Housing
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10, 000 condominium homes handed to Addis Ababa residents
In 2004, the Ethiopian government launched the Integrated Housing Development Programme (IHDP) to reduce slum areas and unemployment in Addis Ababa through low- and middle-income housing projects. Yesterday, the IHDP produced results and the city transferred 10,000 condominium houses to their future residents. According to AllAfrica, “to date, the Addis Ababa City Administration has transferred […]
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A growing city, challenging housing options
Owning a home is a reality for only a few in Accra. For most, even long-time residents, renting is the only option. The city’s housing market is like a pyramid: At its apex, a small international set – many of whom have lived or currently live abroad – own the most expensive residences. Moving down, […]
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Zango: plans unravel
Since 2001, Angola has engaged in large-scale rehousing efforts across Luanda. As the redevelopment of the capital proceeds, more and more residents who have built in “high-risk” areas – alongside roads that need to be widened or on areas demarcated for new projects – have been moved to various “social housing” areas: Panguila, Sapú, Projecto […]
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Concrete politics
Luanda, Angola’s capital, could easily be mistaken for an enormous construction site. Since the end of the civil war (1975 to 2002), the city’s oil-fuelled building boom has attracted investors from all parts of the world. As an everyday experience the result is dust, traffic, and uncertainty. Many reports marvel at the high-rises and mass […]
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Tackling housing crises through new strategies
ALGERIA: As part of its promise to build 1.2 million new homes by 2014, Algeria is partnering with international consortiums to speed up the process and improve quality. During workshops held on December 2nd in Tipaza, roughly a dozen American housing companies said they were willing to create joint venture companies to implement public housing projects […]
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Fighting for citizens’ rights: An interview with SOS Habitat
SOS Habitat is a Luanda-based civil society organisation that was founded by victims of housing demolitions in November 2002. The intention is to defend citizens’ land and housing rights by putting pressure on relevant entities to comply with Angolan and international law. SOS Habitat says its idea is to find a means of negotiating with […]
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African architectures: Cazenga and urban redevelopment
What should a contemporary African city look like, and what kinds of practices should it cater for? This question lies at the heart of discussions about the redevelopment of Cazenga, one of Luanda’s most well-known musseque areas. While planners argue that they will improve the quality of life of Cazenga’s inhabitants, the residents are worried […]
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Kigali City: ensuring adequate housing for all
KIGALI City needs at least 344,068 new housing units over the next ten years to accommodate the rapidly growing population, according to a new report by the city council. The report, released yesterday, indicates that half of the 223,000 houses in Kigali are in good shape, 32 per cent in dire need of upgrading, while the […]
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A city too big to fail
If Lagos were a person, she would wear a Gucci jacket and cheap hair weave, with a mobile phone in one hand, a second set in her back pocket, and the mother of all scowls on her face. She would usher you impatiently through her front door at an extortionate price before smacking you to […]
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Cairo’s informed/informal brick cities
Informal communities are quite a fashionable topic these days. Most people use the term ‘informal communities’ as a more polite/academic way to say slums, favelas, etc. These words conjure up images of shanty towns in places like India and Brazil. The reality is that there is a huge gradient of community types that fall under […]
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Namibia’s first community planning studio: Preparing for slum upgrading in Freedom Square, Gobabis
Republished from Shack Dwellers Federation of Namibia The planning for the Freedom Square informal settlement came about as a result of an exchange that took place in March 2012 in Cape Town and Stellenbosch with Municipal councillors and officials from three local authorities (Gobabis, Grootfontein and Keetmanshoop) to learn about how communities and local authorities […]
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Wescape: privatising the profits and socialising the risks?
The City of Cape Town recently approved an application to move the approved urban edge to accommodate a 200,000-home residential and commercial development called “Wescape”. The application, and the City’s approval, has generated enormous debate and numerous parties have opposed the proposal on various planning and economic-related grounds. Notwithstanding these objections, the question that needs […]
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The Langrug Wash Facility: a new common space for the community
Langrug is an effervescent informal settlement that was illegally formed in 1993; this settlement is located in the most affluent farm area called Franschhoek, outside of Stellenbosch. Beyond the lavish hills and wine lands lies Langrug providing affordable housing to seasonal farm workers who work on the vineyards surrounding Stellenbosch. The settlement is characterised by […]
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How affordable is “affordable housing?”
