Quality Housing

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RICS CONSTRUCTION AND BUILDING RESEARCH CONFERENCE SEPT 2008 RESEARCH

COBRA 2008



COBRA 2008The construction and building research conference of theRoyal Institution of Chartered Surveyors

Held at Dublin Institute of Technology, 4-5 September 2008

ISBN 978-1-84219-434-8

© RICS

12 Great George StreetLondon SW1P 3ADUnited Kingdom

www.rics.org/cobra

September 2008



All papers submitted to COBRA were assessed by expert panel, drawn from the construction andbuilding research community, The conference organisers wish to extend their appreciation to themembers of the panel for their work, which is invaluable to the success of COBRA.

Kate Carter Heriot-Watt University, UKKeith Cattell University of Cape Town, South AfricaGrace Ding University of Technology Sydney, Australia

Tom Dunne Dublin Institute of Technology, IrelandCharles Egbu University of Salford, UKChris Fortune University of Salford, UKRod Gameson University of Wolverhampton, UKLouis Gunnigan Dublin Institute of Technology, IrelandMartin Hanratty Dublin Institute of Technology, IrelandAlan Hore Dublin Institute of Technology, IrelandMyles Keaveny Dublin Institute of Technology, IrelandAndrew Knight Nottingham Trent University, UKSteven McCabe Birmingham City University, UKKathy Mitchell University of Cape Town, South AfricaKeith Potts University of Wolverhampton, UKDavid Root University of Cape Town, South AfricaKathy Roper Georgia Institute of Technology, USA

Lloyd Scott Dublin Institute of Technology, IrelandWinston Shakantu Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, South AfricaLorcan Sirr Dublin Institute of Technology, IrelandSuresh Subashini University of Wolverhampton, UKStephen Walsh Dublin Institute of Technology, IrelandSara Wilkinson Deakin University, Australia

In addition to this, a specialist panel assessed paper for the session arranged by CIB W113.

John Adriaanse London South Bank University, UKJulie Adshead University of Salford, UKRachelle Alterman Technion, IsraelJane Ball University of Sheffield, UKMichael Brand University of New South Wales, AustraliaPenny Brooker University of Wolverhampton, UKRuth Cannon Dublin Institute of Technology, IrelandAlice Christudason National University of SingaporePaul Chynoweth University of Salford, UKPhilip Chan National University of SingaporeSai On Cheung City University of Hong KongRon Craig Loughborough University, UKJose Caramelo Gomes University of Lusiada, PortugalAsanga Gunawansa National University of SingaporeRob Home Anglia Ruskin University, UKPeter Kennedy Glasgow Caledonian University, UKAnthony Lavers Keating Chambers, UKTim McLernon University of Ulster, UKFrits Meijer TU Delft, The NetherlandsJim Mason University of the West of England, UK

Brodie McAdam University of Salford, UKIssaka Ndekugri University of Wolverhampton, UKLinda Thomas-Mobley Georgia Tech, USAYvonne Scannell Trinity College Dublin, IrelandCathy Sherry University of New South Wales, AustraliaHenk Visscher TU Delft, The Netherlands



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Quality Housing and its influence on House Consumers’ Behaviour

By Felician Komu1

Ardhi University

P O Box 32309, Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania

Email: [email protected]

Abstract

Existing building stock and infrastructure in Tanzania exhibits gross neglect of care and maintenance.

It is particularly appalling in the public rental-housing sector where the majority of the tenants cannotbe considered to be poor in the context of Tanzania income classifications. The reasons for this lack

of maintenance are allegedly attributed to the inability of asset owners to match available resources

with the anticipated workload. While public rental housing accounts for only 10% of the entire rental

housing market, its status in the market significantly displays a generalized serious national housing

maintenance problem.

This paper is an account of the obtaining housing maintenance condition in Tanzania and its overall

impact on human lives. Through direct interviews with 95 tenants in a housing estate owned by thesole public rental company in Tanzania at Ubungo, Dar es Salaam , the paper posits that the problems

that face housing authorities are largely inherent in the inadequacies of institutional policy framework

for the local construction and housing industries to deliver quality-housing product. The paper

advocates that the quality of housing influences consumers’ behavior towards care of the housing and

that designers of buildings have a role to play in shaping culture of maintenance just like housing

managers have to nurture that culture of maintenance.

