Housing mirage for Nairobi slum dwellers

Brian Gacari, real estate developer [Photo: Courtesy]

By David Odongo

Housing is defined as the provision of shelter or a place to live.  Shelter needs to be adequate, affordable and decent. In Kenya, however, this remains a pipe dream to many.

Informal settlements and slums have continued to grow and a large percentage of the urban population lives here. Adequate housing for the urban poor, remains just a dream. 

According to Civil Society Urban Development Programme (CSUDP) programme manager, George Wasonga, adequate housing for the urban poor will remain beyond the reach of many due to several factors.

“The overall demand for housing according, to a UN Habitat survey is 150,000 housing units as compared to 35,000 housing units being delivered in the market annually,” he says.

Mr Wasonga says the shortage has made private developers focus on highest return market segments - the upper income class.

 He says solution would be for the Government and socially motivated entrepreneurs to offer homes for the bottom end of the market while commercial players and profit driven entrepreneurs take care of the upper income segment.

“Security of tenure is another fundamental challenge in urban housing. Promoting security of tenure is a prerequisite for sustainable improvement of housing and environmental conditions,” he adds.

He says squatter upgrading projects need to be carried out and these projects should prevent unlawful evictions.

Mr Wasonga points out that Government expenditure on housing has been on a consistent decline, stemming from activities of parastatals, price controls, inappropriate building regulations and codes as well as a lack of basic planning and provision of services.

Approved Central Government Expenditure for housing for the year 2007 – 2008 was only Sh2.2 billion, compared to private sector investments of approximately Sh10 billion

Shying away
Other challenges to adequate housing for the urban poor  include high cost of land in urban areas, complicated land acquisition process, high transaction costs, outdated planning and building regulations and the lack of adequate infrastructure.
According to The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, every individual has a right to decent standard of living, central to which is the access to adequate housing.

Brian Gacari, chief executive officer of Property Reality, a real estate development company says most private developers have concentrated on the moneyed.

“Developers have shied away from the low income market mainly because profitability margins are lower as compared to housing developments for the other markets,” he says. The low income house units currently constitute less than 30 per cent of private development portfolio.

Filling the gap
But these are not the only factors affecting supply of low income housing.

“Provision of low cost housing to the increasing number of lower and middle income classes in the country has also been hugely affected by the cost of land and inadequate infrastructure,” Mr Gacari reveals.

His company property Reality, is currently in the process of constructing a 125 unit estate for middle class income earners.

“It is a gamble and we hope it pays off. That is our small way of trying to alleviate the issue of adequate housing for urban dwellers,” he says.

Mr Gacari, however, says it is not possible to solve housing problems from the bottom as the poor will still be overwhelmed and overshadowed.

“Houses meant for the lower end could still be snapped up by individuals in the higher income class thereby distorting prices and displacing the target market,” he says.

In the past, the Government took up the role of housing supplier by controlling planning, land allocation, development and maintaining housing estates, through the National Housing Corporation (NHC).

While theoretically this should have been feasible, an acute problem arose when the central Government funding declined.
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Housing, Tirop Kosgey says housing the urban poor is a global conundrum.

“Shelter conditions of the poor are deteriorating globally. An estimated one billion people still lack adequate shelter and basic services,” he says.

He adds that governments in developing countries will face increasingly serious problems in providing adequate shelter for households that are added to their urban populations annually.

Some Non Governmental Organisations have stepped in to fill the housing shortage gap, especially in the lower income bracket.

Some banks and micro finance institutions are providing a wide range of services to the poor. They are even engaged in low cost housing development projects for their members by providing loans to the families involved.

Five pillars
Mr Wesonga adds that CSUDP work on adequate housing for urban poor is based on five pillars.

“We focus on gender equity, to ensure active inclusion of women in development; partnership, as a means of ensuring sustainable development through participation of all protagonists, negotiated resettlements instead of forced evictions, transparent and open land markets to fight corruption and reduce speculation; and adequate land availability to meet the needs of the poor.  There is an old saying ‘Only those who have stepped on a glowing ember can really feel the pain’,” he says.

Henry Onyango is a long time Mathare slums resident. He says poor shelter carries with it a lot of garbage.
“Electricity and general sanitation is also poor. Even if water, sewerage and other systems were perfect, it makes no sense with poor housing,” he says.