaborone.
Research Questions
What is the accurate and up to date overview of low income housing provision in Botswana?
Is there a shortage of low income housing in Gaborone?
What are the challenges faced by developers as well as participants of the SHHA programme in Botswana?
Hypotheses
The study intended to test the hypotheses that; the Agency which provides housing for the low income group through SHHA has underperformed and also that low income people are faced with financial challenges. The other hypothesis was that the low income group are crowded in the houses they occupy because of the problem of shortage of housing. Lastly there are long waiting lists for the SHHA programme because of the large number of low income earners.
Theoretical Framework
The inadequate supply of housing for the low income group is attributed to some extent by urbanization. Botswana has experienced rapid urbanization over the years and this has had a negative impact on housing development in the country. on the other hand stated that Self Help Housing Agency (SHHA) was introduced to address and provide an effective means of allowing access to affordable housing for the low income households. there are long waiting lists on the SHHA programme and this arose due to shortage of serviced land. The issue of waiting lists. There is a growing concern about the abuse of the present plot transfer system by the SHHA plot holders. He attributed that 68% of the plots acquired through SHHA programme were transferred to the current plot holders who are not low income earners. One of the major problems causing shortages of urban housing was identified as shortage of serviced land. Low income households particularly face a broad spectrum of housing challenges. One of the key indicators of shortage of supply for low income housing is overcrowding, a challenge faced by the low income group. Inaccessibility of housing finance for the low income households has also been indicated as one of the major challenges.
Literature Review
In the last two decades, low-income earners worldwide have been successful in bringing about legal changes in favour of their human rights and specific situation. However, in most countries low-income earners still constitute one of the most disadvantaged groups. Their disadvantage is experienced in all realms (economic, social, political, environmental and cultural) and is reflected clearly in their housing conditions. Making housing accessible to all has been a difficult task for governments of developing countries. There have been changing discourses on the provision of low-cost housing targeted at the low income households especially those living in urban areas. The reality of housing development especially by low-income households in developing countries was out of necessity hence they found shelter in squatter settlements [2]. Turner analysed low-income housing especially on self-help housing and the value of self-help housing and further
argued that squatter settlements were a solution of low-income housing and not a problem [3].
A house provides a ‘necessary foundation’ for all people to live during the social actions and physical actions [3]. Affordable housing generally means that total costs (rents, mortgages, basic utilities, and maintenance) of appropriate housing should total less than 30% to 35% of a household’s income.
Although self-help in the housing environment became an important paradigm in housing delivery since the 1960s (mainly as a consequence of inadequate government-driven housing), it has been with humankind for centuries [4]. There is evidence that self-help housing was commonly practiced before the introduction of formal town planning, but also in urban areas as early as the beginning of the 1900s and thus before the commonly accepted notion in the 1960s that Turner spurred self-help housing [5]. The history of self-self-help housing schemes, particularly in developing countries, dates from the 1930s and 1940s when US-agencies like the ‘Housing and Home Finance Administration’ and later the ‘International Cooperation Administration’ introduced pilot projects to specific Latin American countries such as Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Chile. Keivani [6] support this view in arguing that in different parts of the African continent people living in urban areas especially the poor have almost always been housed under conditions to which we today refer as self-help schemes.
Some of the challenges of housing development faced by the SHHA include:
techniques are employed or the design of the structure is not well suited to local cultural practices [7].
Cost-recovery in low-income housing over history remains a major source of concern and site-and-services projects have been no exception in this regard. Consequently, Payne [8] maintains that although the intention was, by means of site-and-services schemes, to make housing delivery affordable to both governments and beneficiaries, repayments have been beyond the means of many households. In addition to the inability to recover costs, governments in general struggled to perform the basic administrative functions related to aided self-help. This problem was probably also attributable to what seemed to have been poor administration by governments. Such poor administration included, amongst others, inadequate debt collection machinery, the inability of some residents to pay even had they wanted to, poor maintenance of the services by authorities, non-delivery of certain services that had been promised, a lack of continued community education, and ineffective sanction against defaulters [8]. Thus, despite weaknesses of governments, site-and-services schemes have often proved to be too costly both for their target populations and for the governments in the developing world similar to the case of public housing. In some urban areas, site-and-services schemes became unrealistic because the government had to acquire expensive land from private owners [9]. Thus, where the land was not owned by the state, much of the funding was spent on land costs rather than on the actual construction or on infrastructure investment, which further made these schemes expensive to the state.