Keywords:

Housing quality, maintenance, anti-social behavior and tenants

1 Lecturer at Ardhi University and currently on PhD studies at the Royal Institute of Technology, KTH, Sweden



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Introduction

Public rental housing in Tanzania has been steadily succumbing to disrepairs and distaste mainly due to

problems inherent in the public rental housing institutional framework and neglect of the sector at

policy level. It was intriguing to find out reasons for the deteriorating condition and ways of improving

quality living in public rental housing. At the commencement of the study, opinions swayed on two

major fronts. First, the study directed its attention to the social-economic and cultural background of the

renters in public sectors reasoning that their backgrounds had something to do with incidence of repairs

on the housing and/or could be exploited to positively contribute to a higher maintenance level of the

units that they were occupying. With time however, it was realized political intervention and national

policies shaped by donor-funded programs had relegated the general population to a donor-grant-

dependant as opposed to the once thriving self-reliant and community-bound society built over the

years and especially so during the first two decades of independence won in 1961. The second prong of

the study related to the quality of both interior and exterior design of the units and how it impacted on

the living habits and therefore maintenance culture of the renters. In both cases, the research was

designed to collect as much evidence as possible from rental housing in housing estates in Dar es

Salaam.

In this paper attempt is made to show how housing condition can influence the occupiers’ behavior in

subsequent usage and caring of the housing. The main objective of the study is to find out in what ways

are housing consumers, literally translated as tenants in public housing, contributing towards their own

housing condition. To what extent has the quality of housing that they occupy influenced their decisions

on the amount of care and how they relate with one another towards promoting that quality of housing.

Is there a relationship between the levels of satisfaction by the tenants and the quality of housing that

they are consuming? What measures that need be taken to improve the maintenance levels in public

rental housing and; is it worthwhile pursuing public rental housing in the obtaining liberal marketconditions.

Public rental housing sector is confined to urban areas in Tanzania and accounts for less than 10% of

the total rental stock; generally built to a higher standard than the majority of private housing units in

the cities. With urban growth rate of 4.5% per annum, the current urban population is expected to rise

from 27% to 50% by 2015 reaching a population of about 20m as opposed to the present 8m. The total



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number of public rental housing is slightly over 25,000, majority of which is owned by the National

Housing Corporation (NHC). Most of the public rental housing was developed specifically for

employees in government and state public corporations. The quality of housing developed in the private

sector has generally tended to be inferior mainly because of being constructed in unplanned areas where

development controls and building regulations are not operative, infrastructure is lacking and the

individual house owners do not have sufficient financial resources to construct a house that meets

particular standards.

Housing shortage is a serious problem in Tanzania. In a study carried out in 2004 by the National

Housing Corporation, the estimated shortfalls in urban areas alone was 3m housing units. Between 70-

75% of the urban population is accommodated in informal housing that is characteristically of poor

quality, devoid of basic infrastructure such as access roads, water supply and drainage system, solid

waste management system, dense and overcrowded with high rates of anti-social behavior such as

noisy, mugging and vandalism. While the private sector largely in the informal settlement adds 15,000

units each year against annual demand for 120,000 units in urban areas, the public sector through

National Housing Corporation has only been able to construct 300 units a year (NHC, 2004). There are

several explanations for the housing shortage problem in Tanzania such as lack of mortgage facilities

for house building and buying, poor economic situation and lack of supportive institutional mechanismsand delays in getting planned and surveyed land (Moss,2003).

Research Methodology

A case study research was considered relevant as a method of learning problems facing public rental

housing in Tanzania. With case approach it was able to infer as much reasons for the observed housing

condition and generalize from this. Generalizing from a single case has been criticized by proponents of positivism namely from the Columbia University in 1930’s who held generalizing from one case was

not objective enough. Later works have however shown that it is possible to generalize from a single

case provided the case has been properly selected (Yin, 1993). Tells, W(1997) argues also that where

one needs to incorporate views of the ‘actors’ in the case under study, it is the case study methodology

that seems to do so. Actors are all those that are part to the area being studied and not just the influential

or those that are randomly picked up for interviews. Strong proponents of case research such as Yin

(1984, 1994), Hamel et al (1993) and Flyvbjerg(2006) have argued that case studies can be single or



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multiple-case designs, but underlining emphasis to the fact that the multiple case design follows

replication rather than sampling logic. Johansson (2006) insists that generalization from a case is not

statistical but it is analytical. Case research is an all-encompassing study of a particular phenomenon

that seeks in-depth information of the phenomenon synthesizing this to corrigible understanding. Unlike

in quantitative research the generalization that is drawn from the case research is based on the facts of

the case as they unravel themselves such that conceptualization is done on the data within the case or

through reconstruction of new cases and applied to actual problem. In other words, a case research is a

method of learning that relies on practical knowledge of the study area derived from detailed

investigation of the case through any of the sources such as documents on the case, archival records,

interviews, direct observation, participant-observation and/or physical artifacts( Yin, 1994, Stake,

1995).

