Affordable Housing within the Context of Sustainability: Challenges and Prospects in Yola, Nigeria

Abstract

The issue of housing the urban populace especially the less privilege part of the society is one of the major challenges facing mankind in the twenty first century. Studies by various authors have shown that housing problem is worldwide however it is of greater scale in the developing countries around the world such as Nigeria. This is due to rapid, one-directional (rural - urban), unbalanced and unplanned urbanization. In an attempt to tackle the challenges associated with housing the less privilege of the societies in Nigeria, the public sector has introduced and implemented various affordable housing programs and policies with little success. Numerous researches on affordable housing have been undertaken across the nation. These studies have generally addressed economic sustainability implications of affordable housing (issues such as fiscal implication, housing finance, etc) with less emphasis on social and environmental dimensions of sustainability. However, if the challenges of affordable and sustainable housing in Nigeria are to be addressed, the analysis should be expanded to include all the three dimensions of sustainability: economy, environment, and social dimensions. Therefore this research is based on the analysis of different affordable housing schemes implemented by both governments at state and federal levels in Yola, examining the socio-economic and environmental impacts i.e. who have access to these housing schemes, how affordable they are, challenges associated with these types of housing schemes and provide possible solutions to the challenges identified by focusing on sustainability in affordable housing. Using questionnaire survey and indicators developed from literature reviews on green buildings and affordable housing, this analysis evaluates four case studies in Yola. Results indicate that due to inadequate availability of housing inputs (land, finance, infrastructure, labor and materials), lack of diversity (in terms of housing types and socio-economic diversity of households), improper location, inefficient transport facilities and lack of user participation, the case studies are unsustainable hence unaffordable.