Urban low-income housing development in Ghana: Politics, policy and challenges

Abstract

Globally, the provision of adequate housing has become a huge challenge for national authorities in most developing countries. More people are becoming homeless, slums and squatter settlements are increasing as the provision of housing is left to the private sector. Urban low income housing provision has not been satisfactorily handled within the formal sector. Although governments have developed housing programs with the view of addressing urban low income housing in Ghana, the end products have been taken over by the middle to high income groups. Moreover, urban low income housing development in Ghana is not aligned to any housing policy but rather crops up in political manifestoes. They end up being abandoned and urban low income households continue to suffer the most. These households have to depend on individual petty landlords to cater for their housing needs. Urban low income housing is now being =facilitated' by government for the private sector to provide housing units. This system has not functioned effectively as the shortage of affordable housing in urban centers in Ghana keeps increasing. A qualitative research approach using reports, thesis, and population and housing censuses provided the information for this paper. It is recommended that urban low income housing should be handled proactively by policy makers without much political bias since it is households that suffer. Again, globally, urban low income housing is being considered as a social policy program which calls for more involvement of the public sector. At best there should be a public-private partnership to efficiently address urban low income housing in Ghana and other developing countries. Innovative housing forms such as multi-habited dwellings should be developed to meet the budget of the low income household instead of the colonial single-family dwellings which are more expensive to own.