While it is agreeable that it is indeed not the sample size that enables a more scientific assessment of the

situation, and that the case selected must meet the established objective of the study, it is important also

to note that the type of research like the current one has inherent quality that favors case study research.

Impact of national policy, regulation, institutional framework and even law on a case whether spatial or

on a population tends to be even. The intended effect of policy on a particular phenomenon should be

the same and drawing conclusion from any of the affected phenomenon can be generalized anduniversal. Johansson (2006) provides more insight on the application of case research to similar studies.

He interestingly points out attributes of a case, which he concedes, “…at a minimum, a case is a

phenomenon specific to time and space…” The choice of Ubungo NHC housing estates in Dar es

Salaam for study agrees to the notion that Johansson suggested, that these are physically bounded

objects with actors in them who are influenced by the objects on a time-framework. The case exhibits

high rate of disrepairs but whose context provides a number of variables and qualities that may be

studied. Case study as contended by Tells W, op cit is the most flexible approach in this instance. It is

the most pragmatist approach that could have been employed to study the quality of housing in Dar esSalaam.

Nature of the study

There are very few studies that have focused on housing beyond assessing housing needs in Tanzania.

Available literature dwells to a large extent on housing shortage, the lamed housing finance system in



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Tanzania, the dichotomy between high urbanization and declining capability of local authorities to

mobilize resources to provide for matching urban infrastructure and service. Over the last one decade,

there has been more focus on the need to revive the decaying urban infrastructure and as a result, a

number of projects financed by the World Bank and through foreign countries bilateral assistance have

been implemented towards repair and maintenance of the urban infrastructure. Despite the deteriorating

housing condition in the public sector, no similar projects have been conceived and there is plethora of

complaints from the tenants of the public housing on lack of repairs of their dwellings. In one occasion

the USAID carried out a major evaluation exercise of the possible areas USAID could assist Tanzania

and one of the sectors covered was the public housing sector (USAID, 1996). Nevertheless housing

maintenance and particularly evaluation of housing quality in public rental housing in Tanzania is an

area that was overtly neglected. Thus the paramount objective of this research was to fill in the missing

discourse link between strategies towards solving housing problem and strategies towards improving

existing housing quality.

In carrying out the research, it was intriguing to first develop an understanding of the intermingling of

attitudes between the public rental-housing landlord and tenants and secondly establish issues that

needed to be studied in depth towards formulation of the study’s objectives. It was also important to

find out whether there were any theoretical propositions that could explain the obtaining poor repair andmaintenance of the public rental housing in Tanzania. It was observed elsewhere that public rental

housing was getting shunned away at an alarming rate(Nabutola, 2004). Stigmazation of public rental

housing was being exuberated by the fact that it was increasingly been recognized as the home of the

minority, the disadvantaged and the poor on one hand and on the other, homeownership policy was

exceedingly becoming more popular. There was very little that the research could borrow from

literature on comparative housing research around the globe to formulate a working theory for the

study. The main reason was Tanzania did not seem to have bandwagon the new initiative on

comparative housing research that surged during 1980s (Boelhouwer et al, 2000). Resurgence of international comparative housing research was as a result of renewed awareness of the strong

relationship that exists between development of welfare state and housing systems and how countries

could share knowledge and insights created in mirroring their own national policies A recent study

however carried out in Tanzania and India shed some light on possible pillars to hedge the study.

Sheuya S et al(2007) zeroed down to community initiatives as the most practical and reliable ways of

developing housing and improving housing environment.



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Measurement of housing quality in the case study area

Quality of housing units can be understood from different perspectives. But generally it relates to the

initial design and specification on space layout, size, and relevance of materials specified to the specific

user situations, workmanship employed in the construction phase and how the owner’s agent is

managing it. On the other hand house occupiers/consumers can push down the quality of the housing

unit. This can be in many different ways. Concentration of a particular class of a people on a housing

estate can give rise to a general falling standard of the neighbourhood giving rise to higher levels of

vandalism on the individual units, rent arrears and declining rental incomes that would have enabled the

supplier to meet operational and maintenance expenses.

House consumers perception of quality housing is however much more than the physical characteristics.

Harrison (2005) strongly argues that it is wrong to limit quality housing to its physical characteristics

and aesthetics, which are usually guarded by professionals when enforcing planning standards. His

views contrasted with those of Werner (2000) who drew positive correlation between tenant

willingness-to-pay rent with the physical attributes and aesthetics of housing. There is a growing

consensus however that housing quality has to be approached holistically to reflect not just the physical

attributes but also the housing needs and perspectives of the housing consumers. Fransson et al (2001)listed these perspectives in ranking order as being safety and security; access to grocery stores in the

neighborhood, availability of green space in the outdoor environment, amount of furnishing in the

letting and good quality kitchen fittings.