Cross-posted from MuST blog at Slum Dwellers International Muungano wa Wanavijiji has been mobilizing and positioning saving schemes groups within its umbrella on the concept of collective group savings to spur up housing development and upgrading. In efforts geared to empower the structural development framework of the federation in addressing the needs of the poor, […]
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Fluid notions of home in Tshwane’s inner city
The notion of adequate housing and of a ‘home’ is a multidimensional concept that takes into account personal, social, economic, physical and ideological aspects of what a ‘home’ means to an individual. The understanding of ‘homelessness’ and ‘houselessness’ has, universally, been borrowed from the Western perspective. It suggests that a person is ‘homeless’ when he […]
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Mutuality from above: urban crisis, the state and the work of Comissões de Moradores in Luanda
This paper discusses the emergence of new regimes of mutuality in the context of a crisis in the built environment of Luanda.
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Low income housing delivery, community participation and inclusive citizenship in South Africa
The delivery of housing to low income citizens across South Africa reflects the state’s realisation of citizens’ social rights to housing and can help to strengthen a citizen’s sense of belonging. Additionally, through the very processes of housing delivery, such as decentralised mechanisms with strong community participation, principles of inclusive citizenship are forged and enacted. However, it is argued in this paper that because housing allocation is devolved and power granted to local elites, an important aspect of citizenship-making has also been devolved with insufficient checks and balances.
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Planning Kampala: histories of sanitary intervention and in/formal spaces
This article takes a historical look at Kampala’s sanitary planning and finds patterns that elucidate the contemporary city’s absence of sanitation infrastructure.
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Assessing residential satisfaction among low income households in multi-habited dwellings in selected low income communities in Accra
Using both quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection, this paper examines multi-habited households’ residential satisfaction with a holistic approach where the characteristics of the dwelling unit, the social networks and neighbourhood facilities are all considered in accessing household satisfaction.
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Community resistance to megaprojects: The case of the N2 Gateway project in Joe Slovo informal settlement, Cape Town
Interactions between megaproject interventions and local communities represents critical subjects of investigation as national and metropolitan governments are using large-scale investments in urban landscapes as pillars of their growth strategies. This article analyses community resistance to the large-scale housing project N2 Gateway in the Joe Slovo informal settlement in Langa township, Cape Town.
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Middle class construction: domestic architecture, aesthetics and anxieties in Tanzania
This paper examines the new styles of houses under construction in contemporary Tanzania and suggests that they can be understood as the material manifestation of middle class growth.
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Waiting, Hope, Democracy, and Space: How Expectations and Socio-economic Rights Shape Two South African Urban Informal Communities
This paper draws from two case study informal settlements and their recent Constitutional Court litigation to explore the connection between informal living spaces, democracy, and housing.
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Residents Lead: User-Controlled Housing Practices and Attitudes in Poor Communities in Cairo, Egypt
It is argued that low-income public housing in Cairo has witnessed shortcomings in responding to its inhabitants’ needs. The expert-based, top-down approach in housing processes, widely adopted in most developing countries, including Egypt, is argued to be the main reason for these shortcomings.
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Informal settlements in the peri-urban areas of Bahir Dar, Ethiopia
Achamyeleh Gashu Adam (2014). Informal settlements in the peri-urban areas of Bahir Dar, Ethiopia: An institutional analysis. Habitat International, Volume 43, pages 90-97. Abstract Peri-urban land which has been used predominantly for agricultural purposes and held by local farmers is a target area for informal settlements in Ethiopia. An increasing number of people try to […]
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A study of housing conditions and characteristics in the Tamale Metropolitan Area, Ghana
A study of housing conditions and characteristics in the Tamale Metropolitan Area, Ghana. Habitat International, Volume 44, October 2014, Pages 394–402 Abstract Despite the growing recognition of the connection between good housing and quality of life, many nations in the developing world are still unable to initiate effective housing programmes that ensure the provision of […]