LECTURE NOTES ON HOUSING

Features of Housing
 Housing is a crucial basic need of every human being just as food and clothing
 It is very fundamental to the welfare, survival and health of man.
 Housing is one of the best indicators of a person’s standard of living and his place in the
society.
 The location and type of housing can determine or affect the status of man in the society.
 Shelter is central to the existence of man
 Housing involves access to land, shelter and the necessary amenities to make the shelter
functional, convenient, aesthetically pleasing, safe and hygienic.
 Unsanitary, unhygienic, unsafe and inadequate housing can affect the security, physical
health and privacy of man.
 The performance of the housing sector is one of the yardsticks by which the health of a
nation is measured
 Housing problem is universal.
 Housing problem exists in urban and rural places

The World Health Organisation (1961) stated that a good house should have the following
items:
 A good roof to keep out the rain
 Good walls and doors to protect against bad weather and to keep out animals.
 Sunshades all around the house to protect it from direct sunlight in hot weather.
 Wire nettings at windows and doors to keep out insects like house flies and mosquitoes.

Concepts in Housing

Affordable Housing
The term affordable housing addresses the relationship between the cost of providing adequate
housing and a household’s ability to pay. Housing affordability is measured as a percentage of
income: Housing that consumes less than 30 to 40 percentof total household income is
considered affordable.
Housing Policy
Housing policy may be defined as government action to achieve housing objectives. These
objectives could include the improvement of the quality of the housing stock of dwellings or
dealing with homelessness. Another definition of housing policy would be government
intervention in the housing field. The difference is that some interventions in the housing field
may be directed at objectives outside the field. Examples could be the regulation of housing
finance markets to influence activity in the national economy or restrictions on the amount paid
in subsidy to low income households to encourage incentives to work.

Ghetto
Ghetto has a specific historical reference to the segregation of Jews within the Ghetto Nuovo in
Venice of the 1400s, from which the name is derived, and to the segregated residential quarters
that developed in European cities in the following century. The ethnic communities of Jewish
immigrants in American cities were also called ghettos. In more recent times, ghetto has been
used to describe African American communities in the inner city in America or poor local
communities in developing countries, often characterized by high rates of poverty, crime,
illiteracy, and social dislocation.

Homelessness
While no doubt there have always been people who lived outside of regular abodes, as defined
by a customary four-walled home or dwelling, it took the development of Western notions of
civilization, modernity, and capitalism for homelessness, along with associated terms such as
vagrancy, transience, and vagabondage, to be defined as a social problem. Scholars note that in
medieval times, there was little stigma to begging or living on the streets, and social groups such
as students and religious travelers were frequently associated with street living. The rise of
modernity stigmatized those who lacked homes and linked those who had no “regular
settlement” with being “savages,” such as those encountered in the forests of the New World.
While the history of homelessness is long and complex, its nature as a social problem depends on
both its scale and the level of threat it appears to pose to the social order. Such threats may be
political or criminal, and most often these fears overlap.
Nigerian Housing Sector
This can be divided into three viz public sector, private sector and public-private partnership

1. Public Sector Housing

There are two major types of public sector housing. The first type of public housing consists of
Government owned housing which is provided for civil servants, public officers and government
officials and the other type is the mass public housing which government provides to the general
public.

(a). Government owned housing:

-These are residential houses owned by the Federal or State Government or rented by them for
their employees.
-They are usually allocated to Civil Servants and government employees or certain grades and
category of staff at a small fixed rent which are deducted monthly from their salaries.
-There are essentially two distinct type of government owned housing namely :
*the government residential areas (GRAs) and
*the low income staff housing for workers in government parastatals.

b) Mass Public Housing

- This is often designed and built by designated government agencies at both the federal and state
levels.
- Under this type of housing programme, completed houses are rented or sold to the general
public at subsidized price.
-A wide range of housing catering for households of different income levels is usually provided
under such programmes.
-Beneficiaries are usually drawn from the wide pool of applicants through public raffle.
-Such allocation processes are often abused and manipulated which often results in such housing
being occupied by households other than those who were meant to benefit.
-This type of housing programme remains a symbol of the failed attempt by government to
directly intervene in the urban housing market and provide affordable housing to majority of
Nigerians.
2. Private Sector Housing
-Nigerian National Housing Policy acknowledged that the private sector accounts for over 90%
of the housing stock in the country.
-The private sector as broadly referred to here is the amalgam of individuals, small-scale
builders, commercial estate developers/agencies, banking and non-banking financial
intermediaries, and industrial and commercial organisations that invest in housing with a view to
making profit.
The housing role of major private sector actors is discussed below.
a) Individuals and Households
-Individuals and households constitute the most dominant sub-sector within the private sector in
the provision of urban housing in the country
-More than 70 per cent of the total urban housing stock (which includes both owner-occupier and
rental housing) in Nigeria is provided by individuals
-Although this sub-sector accounts for delivering the bulk of rented housing in the urban area,
self-interest is the over-riding motive.