Housing finance has been identified as one of the challenges because it seems most of these resources have been directed to working capital loans for enterprises in the form of frequent small amounts and typically such loans are well below the size of funds needed for housing [10]
Land is a key factor of production. Access to land is a critical element in providing
low income housing (UNHCS, 1995).The supply of land is very limited coupled by the need for it as a public utility for low cost housing, makes it very scarce. Many sites and services programmes have also been challenged by the issue of inadequate land to allocate to their applicants. This presses low-income households to access land through informal land markets [7].
Some of the housing development approaches adopted as a good practice to address the housing
challenges are;
The supportive approach which relied heavily on political will from the state as well as institutional and structural support and thus, faced implementation difficulties in developing countries [11].
The World Bank implemented the cost recovery principle based on the view that investment in low-cost housing would accelerate economic development. Under this arrangement, developing countries obtained loans from the World Bank, invested in low- income housing schemes, delivered these units to housing dwellers and converted occupiers to debtors of commercial banks, thus liquidating funds for reinvestment by the government [11].
The ’non-conventional’ paradigm was adopted as the preferred policy option for urban low-income housing procurement, many government housing authorities continued, to undertake or sub-contract the construction of ‘conventional’ ready-built public housing for rent and/or sale at subsidised rates to low-income households, in many instances only on a relatively small scale.
There is evidence that some countries have succeeded in persuading banks to finance government initiatives to deliver housing to the poor through cooperatives.
SHHA departments have not been successfully integrated within councils albeit their status is low. Key challenges affecting the SHAA Programme in Botswana include the following [15].
oThe lack of a specialized housing cadre, insufficient attention to training, lack of career opportunities and low morale.
oCertain inadequacies namely the poor management in some councils, cost recovery problems, service delivery and very slow development of newly allocated plots.
oThere is still need to diversify the responsibility that the Ministry of Lands and Housing and councils currently hold for the management of the SHHA.
oThere is need to strengthen institutional arrangements for SHHA
oLand for housing is a major problem since the cost of security of tunure in SHHA areas is also unaffordable for the majority of low income households. Land prices are a major factor in determing the use of land for housing. It is normally difficult for the urban poor to obtain appropriate land suitable for housing.
oThere is inadequate finance to provide loans to all SHHA applicants and hence the agency is faced with long waiting lists.
oLack of affordable building materials; prices for building materials has significantly gone high over the years. This has resulted in limited access to housing by most households especially the low income households. It has been observed that the completion rate of houses under the SHHA programme is slightly above 60% (Department of Housing, nd).
Research Design and Methodology
Study Design
This research was a descriptive research survey applying both research designs being the quantitative and qualitative designs.
Population and Sample
In this research study, the population included officials who deal with housing development for the SHHA programme and 344 beneficiaries from the turnkey and home improvement SHHA programme who benefited from the programme from the year 2009 to 2014. These officials were from all the SHHA offices in Gaborone (Old Naledi, Tsholofelo, New Naledi, Gaborone West, Broadhurst and City Hall), Ministry of Lands and Housing, Gaborone City Council and Botswana Housing Corporation (Property Development Department) and Construction companies. The reason for the target population is because Department of Housing is the main facilitator of housing development and as such the study wanted to identify the challenges faced in the development of houses for the low income population. BHC was included because it has been mandated to implement the development of the SHHA programme. The reason why the officials from the six SHHA offices were included is that they both deal directly with the SHHA housing development and applicants of their relevant areas and therefore it was vital to know the challenges they are facing in their area. Construction company officials include contractors who are engaged in the turnkey projects by Botswana Housing Corporation.
All the six SHHA offices were interviewed; BHC official and only five active construction companies were interviewed. To get information from the SHHA beneficiaries, the total number of the beneficiaries from 2009 to 2014 was obtained from the SHHA office and the sample size was determined based on the formula below:
Therefore a total number of turnkey beneficiaries were 154 and 190 for home improvement, giving a total of 344 sample population. A sample size of 77 was identified at the 90% confidence level using the formula above.
Variables and Measures
receiving the loan. A variety of tools were used to collect the data for this research. Both primary and secondary sources of data were consulted. The questionnaire was developed and administered to the research participants.
