Housing Lecture Notes - 06 - Self Help Housing
Housing Lecture Notes - 06 - Self Help Housing
Housing Lecture Notes - 06 - Self Help Housing
researchers that created debates about Self help housing. His most
vocal critic was Rod Burgess.
Burgess views self help as : an instrument of reproduction of
labour. In a capitalist mode of production, this lowers the cost of
labour.
Self-help housing results in a commodity with both use and
exchange value, consumed by those with the power to purchase.
Other critics : It legitimises poverty (Kerr and Kwelle, 2000: 1315)
It further ignores renting as an option of alleviating the housing
problem. (Kerr and Kwelle, 2000: 1315)
It is incorrect to assume that housing is a priority to everyone (see
Chambers, 1995: 173-203, Alder, 2002).
International promoters of
self help housing
The World Bank has incorporated self-help housing
systems namely:
Unaided self-help: This refers to illegal or officially not
sanctioned user initiated programs such as backyard shacks,
land invasion and illegal squatting.
Supported self-help: This refers to the in-situ upgrading of the
housing conditions that emerge out of unaided self-help with
the support of the state and other development agencies. There
are 3 types- Rollover upgrading, Community sensitive upgrading
and Community initiated upgrading
Project initiated self-help : This category of delivery system
refers largely to programs initiated by the state, private sector
and NGOs, which are located on Greenfield sites (usually on the
urban periphery).
infrastructure only.
Self-help housing, especially in squatter settlement and slum
upgrading schemes, attain more desirable results, than
'greenfield' projects.
This is because the former tends to occupy land close to
economic advantages, near good transport infrastructure and
tends to have greater social cohesion than the 'greenfield'
schemes.
Self-help housing has been known to strengthen community
ties, because of its participatory nature.
It has tended to sharpen the communitys strategic survival skills
and has increased the role of gender in housing delivery
It also enables the community to prioritise their housing needs,
secure tenancy and manage their communal affairs better.
Questions