b) Private Profit-oriented Firms

-The role and scale of this sub-sector in housing provision within the country is growing
especially in recent years.
-The sub-sector comprises of three categories of developers namely (i) the more traditional large-
scale construction firms, (ii) multi-national co-operation corporations including major Nigerian
banks and (iii) the small and medium-scale property development firms.

c) NGOs, CBOs and Cooperatives

-It is generally believed that the primary role of NGOs is not only to complement the effort of the
government, but also to assist vulnerable target groups in the development process.
-However these NGOs are mostly concerned with human and gender rights advocacy, urban and
rural poverty alleviation schemes for example rural cooperatives and micro-credit, social care
and rehabilitation, capacity building and manpower development schemes
-For instance, such programmes as cooperative housing schemes have scarcely received the
attention they deserve within official circles beyond mere supportive declarations in favour of
such ideas.

3. Public-private partnership
Example is by Lagos state and private developers
-Within this plan the role of the State Government is stipulated as follows;
• To provide suitable land for the project at a premium that will be subject to location and size.
• Hand over the land to the Developer.
• Give planning approval/permit for the approval of His Excellency.
• Give necessary support to facilitate the smooth execution and success of the project.
• To have a share of the profit from the project.

The role of the Private Developer Partner(s) are in turn are stipulated as follows;
• Responsible for the proposal
• Design of all drawings (Architectural, Structural, Mechanical & Electrical and Bill of
Quantities).
• Arranging and providing finance for the Project
• Construction of the buildings and infrastructure.
• Market and sell the property.
• Management of the property

Urban Housing Problem

Housing problem in urban places takes the form of :
 Slum dwelling
 homelessness
 substandard housing units
 overcrowding
 lack of effective planning,
 development of shanty towns or squatter settlements
 availability of dilapidated houses
  inadequate infrastructural facilities, poor ventilation, non-availability of in-built toilet and
kitchen, as well as poor refuse disposal system
 generally poor living condition.

Causes of housing problems

i. Poverty
ii. Population increase due to Urbanization
iii. High cost of land
iv. Non implementation of the housing policies
v. Failure on the side of the government
vi. High cost of building materials
vii. Corruption

Solutions

1. The government should ensure that the target set by their housing policies will be fully met,
because until the housing sector challenges are fully tackled, the economy of the nation would
not grow much. Policy instrument is one of the best ways of tackling housing problems but
implementation is our problem.
2. Poverty eradication programmes within the country should be well implemented, monitored
and periodically evaluated for success level determination.
3. The government should start taking-off the huddles and hitches in getting land and the
issuance of the Certificate of Occupancy.
4. The private sector to collaborate with the government in provision of housing for Nigerians,
developers to invest in mass housing provision as this will help in reducing the deficit in the
housing sector. The decision of the Federal Government to make available 10,000 more housing
units soon should be upheld.
5. The Federal Government to tap into the opportunities provided by technology to speed up the
level of housing construction in the country. While efforts should be made to time of
construction and cost of building.
6 Emphasis should be placed on low and medium housing units using earth blocks, burnt bricks,
compressed earth bricks and intermediate technology. This will reduce the costof housing thus
making it more affordable to many people.
7 The National Road and Research Institute should be more empowered to do a lot ofresearch
into cheap and effective materials for housing.

8 Individuals,especially middle and low income earners should be granted access to long-term
credit facilities with very low interest rates. This can be achieved through theestablishment of
Construction or Development Bank.

9.Architects should concentrate on cost effective and functional design. Over-designshould be

avoided as much as possible. This will be bringing about reduction in the cost ofhousing.

10. Government should provide alternative strategies for house construction. For instance,the
government might acquire land, lay- out and service them with basic infrastructuresbefore
making them available for sale to individuals needing them.

11. Government at all level should provide favourable investment climate, infrastructureand
mortgage insurance to low and middle income earners.