Quality Housing: Perception and Insights of People in Benin City, Nigeria
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Quality Housing: Perception and Insights of People in Benin City, Nigeria Uyi Ezeanah 1 # Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract The need to ensure the production of quality housing has been of remarkable interest to the government of Nigeria, as housing quality is considered to be a symbol of a country with an effective housing delivery system. However, government policy responses to the need to provide quality housing achieved little or nothing. Indeed, the actual provision of housing came nowhere close to the targets specified in the national housing policy. Many houses in Nigeria are obtained through other modes of formal and informal delivery processes, which influence the timing, quality, location and cost of housing. Moreover, there is little consensus on what constitutes ‘quality’ housing, and why different forms of housing delivery—within the public and private sectors— are predominantly failing to deliver what people consider to be ‘quality’. This study was conducted to provide insights on how different stakeholders perceive and make sense of quality housing, and these stakeholders include tenants, home-owners, government officials and Community Development Associations (CDAs) in Benin City. This was achieved through the analysis of data generated from the semi-structured interviews. This paper contributes to knowledge by providing newer dimensions to which housing quality can be defined as one which is spacious, clean, accessible and habitable in terms of the finesse of the interior of the building. It should have good water supply and electricity supply; the environment should be quiet and conducive and the structure/building or house should be accessible by roads. It should be secured and comfortable. Keywords Housing . Housing quality . Community Development Association . Perception
Introduction Housing is the second basic need of mankind, after food. It has profound impacts on health, welfare and productivity of individuals (Jiboye 2009). It has been shown that * Uyi Ezeanah [email protected]
1
Department of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Jos, Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria
U. Ezeanah
housing is one of the best indicators of a person’s standard of living and place in the society. Adeniyi (1974) observed that the availability of adequate housing is a significant component of the physical form and structure of a community. Therefore, housing is not limited to serving as a shelter alone. It is a space within which generations of families express their lifestyle and preserve their history and identities of lineage (Awotona and Ogunshakin 1994; Jiboye 2004). Nigeria, like other nations in the world (Kenya, Ghana, Cameroun), is plagued by a declining physical environment, overcrowding and deficient infrastructure (Otubu 2008). Therefore, the sites (of housing) are sometimes illegal and dangerous and have resulted in inadequate quality housing in settlements in developing countries (2008). In addition to the personal and cultural preferences identified above, notions of housing quality are
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