World Habitat Day: Let us address housing needs

The purpose of the day is to reflect on the state of our cities and towns and the basic human right to adequate shelter. It also aims to remind the world of its collective responsibility for the habitat of future generations.

There is a global housing crisis where approximately 1.6 billion people worldwide are living in the substandard housing and almost 100 million people are homeless. It indicates that it is very important to take some serious actions otherwise the number of slum inhabitants will continuously increase all over the world. The World Habitat Day aims to draw the people attention towards the anxious need of poor people for an adequate housing. 2016 Theme is Housing at the Centre.

The 2016 World Habitat Day campaign aims to raise awareness about the need for affordable housing for all in urban areas, towns and cities. Access to adequate housing is a global challenge growing fast with urbanisation. Around one quarter of the world’s urban population continues to live in slums and informal settlements.

An increasing number of urban dwellers, especially the poor and vulnerable groups (women, migrants, persons with disabilities and HIV, elder, youth and LGBT) are living in precarious conditions, addressing their housing needs informally, lacking access to basic services and living space, isolated from livelihood opportunities and vulnerable to forced evictions or homelessness.

Habitat for humanity in Tanzania seeks to improve standard of living of low-income families through enabling community members to live in decent and affordable houses. Habitat for Humanity Tanzania (HFHT) started operations in 1986 in Kigoma Region. In June 2009, a housing microfinance product known as ‘Makazi Bora’ was established.

The housing need in Tanzania is estimated to be 3 million units with annual increase of 200,000 units (Shelter Afrique). The existence of house deficit is very high with consideration of the quality of houses and congestions in line with important services like water and electricity. Taking these factors into consideration, the housing deficit in urban Tanzania is estimated to be 1.2 million units, of which 36 per cent are in Dar es Salaam.

Moreover, income levels of most households in Tanzania are too low; 90 per cent of population can afford less than $45 and 68 per cent can afford less than $23 on housing per month (Housing Market Study, Tanzania, 2012). Financing, though relatively increasing is not affordable to most households. It is estimated that only 3 per cent of the population can afford a mortgage.

In this view, it is estimated that demand for housing microfinance in Tanzania exceeds $400 million. According to UNICEF (2011) only 46 per cent of population has access to safe drinking water. Most houses have no registered title deeds.

The role of HFHT under its housing microfinance product ‘Makazi Bora’ is to provide housing loans in order to enable low-income families live in affordable and decent houses. It provides financing to cover house repairs, renovation and house completion. Water and sanitation improvements are also supported.

Since the establishment of ‘Makazi Bora’, about 5,700 families have benefited from a microfinance loan. In the next five years, in addition to retail lending, HFHT is planning to address housing needs by working on a number of lines of business.