Housing quality may have different meanings in context of different housing tenures. Owner-occupier

housing has been argued out by Feijten et al(2005) as possessing all the necessary motivation to satisfy

housing needs and promote positive perspectives to its owners. To homeowners, housing quality isreflected in the summation of the price of the dwelling unit, the tenure, the size, life experience of the

owner, his age and time variable towards achieving the quality. Feijten et al observed for example that

“…the longer the time one is enrolled in education, the longer is enhancement of housing quality

postponed …”(p.572). The assumption to Feijten et al is that a highly educated person is more likely to

get a better-paid job, but this takes time and when this is realized he can afford higher quality housing.

Owner occupier housing tends to be on average more expensive, larger and usually located in a better



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area of one’s choice, and designed for a single family and in terms of tenure is more secure and has

inherent higher sense of belonging, all of which may not be available with rental housing.

A social model of thinking as put forward by Harrison (2005) however suggests that perspective to

housing quality is subjective and evolves around the notion of a home and housing needs. In his studies

Harrison argues for the case that housing quality is influenced by a set of both physical and non-

physical forms factors that together influence the well being, comfort, health and safety matters related

to home-life. He admits that the context into which these factors play role is important. He asserts for

example that it would be difficult to “… prove conclusively that improving physical dwelling

characteristics produces healthier lives…”(p697). He cites unsanitary conditions and use of lead in

paint or pipes that prevailed in the past in most housing area but, associated with lower levels of illness

compared to contemporary situation of improved sanitary conditions and yet with higher levels of

illness and infections. The impact of the quality problem varies according to the social context in which

the dimensions will occur.

Case Study Findings

In an attempt to test the hypothesis that quality of housing has influence on housing consumers’

behavior, some 95 public housing tenants out of 374 were interviewed in Dar es Salaam at Ubungo 2.

This constituted approximately 25% of the tenant population within the estate. Together with the direct

interviews, information was sought on the tenants’ historical background from records kept by the

National Housing Corporation, the landlord. Physical surveys of the respondents’ dwellings were also

carried out to determine the levels of maintenance exercised on the properties.

Ubungo NHC housing comprises of nine blocks of two different typologies, H-Type and Cross-Type

Designs built in early 1970s. Each of the H-type blocks is four storeys high, comprising 48 apartments.

Each apartment provides a sitting room, two bedrooms, a kitchen and a shower/toilet room. Access to

the block is from two central staircases that lead to an access corridor. The Cross-type Blocks are also

four storeys high but with 32 units. There are two types of apartments in these blocks. Those to the east-

west side comprise of a bedroom, sitting room, a kitchen, toilet and a balcony in a linear formation,

while the North-south sides have two identical rooms, a kitchen and a toilet.

2 Mbiso et al studied Ubungo in 2005 and their findings are complemented by this study.



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Generally the available space in relation to the average size of resident tenants is limited. The enclosed

yard within the H-Type blocks is being used for cloth drying, storages, food preparation or

dishwashing. Most of the corridors and balconies are being used for cooking, while in other flats; these

have been extended and fitted with windows to serve as an additional bedroom. The kitchen room is

very small and most families have conveniently converted this to food and kitchen utensils stores.

Refrigeration is done in one of the bedrooms, as the kitchen is too small to accommodate a fridge. The

number of bedrooms is limited to two. While most of the families have at least 4 children and some are

in their teens, the sleeping function is cumbersome to organize. Parents share their bedroom with the

infant children while the adult children share the second room, but families with grown up boys and

girls have to adapt the sitting room to an additional bedroom. Use of double Decker beds is usual in the

bedrooms while it is common for a bed to be shared amongst children of same sex irrespective of their

age. Outdoor facilities are also in short supply especially children play facilities. As a result, children

prefer corridors for various plays while the outside gets too harsh in the afternoon scotch sunshine.

Occupiers Profile

Ubungo NHC Estate is occupied by a broad based group of tenants. Out of the 95 interviews, 58 (or

61%) were less than 40 years old, out of whom only 4 had education level beyond secondary school. On

average a tenant had at least 2 other persons sharing the accommodation with, mostly his children or old

parents, a maid or some other relative. The largest number of dependants was seven. Tenants who had

stayed longest on the estate had moved in 1972 while the most recent ones were in 2004. In a cross-

tabulation analysis (see Table 1 below), married tenants who constituted 77% of the studied case were

accommodating 232 dependants which puts the average number of persons sharing a two-bedroom unit

at over 6. Tenants with highest education qualification tended to have fewer dependants, while those

with primary education had the highest number of dependants. The number of female-headed

households was coincidentally about the same as number of male-headed houses (49%).