Data Analysis
The data collected from the field using questionnaires and interviews were presented in tables, and graphs to enable easy interpretation of the results. Microsoft Excel Software and SPSS were used to present the data. Microsoft Excel Software was used to produce graphs and charts and SPSS was used to code the data from the questionnaires for scientific analysis of data and to find the relationship between some of the variables. The data was presented in an organized format to allow for an in depth analysis.
Discussion of Results
The research indicated the number of SHHA applicants who are on the waiting list. It showed that 7 people are on the waiting list for the home improvement, 55 people on the waiting list for the turnkey loan whilst 23 000 applicants are waiting to be allocated SHHA plots. This shows that a lot of low income people do not have plots so they do not qualify for the turnkey loans because a plot is a requirement for application.
67% of the SHHA offices and the Gaborone City Council workers indicated that lack of serviced land is a major challenge and it resulted in long waiting lists. 33% indicated that the problem of land transfer to be their challenge with the SHHA plots hence this shows that the un serviced land is a major challenge with the SHHA programme.
The SHHA officers were requested to indicate the challenges they face with the turnkey loan, and 100% of the offices complained that the SHHA beneficiaries do not pay back the loan after receiving the houses.67% of the respondents complained that the beneficiaries rent houses once they are completed and as such it becomes difficult to locate the owners. 50% of the SHHA offices find the quality of work done by contractors to be very poor because cheap labour is engaged in construction of the
houses and as a result inspections for building stages fail which at the end prolongs the project period. Only 17% of the SHHA office is challenged with people who approach their office hoping to apply for a loan yet they do not qualify for any loan.
The construction companies that were interviewed on the major problems they faced in building the SHHA houses. All the 5 construction companies lamented that the SHHA money is insufficient, that they get less profit since there is a lot of work in construction and labour on its own comes at a high cost. Three (3) of the companies are challenged with the problem of poor quality materials that they get from suppliers and two (2) of the companies complained that most of the times suppliers take long to supply the required material. This delays the completion of the project and sometimes contractors are forced to get materials from other suppliers hence incurring extra costs. Of all five companies, only one (1) company complained on the problem of theft and vandalism. Beneficiaries take a long time to move into the houses upon completion. Lastly only one company lamented on the problem of productivity of workers.
The construction companies also indicated that they have a relationship with the developer (BHC) and the results shows that 60% of the companies indicated that their relationship with the developer as good, 20% of the companies believe they have a very good relationship with the developer and lastly the remaining 20% feel that their relationship with the developer is bad.
The correlation matrix was used to find the relationship amongst the variables; it is evident that there is a positive relationship of 0.974 to a significant level of 0.1 between the year of application for the loan and the year of receiving the loan. This positive relationship implies that the more people apply for the loans, the more they get helped.
under the SHHA programme is relatively slow as evidenced by the long recorded waiting period of 29 years and that currently applicants who applied for plots in 2004 are yet to be allocated such plots after waiting 11 years. There is no waiting lists for SHHA loans because the positive relationship between the year of application and the year of receiving the loan for respondent. Applicants for loans are afforded such loans within the year for applying for such loans.
The issue of cost recovery is one of the major challenges faced under the SHHA programme by the council and this has clearly been indicated by the responses of beneficiaries that majority of them default in paying back the loan. Shortage of serviced land is still one of the major challenges under the SHHA programme together with the transfer of SHHA plots by the beneficiaries to third parties [16].
Contractors of the SHHA projects have indicated that there is minimal profit from the projects and that the quality of materials they get from the suppliers is very poor. The developer (BHC) has also indicated that the
contractors fail to deliver the projects on time and are not committed to their work and this is a challenge to them. There is no overcrowding by the low income group as it has been indicated in the theoretical framework and literature review because most of the respondents indicated that they are 2 to 4 in the houses they occupy.
Some of the recommendations includes that a new policy needs to be developed as a tool for addressing of low income urban housing problems, it will require an extensive consultation with the general public. The council has to come up with strong active measures for cost recovery, one of which can be that they include the use of stop orders from the banks of beneficiaries who are gainfully employed. This will be easy to get the monthly installments from beneficiaries. Gaborone City Council and SHHA offices in Gaborone should put their records in order and computerize all the information hence they will be in a position to timely make decisions. Lastly land should be serviced in large chunks so as to facilitate the resumption allocation of plots to the SHHA programme.
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