Urban Housing Policy and Its Implications on the Low-Income Earners of a Harare Municipality
Domestic shelter is an important basic need in all societies. In Zimbabwe, the provision of housing has been one of the most critical issues of government social policy especially since after independence in 1980. The government is confronted with keeping pace with the demands for low-income housing. To deal with these problems government introduced the Low-income urban housing policy. The research highlights the fragility of the poor’s claim to the right of permanent residency emphasizing inadequate state funding and poverty.
This study examines this policy and its implications on the low-income earners of Zimbabwe. To complement the document analysis, questionnaires will be distributed to low-income earners and the management of the municipality. By employing a combination of these two methodological approaches the aim is to obtain a holistic picture of the formulation of the policy and the envisaged implementation procedure. The results of this study would help in shaping the direction of the ongoing debate on housing in Zimbabwe. The recommendation is that policymakers need to combine information gathered through land price surveys and household surveys to provide an up-to-date, accurate and detailed profile of the land and housing market.
Domestic shelter is an important basic need in all societies. According to United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (UNCHS, 2000) it is an essential component of the foundation needed by every individual to participate fully in society.
In Zimbabwe, the provision of housing has been one of the most critical issues of government social policy especially since after independence in 1980.
In most urban areas in Zimbabwe there has been a critical shortage of housing and the backlog continues to increase with the most affected being the Low-income earners. This has given rise to illegal makeshift houses in urban areas.
The demand for housing is but one aspect of the problem. A related and equally problematic issue is affordability. The issue of affordable housing has been a serious problem for both low-income earners and the local government authorities.
The latter is confronted with keeping pace with the demands for low-income housing. Kamete (2006) considers four main components of the affordability as being income distribution, cost of construction, rent propensities and financing terms.
Currently the average price of an urban house is beyond the reach of the low-income earners. As of April 2013, the average price of a house in the high-density suburbs’ costs US$ 15000 (The Financial Gazette, 2013).
According to Lohse (2002) effective shelter policies have to address the financing needs and only then will a shelter delivery system allow everyone access to shelter, whether through purchase, renting, self-help construction, or through access to subsidies.
What this would seem to suggest is that housing policies have a significant bearing in the living conditions of the low-income earners in urban areas especially because such policies have an impact in terms of the type of houses, that is, its quality and the quantity. This study examines the impact of such policies on urban low-income earners. Specifically, it focuses on the urban low-income earners of Harare