In terms of disposable incomes, responses were very varied. The lowest income revealed was Tshs.

45,000(approximately $ 39) per month while the highest was Tshs. 300,000( i.e $258). These are very

low figures indeed when one considers all interviewees are employees in various sectors and, that such

income levels could not explain the quality of individual assets found in the houses such as TV sets, air-



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conditioning units, sofa sets, tables, furnishings and kitchen facilities which were all of very high

standards. Outside the blocks, there were also a number of vehicles of different make and types owned

by the resident tenants. Some of the tenants own several cars and licensed business cabs and commuter

buses.

Table 1: Summary of Tenant Profiles at NHC Ubungo, Dar es Salaam

Category No of Tenants

(age groups)

No of Sharers per

Tenant in each

age group

Tenancy

Duration(Average

years)

Marital

Status

Education

Level

20-40 41 and

above

20-40 41 and

above

20-40 41 and

above

Single Primary 9 1 9 7 5 17

Secondary 10 1 11 2 5.44 35

Tertiary 1 0 3 0 8 0

Married

Primary 20 28 69 76 6.68 14.3

Secondary 15 6 52 20 8.47 17.5

Tertiary 3 1 10 5 5.67 26

Total 58 37 154 110

Source: Author’s Field Work Surveys, August 2007

Observable Dwelling Condition

Out of the 95 units studied, it was possible to carry out detailed condition surveys of 20 units only. The

condition survey entailed inspection of the interior and exterior trying to locate repair problems that

were a result of lack of maintenance or care. Generally, the basic problem with the housing units was

overcrowding. Simply the units were not large enough to provide decent accommodation for a family.

A number of families had more furniture than there was room for. The second problem related to the

design layout. Each dwelling unit had one toilet that was fitted with a shower unit. This was considered



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inadequate but more important was the fact that it was tiny and is shared by at least 6 individuals. The

usual complaint was use of the toilet room in the morning when every member of the household had a

desire for it before getting out to normal business. Thirdly, the interiors of the units appeared untidy

because of lack of fixtures such as cupboards and wardrobes. Some tenants had large wardrobes that

they had bought and awkwardly fixed them in their bedrooms. The interior surfaces (walling and

ceiling) were in all the 20 units well kept and the quality of finishes varied from one unit to another. In

some cases the tenants had wall papers fitted, while others had used copies of old magazines and family

photo portraits on the walls. Floor finishes for all the houses were in sand cement screed. Some tenants

had applied wall-to-wall carpets of different makes while others did not.

The original design provided for glass louvers blades set in aluminums clips and horizontal

burglarproof bars. None of the units surveyed had all the blades intact; most had a large number of

louvre blades missing and in times of drive-in rain, the tenant occupiers could not ward off rainwater.

The houses were not fitted with curtain boxes and each occupier had his own way of hanging curtains.

In terms of doors and locks, none of the units could be said to have identical lock. In two cases where

the occupiers had moved in the last 2 years, it was seen that the locks looked alike and on enquiry it was

confirmed that they were indeed supplied by the NHC Landlord. In the remaining cases, individuals hadprovided the locks after either losing the key or changing the door shutter. The plumbing works and

especially the sanitary works were not in a fair condition. The water closets were old, some had bad

cracks and wash hand basins had their traps removed or not working. Shower units were not working

and the bibcocks were leaking. Due to lack of water storage facilities in the original design, large water

pails have used up most of the kitchen and toilet rooms’ space.

Implications of the observed condition

In order to measure effects of observed poor quality housing on the occupiers, it was pertinent to

augment the interviews with questionnaires that sought opinions and reactions on the identified causal

factors of the housing condition. The questionnaire data was analyzed with help of SSPS software. The

results indicated three major areas that had implication on the quality of housing

1. The continued inability of the public housing landlords to keep rental units in good repair.



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All tenant respondents considered their landlords as perpetually unable to carry out repairs and

maintenance to their units. The explanation given was that public housing landlords like the NHC

had too many responsibilities that overshadowed the repair needs of housing units especially those

occupied by low-rent paying tenants. When further probed on way forward, 65% of the respondents

thought the NHC should dispose the units to the sitting tenants for sustainable housing

maintenance. In the interviews, there was hesitation towards privatisation of the rental units, as

summed up by two elder tenants Ms Elizabeth Msulwa and Geofrey Lupenza that “… if NHC

decides to sell these units, chances are that they will not be sold to us, but to rich individuals who

would then evict us…”

In terms of national policies on housing, apart from an old piece of legislation, the Redecoration

Act of 1968 which requires landowners to maintain the exterior of their buildings, Tanzania has had

neither policy nor regulations that would require a building owner to carry out repairs on his

building. The only housing related legislation, the Rent Restriction Act of 1984 that provided for

obligations to keep tenanted premises in habitable condition was scrapped from the law books in

2005.

