URBAN HOUSING

AR RAMESH KUMAR A N
 UNIT 2 - SOCIO-ECONOMIC ASPECTS
Social economic factors influencing housing affordability –
equity in housing development sites and services/-slum
upgradation community participation – Rajiv Awas Yojana
Crime prevention, Health principles in Housing.
Affordable Housing:
▪ Housing that does not require more than 30 –
40 % of a family’s gross monthly income
towards the house rentrent or EMI is said to
be as Affordable housing.
Socio-economic factors that influence housing
affordability.
▪ Demographics play a similar role because housing
is a necessity, so as the population increases, so
does the demand for housing. As demand for
housing increases, housing prices rise. Increased
demand will provide the incentive for developers
to increase the supply of housing. If enough new
housing is constructed to meet the demands of a
growing population, there should be little impact
on the price of housing.
▪ Household size which mainly indicates the
number of people living in a house also influences
affordable housing. More the number of people in
a house more will be the need for space as such
area of the house increases and so the cost
thereby having s n influence on housing
affordability.
▪ Income plays an important role as a primary determinant
of whether a household is in need of affordable housing,
but income also affects the price of housing in the
market.
▪ Housing is a normal ‘good’ and, as incomes increase, we
expect that more housing will be demanded, which in
turn increases the average price of housing.
▪ The costs of construction, the cost of capital and the life-
cycle cost of maintaining houses are other factors.
▪ The role of land supply in housing affordability cannot be
separated from the role of demand Land supply changes
or opportunities will have different impacts in different
demand contexts.
▪ Interest rates are also very important and have an effect
on both the demand and supply of housing.
▪ If the interest rate declines, developers will find it
cheaper to finance their business, making development
more profitable.
▪ At the same time, a drop in the interest rate will increase
the amount of money households can affordably spend
on housing
Indira Awas Yojana Scheme:
▪ Indira Awaas Yojana is essentially a public housing
scheme for the houseless poor families and those
living in dilapidated and kutcha houses with a
component for providing house sites to the landless
poor as well.
▪ The scheme is designed to enable Below Poverty
Line (BPL) households to build their houses or get
house sites with financial and technical assistance
from the Government.

The components of the scheme are:

▪ Construction of a new house
▪ Upgradation of kutcha or dilapidated houses
▪ Provision of house sites:
1. Construction of a new house :
▪ IAY house has to be pucca‘ in the sense that it should be
able to withstand normal wear and tear due to usage
and natural forces including climatic conditions, with
reasonable maintenance, for at least 30 years.
▪ It should have roof of permanent material and its walls
should be capable of withstanding local climatic
conditions and need to be plastered only when the
outer surface of the walls is erodible.
▪ Every house should include a toilet, soak pit and
compost pit.
▪ Roof water harvesting system as appropriate locally
should also be set up. If States provide additional
assistance, minimum built up area can be enhanced.
Maximum area can be fixed by States to prevent
people from falling into debt. Normally, individual
buildings alone may be taken up under the scheme.
2. Upgradation of kutcha or dilapidated houses:
▪ This would involve upgradation of roof/walls,
repair/replacement of parts and the like.
Upgradation may reuse/recycle materials. Through
use of additional material/replacement of material,
changes in design enabling durability, and/or better
workmanship, the house should, with reasonable
maintenance, be capable of lasting at least 30 years.
▪
3. Provision of house sites:
▪ Different extents of land may be prescribed for different
localities based on the availability of land and its cost.
▪ Ideally 10 cents of land should be provided.
▪ For the house sites component, the District Collector
should identify public lands available in the habitations
and allot them to the eligible landless. In case public
land is not available the required land may be
purchased by following the procedure prescribed by the
State government. If this is not possible, land
acquisition may be undertaken as the last resort. While
selecting land, it should be ensured that it is fit for
construction of houses especially in terms of
connectivity, availability of drinking water, access to
public institutions, etc. The State should ensure that site
is chosen with the involvement of the people for whom
it is meant and is fully acceptable to them. If money
provided under the scheme is not sufficient, additional
funds may be provided by the State Government.
Sites and Services:
Sites and Services Scheme:
1. Site and services scheme is a programme carried
out either by the government or private
organization.
2. In the site and service scheme, plots of land (or
sites) with infrastructure on it (or services) are
provided, and the beneficiaries have to, build their
own houses. Plots provided may range from the
subdivided plots only to serviced plots of land with a
“core” house built on it. The services to be provided
for sites are called sites and services.
3. Facilitates community participation and feeling of
owness.
These are the services provided to a site before a particular
construction is made. These services are also called public
utility services.
▪ Roads and street services,
▪ Sewage disposal
▪ Water supply and Power supply (electricity)
▪ Drainage arrangement and waste disposal
▪ Strom water drainage
▪ Street lightning
▪ Communications/telephone lines and facilities
▪ Provisions of shops/ stores
▪ Educational institutions
▪ Fire stations,
▪ Hospitals and health centre’s
▪ Local industrial units Markets and shopping centers
▪ Parks Play ground
▪ Public transport facilities
▪ Site and service scheme allows the owner of land to
construct the house with a variety of building materials
depending on his desires and preference as well as his
income.
▪ In this scheme, residential plots are laid out with major
infrastructural facilities such as road, schools, open
spaces, health centers etc incorporated in the layout.
▪ It offers landless housing aspirants the opportunity and
hope of a services plot of land with prospect of home
ownership as incentive towards house building.
▪ Hence, Site and service scheme are the provision of
plots of land either ownership or land lease tenure
along with a bare minimum of essential infrastructure
needed for habitation.
▪ SSS is one of the strategies for assisting low income
group. Sites and services helpsto facilitate home
ownership and orderly urban and rural development for
all income groups with emphasis on the low income
group.
▪ The philosophy behind the site and services facilities
hinged on the fact that the medium and high income
earners could easily source for funds and construct their
own houses whereas the low income group may not
find this easy.
▪ It was hoped that if the government develop sites and
provide essential services, low income group could get
allocation after paying some fees to cover what has
been spent on the land and service provided and it will
now be the task of the allottees to complete the houses
at their pace and financial capability.
▪ Sites and services scheme is an approach which has been adopted
by many developing countries, to provide housing for the poor and
underprivileged in the society who cannot afford the rising cost of
constructing houses and because of the high standards established
by the government.
▪ Housing for poor households is increasingly becoming an emotive
issue and a major source of concern not only to the poor but also the
affluent.
▪ Inadequate housing is a major and visible dimension to poverty.
Hitherto, the poor were seen as a helpless bunch that could not do
anything for themselves.
▪ Since infrastructure cost account for between 30 and 40% of the
total cost of building (Majule, 2007), it is essential to build a
comprehensive public infrastructure in order to open non
discriminatory access to infrastructure for all the people in the
country and serve as enabler for house construction to the low
income group.
▪ The Government should not only be concerned about development
of sites and services scheme but should be particularly concerned
about the functionality and proper maintenance of the facility
provided to the scheme because inability of these will not make the
impact of the scheme to be fully felt.
▪ The practice of spontaneous destruction of informal
housing and settlements in the major urban areas
should be stopped, and be replaced with a more
urban poor friendly policy of upgrading and
provision of sites and services for informal housing.
▪ Destroying informal housing put up through self-
help efforts by poor urban residents is not
consistent with the concept of poverty alleviation, it
simply aggravates poverty by rendering more
people homeless, endangering their health and
livelihood.
▪ The government should encourage beneficiaries of
sites and services scheme to pool resources
together to speed up development process and to
reduce the housing development costs
Slum Up gradation:
▪ It means the process of improving the quality or
expanding of dwelling spaces occupied by slum
dwellers with provision of basic services and
infrastructure services. Extending infrastructure in
the slums along with facilitation of housing unit
upgradation, to support incremental housing.
▪ The main objective of slum upgrading is to alleviate
the poor living standards of slum dwellers. Certain
slum areas in which poor drainage arrangement and
insanitary environment are present cannot be
demolished; they can be improved by filling of low
ground, modification drainage arrangement and
removal of unwanted structure.
▪ The upgrading process can entail the granting of
secure title to land and property to encourage
household and community investment; the
installation or extension of public infrastructure
(such as water, sanitation, and power); the
provision of services (such as schools, health
facilities, and recreation space); and the
development of effective local governance and
management mechanisms.
▪ Example of slum upgradtion programme:
Incremental Housing
Incremental housing
▪ “Incremental housing” – Incremental Housing is a
process in which given the security of tenure and
provision of basic services is done and houses are
built or expanded over the time by owners—
through phased investments as per their needs and
priorities over a period of time.
▪ An approach to low-income urban housing is slum
upgrading, which international agencies began to
promote in the 1970s. Slum upgrading
encompasses public sector support to households
that have been denied access to the formal land
and property markets and have instead taken the
initiative to house themselves informally (illegally)
either individually or through unregulated
developers.
▪ Slum-upgrading processes have successfully reached many low-
income households and stimulated investment in the
development of regular low- to middle in come neighbourhoods.
▪ However, even where slum upgrading has been effective, it has
not necessarily been efficient, as most informal settlements have
not been planned with the provision of access and services in
mind, which often makes the installation of infrastructure both
costly and environmentally disruptive.
▪ Furthermore, many settlements are built on peri-urban land that
has been informally subdivided by its former agricultural owners
or on inner-city sites that have been spontaneously squatted by
their occupants, and therefore are not located in accordance with
the optimal distribution of land uses for the city as a whole.
▪ In short, while the upgrading of informal settlements addresses
existing housing inadequacies, it cannot accommodate the
provision of affordable decent housing for the growing low-
income populations of developing cities.
Advantages of Slum upgradation
▪ Minimum expenditure is involved
▪ The people can live in the same area

