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BOX 9–3
Three Ways to Use $20 Million to Improve
Conditions in a City of 1 Million
Option 1:
Build 2,000 public housing units for poor families (with an average of six family members), each costing $10,000. Conditions are improved for 12.000 people, but little cost recovery is possible for poor families. If the city's population grows at s per cent annually, 630,000 new inhabitants will be added over 10 years, so only a tiny fraction of total population will have benefited.
Option 2:
Establish a 'site-and-service scheme', whereby poor families are responsible for building their houses on an allocated site supplied with piped water, connection to a sewer system, and electricity, roads, and drainage. At $2,00O per plot, this means housing for some 60,000 people – about 10 per cent of the city's population growth over 10 years.
Option 3:
Allocate $100,000 to a neighbourhood organization representing 1,000 poor households (6,000 people) in an existing low-income settlement. It chooses to improve drainage and roads, build a health clinic, establish a cooperative to produce inexpsnsive building materials and components, and reblock the settlement to improve access roads and provide 50 new plots. With $10 million, 100 such community initiatives are supported, reaching 600,000 people and providing 5,000 new housing plots. Many new jobs are stimulated. The remaining $10 million is spent on installing piprd water; at $100 per household, all 600,000 people reached.
53. The majority of building codes and standards are ignored because following them would produce buildings too expensive most people. A more effective approach might be to set up neighbourhood offices to provide technical advice on how health and safety can be improved at minimum cost. Good professional advice can lower building costs and improve quality, and might be more effective than prescribing what can or cannot be built.
54. Many poor people rent accommodation; half or more of a city's entire population may be tenants. Increasing the availability of house sites, materials, and credits does little for those who must rent. One possibility is financial support to non governmental, non-profit organizations to purchase develop property specifically for rental units. A second is support for tenants to buy out landlords and convert tenancy into cooperative ownership.