2. Tolerance by public housing tenants towards poor living conditions

Opinions sought on a number of factors associated with satisfying the accommodation and comfort

needs from NHC tenants were overwhelm negative. Most of the respondents were dissatisfied withthe repair requesting procedures (86%), number of bedrooms (86%), safety (80%), quietness (75%),

size of their dwellings (72%), storage facilities 50% and rent demands (45%). But none of the

interviewed wished to move out of the NHC housing nevertheless for reasons of location preference

and security against burglar attacks. Despite occasional outbursts by tenants on what one referred to

as ‘dehumanizing housing condition’ in respect of drainage problems, it was certain that rather than

search for alternative accommodation, the tenants were more inclined to stay on the estate and hope

for changes or contribute towards solving the immediate pressing problems. These problems

include tackling liquid as well as solid waste management at the estate, removal of kiosk shacksthat have been erected within the compound that some tenants consider an eyesore and hideout for

muggers, and quelling noise levels by some of the residents.

3. Emerging anti-social behaviour (ASB)

Noise-making through vulgar exchange of words within the estate, loud music and raving of cars

was considered intolerable by over 75% of the respondents. Other anti-social behaviours that



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respondents identified included drug-related problems such as smoking of bhang by some residents

and dumping of non-useable scrap and vehicles around their estate. There were also concerns on a

growing number of alcohol abuses and its impact on interpersonal relations. From the observation,

it was also noted that the housing estates had been littered through inconsiderate throw of used

plastic bags, fruit peels and papers.

ASB is a general problem that faces many housing areas around the globe. As defined by Jacobs K,

et al(2003), ASB constitute activities that are carried out by tenants that adversely affect the social

wellbeing of a neighbourhood. It is a “… generic term used to describe activities that range from

dropping litter to serious forms of harassment …” Such activities may not be intentional but may

lead to complaints by tenants about the behaviour of their neighbours in which case housing

authorities have to intervene. Ubungo tenants are concerned about the growing anti-social

behaviour and when probed on measures that they could as a group institute to forestall such

behaviour, the immediate response was to rely on local police. Through their local political society,

they had in the past contributed money and constructed a Police Post within the neighbourhood that

is policing the area.

Discussions and Suggestions

Implicit in what was observed at Ubungo, is the fact that public housing corporations in developing

countries are unlikely to improve their housing services for a number of reasons on one hand, and

on the other is the possibility of investing in tenants to solve housing management problems on

public estate. The two main actors in public rental housing, the landlord organisation and tenants

need to work together, but which can only be possible if the right incentives are in place. When

these actors are motivated to harmoniously work together, the resultant product will usually be an

improved housing condition. But each of these actors has his or her motives in participating insolving housing problems. These motives underlie the self-interests of the individuals in each

group, which can only be overcome by collective action. Collective action is found in the

realization of the common good amongst the actors and making a rational choice. The rational

choice decried is to be found in what behavioral theorists refer to as building trusts amongst the

actors, a reputation and reciprocity relations. Ostrom E(1998) for example observed that the

functioning of any group is routed in understanding the short-term interests of the individuals

which act contrary to the long-term benefits of the society. In other words, underlying the rational



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choice theory is the overriding aim of understanding humans as self-interested and short-term

maximizers. This poses what theorists in social science have called social dilemma.

Social Dilemmas has been defined as a situation that occurs when individuals in interdependent

circumstances, face choices in which maximization of short-term self-interests yields outcomes

leaving all participants worse off than feasible alternatives (Ostrom, 1998). Bo Bengtsson(2001)

has applied the concept of social dilemma in studying housing management structures in what he

referred to as Tenant Dilemma. Of interest here is the fact the housing problem for countries like

Tanzania can be addressed by conceptualizing it in the context of ‘social dilemma’. Social Dilemma

in the literature is found in almost all aspects of life and referred to in different names, Some will

look at it as a public good or collective action good problem, while others a free-rider problem, a

moral hazard problem, while other more positive will look at it as a credible commitment problem,

and the less optimistic will see it as the tragedy of the commons or exchange of threats and violent

frustrations. Whatever the definition we give to social dilemma, it is to be emphasized that housing

is such an all-embracing endeavor that contains both the short-term interests and long-term benefits

to be shared by the community and, that any attempt to solve the housing problem must be holistic

and ought to engage each and every actor. The gluing factor as found in the case study would be the

common problems that confront the tenant community.