Disadvantages of Slum upgradation

▪ The improvement/modification is required often
▪ The people are disturbed when improvement is
done frequently.
Community Participation:
▪ “Community” is defined as a group of people with face-
to-face contact, a sense of belonging together and
common interests and values and ‘’Participation’’
assumes an activity in which the community takes part
and the involvement of at least one other party, usually
a government agency or a nongovernmental
organization (NGO)’’.
▪ Community participation also known as community
development seeks to empower individuals and group
of people by providing them with the skills they need to
bring about the change in communities.
▪ The participation of the people by involving and making
decisions on their own living environments is the main
criteria of community participation.
Benefits of Community Participation:
▪ If the intended beneficiaries take part in their design
and implementation it will conform more closely to
their accustomed lifestyles.
▪ A second reason for people’s participation is the
reeducation it gives architects, planners, and
administrators directly involved in the project by
showing them another perspective.
▪ If it is mass based, it builds up the self-enabling
character and cooperative spirit of the community.
Facing common problems as a group and finding
solutions collectively leads to greater self-assurance
and pride over the group’s ability to act productively
Relationship between housing and health.
▪ The relationship between housing and health is set forth under three
major principles which further include a number of subdivisions.

1. Protection against communicable diseases:

 Safe and adequate water supply – Adequate supply of safe and potable
water assists in preventing the spread of diseases, supports domestic and
personal hygiene and provides an improved standard of living.
 Disposal of human excreta – Disposal of excreta reduces the transmission
of diseases and breeding of insects.
 Disposal of Solid waste – Disposal of solid waste reduces health risks and
helps to provide a more pleasant living environment and protects the
people against poisonous substances and objects.
 Drainage of surface water – Efficient drainage of surface waters helps to
control communicable disease, safety hazards and damage to homes and
property.
 Safe food preparation – Adequate housing provides facilities for safe
preparation and storage of food in hygienic conditions.
 Structural Safeguards against disease transmission – Adequate housing
provides structural safeguards against transmission of diseases (certain
structural features may favor breeding and nesting of diseases. Doors and
windows need to be treated properly for termites and screened to reduce
exposure to insect borne diseases.
2. Protection against injuries and chronic
diseases:
 Structure of house: Stairways, Lighting, Lifts – The
proper orientation and furnishing of dwellings
protects health, promotes safety and reduces
hazards.
 Indoor air pollution: Exhaust fans, Openings. –
Adequately designed, constructed and ventilated
dwellings reduce the risks of respiratory diseases.
3. Reducing psychological and social stresses.
* Adequate housing helps people’s social and
psychological development and reduces to a minimum
the psychological and social stresses connected with
the housing environment.
Slum:is a compact settlement of at least 20 households (
For NE & Special Category States it is 10-15 households)
with a collection of poorly built tenements, mostly of
temporary nature, crowded together usually with
inadequate sanitary and drinking water facilities in
unhygienic conditions.

“Tenable Slums” – means all slums which are not located

on hazardous locations suitable for human habitation
and the land is not earmarked for any major public
facilities and therefore it can be regularized in the same
location.

“Semi Tenable Slums” – are those slums which are

located on land zoned for non-residential uses, as
prescribed by the Master Plan.
▪ Slum Re-development” – means the process of
redeveloping slum areas by providing proper access,
dwelling unit, open spaces and other basic other
services to the slum dwellers on land on which the slum
exists
▪ “Untenable slums” – are those slums which are on
environmentally hazardous sites (like riverbank, pond
sites, hilly or marshy terrains, etc.), ecologically
sensitive sites (like mangroves, national parks,
sanctuaries, etc.), and on land marked for public
utilities and services (such as major roads, railway
tracks, trunk infrastructure, etc.).
▪ “Slum Resettlement” – means the process of
relocation and settlement of slum dwellers from the
existing untenable slums to an alternative site with
provision of dwelling space, basic civic and
infrastructural services.
Objectives of Slum Clearance:
▪ To bring down the disparity difference in the living
standards of the people of various places
▪ To prevent the occurrence of epidemics in the
town/city
▪ To provide basic minimum standard of essential
amenities for healthy living
▪ To remove the ugly spots/slums from the may of
town/city
Methods of Slum Clearance:
1) Complete Removal Method
▪ In this method badly constructed house re completely demolished and
those which are really good are retained. The open spaces are used for
road widening, providing the recreation, building of new houses of
approval standards.
Advantages
▪ Permanent remedy for the slum people
▪ Good health condition is maintained
▪ Good living environment is created
Disadvantages
▪ Costlier method
▪ The people are to be provided an alternative housing facility
Consideration
The following points are important when the slum clearance is done
▪ The degree of public health hazards involved
▪ An economic potential of the land should be maintain
2) Improvement Method
▪ Certain slum areas in which poor drainage
arrangement and insanitary environment are
present cannot be demolished. They can be
improved by filling of low ground, modification
drainage arrangement, removal of unwanted
structure.
Advantages
▪ Minimum expenditure is involved
▪ The people can live in the same area
Disadvantages
▪ The improvement/modification is required often
▪ The people are disturbed when improvement is
done frequently