Although tenants in the case study came from different backgrounds in terms of tribal affiliations,

geographical areas, education and employment; they tended to share some common experiences

and vision. The responses to questions reflected common issues amongst the tenants with least

revelation of their past experiences of their original places. With passage of time, it would seem

public housing tenants tend to lose their identity and acquire a different tradition and culture shaped

by new ties with other groups within their community. The extent to which this transformation can

take place will depend on the housing typology and the kind of common problems that the group

faces. It is important to understand the new nature of interrelationships amongst the members of thegroup that has now been exposed to other relations. For the new group (in the context of changes in

alliances with other non-kin members), one ought to find out strategies that would encourage the

group to reciprocate relations with one another. Trivers (1971) has termed this as ‘reciprocal

altruism’ which he defined as “...strategies of conditional cooperation with non-kin that produce

higher benefits for the individuals who follow these strategies if they interact primarily with others

who are reciprocators…”



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If we wish to improve housing condition in the public sector, there are four possible policy applied

approaches that one could look into:

1) Policy Changes: During 1970’s Tanzania embarked on a ‘decent home’ program referred in

Swahili as ‘nyumba bora’. Nyumba Bora focused on construction of new housing and issuance

of soft loans for home improvement, with NHC as the main government agent. The

improvements were mainly in transforming the mud-wattle and thatch construction to a more

permanent house structures such as cement blocks and iron roof sheet (Nguluma, 2003).

However with time NHC could not sustain these efforts and for most of the 1980s, the NHC

stock was in deplorable repair conditions and the rent arrears bill was skyrocketing 3. The NHC

increasingly found itself being pushed to invest in house for sale rather than the traditional

houses for lease. The shift from providing rental housing by the NHC was followed by the

scrapping of the Rent Control legislation in 2005 that was being bitterly contested both by the

NHC and private landlords as according tenants too many privileges against landlords in terms

of amount of rent they were paying and security of tenure.

The current Government policy is to encourage home ownership, a strategy that seems to free

the state from the role of house providing to a supporting role. This is done by easing access to

land by all with special preference for the marginalized groups such as women and low-income

households. However as Andersen J et al(2006,34) observes, it is unlikely that ownership of

land and housing for low income households can be realized in this way. The most plausiblesolution would seem a strategy that encourages those who are able to provide rented rooms to

do so. Rented room approach permits owners to house more residents including relatives

inconsonant with the extended family ideals of the Africans and tenants who contribute towards

the cost of up keeping the house.

The change towards homeownership policy apprehends the ability of house owners to carry out

their own maintenance that is more customers driven than in the case of tenants in public

housing. Stewart et al(2006) observe for example that many house- owners “…can afford to

repair and maintain their properties to an acceptable standard….”

The need for policy change that would promote a sustainable care and maintenance on the

housing stock is more imperative in the poor economies such as Tanzania where public

landlords can hardly afford a higher maintenance service level. In these countries, the main

cause for the poorly maintained stocks is probably due to ‘insufficient self-initiated and funded

3 By end of December 2006, NHC Tenants had rent arrears accumulation of nearly $ 10,000,000. The total rentalbill for the NHC entire stock is approximately $2m per annum



15

maintenance, repair and renewal’ as concluded by Stewart J et al(2006). With a growing culture

of dependency on grants from the state, tenants as well as the public landlords seem not to take

up the necessary initiatives to bring the stock to a higher maintenance level.

Policy changes should address affordability for carrying out own repairs and maintenance.

Affordability is however a problem not with the high-income groups but the low-income

occupants who are at the same time occupying the poorest housing stock. Hence the strategy

should be seeking new ways of levering in private finance, such as easing access to mortgage

for repairs, and adoption of pre-insurance schemes. The overall policy objective would be to lay

pad for evolving personal responsibility for repair and maintenance.

2) Understanding the Occupiers needs

Public housing authorities should strive to understand the needs of their tenants. In the case

study area, the tenant respondents were unhappy on several factors but opted to stay on. At

basic level of affordability, a tenant is more likely to be contended with accommodation if the

internal quality of space that he is occupying is acceptable to him as argued out by Djebarni et

al (2000). A tenant is more likely to stay on the estate if the exterior quality and eventually the

quality of the neighbourhood are also acceptable to him.. The quality of exterior and theneighbourhood is reflected in the amount of safety, security and environmental care that are

available to tenants. Poor quality neighbourhood has a depressing effect on the house

consumers and subsequent caring attitudes to their own individual units.

Responsibility for security and environmental care tends to lie with local government while that

of safety would rest with the public housing authority. Whatever the arrangement, it is

important that institutional reforms are introduced in public sector housing that motivates

tenants towards their own home improvement schemes and the neighborhood. In poor countriessuch as Tanzania, where public landlords are financially constrained, policy reforms that seek

an interactive housing network that will bind the occupiers, local governments and regulating

bodies in terms of home repairs, external envelops of the housing and compliance to health,

safety and other statutory orders/laws is imperative.

The housing typology has an important role to play in motivating tenants to work together and

respond positively to the housing authorities. Design that does not seek occupiers’ way of life



16

such as outdoor food preparation as observed by Burke (2004) and lack of outdoor spaces for

social occasions and a layout that encourages community togetherness creates fertile grounds

for higher incidences of maintenance costs

3) Low-cost housing approaches

Although in relative terms, the case study houses are of higher technological standards in terms

of the skeleton frameworks, the cheap window fittings, lack of food storage facilities and size

of the rooms reflect the reigning paradigm on providing as many building units at the cheapest

cost possible. Public housing has tended in almost all countries to be provided on the basis of

low initial costs, oblivious of the future high maintenance cost. As a result it has been

characterized with inferior quality material and workmanship and inadequate environmental

services consideration as observed by Shabha(2003). It is contended that cheap initial costs

impose heavy liability not only in terms of future maintenance costs but also on the resulting

discrepancies between the value of the site upon which the housing rests and the house

structures. It is contended that magnitude of changes that can be expected in the way house

occupiers consume their housing is negligible and instead, more meaningful effects would be

realized by adoption of higher technological standards in the design (Lovell, 2005).

4) Social-economic approachesPublic housing tenants are likely to remain dissatisfied with housing services on account of the

inherent design standards as discussed above. Opening dialogue with tenants through setting up

tenant management approaches should be the ultimate goal of public housing authorities.

Tenants management in public housing is critical as it engenders tenants’ compliance to their

lease agreements and continued care of the premises they occupy. It entails understanding

tenants and laying procedures for tenants to access housing services from the landlords’

organization. Tenants’ satisfaction surveys are important to find out about the tenants welfare,

their needs for social services, and their level of satisfaction of the repair service, effectivenessof the repair service programs, and their shelter needs over time. Tenants’ surveys may also

reveal other problems such as level of crime and drug related ones, which in summation may

influence the maintenance levels at the estate.



17

Conclusions

It is axiomatic that when group of people live together sharing common access and neighbourhood

facilities, their way of life tends to be influenced by the way they interact with the physical

environment. In the studied case of Ubungo, NHC tenants contended that they had not visited their

landlord offices for as long as they could remember in search of repair services. Yet the state of

repairs of their dwellings was intolerable, and they were not moving out. We also observed that a

majority of tenants were married, had large families and had stayed at the Ubungo NHC for at least

6 years on average. The continued reliance and readiness by the NHC as their landlords for all the

repairs and servicing of common parts including compound has resulted in making tenants more

dependent on outside intervention even if such assistance was not forthcoming. Notwithstanding the

key problems identified such as overcrowding, low privacy levels within the dwelling units,

unkempt grounds, lack of repairs and need for improvement works on the estate; unlike private

sector housing, public rental housing has remained attractive to tenants (and particularly the poor)

with a substantial high retention levels.

The high retention levels of tenants in public rental housing do not however infer higher housing

condition standards. To the contrary, public housing standards are increasingly falling apart fromthe norm and this is a serious problem that national governments have to address. It is generally

observed that the future for public housing both in the developing and developed world is bleak and

with it strategies that have evolved towards helping the low-income brackets towards housing

themselves are at verge of collapsing. The level of maintenance service that landlords are able to

exert on the rental stock has a direct correlation with the type of rental market segment they are

serving. In low-income housing, maintenance expenditure as a proportion of the rental income is an

important consideration while in the non-low income housing, the physical condition of the housing

and perceived quality by the tenants are important consideration. It is contended that themaintenance levels in housing sector are directly related to the quality of the neighbourhood and

therefore a change in the neighbourhood management will instill higher level of incentives for

individuals to better utilize and upgrade their housing. What is needed in public housing is a change

of approach and more leniencies towards releasing of social capital within the communities.



18

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