chapter 4 - DRK

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Strictly under embargo until Wednesday 22 September at 00:01 GMT (02:01 Geneva time)24CHAPTER 1further increases its price. This is why so much of the urban population in low- andmiddle-income nations lives on land that is illegally occupied or illegally subdivided(i.e., the land-use plan did not get official approval). High land prices also put pressureon local municipalities to open high-risk areas for construction. The second challengeis that housing is not only ‘the home’ but also the ‘access to income’ and ‘access toservices’, and for those with limited incomes, the house’s location in relation to whereits occupants work and children can go to school is as important, or more important,than the quality of the house and the security of the tenure.The pavement dwellers in Mumbai who construct tiny ‘houses’ on the pavement do sobecause their incomes are so low that they cannot afford the cost of commuting fromthe cheapest ‘proper housing’ they could afford. The problem is not unemployment asmost are employed. They are also not ‘recent migrants lacking knowledge of the city’as some have sought to portray them – most pavement dwellers have been in the cityfor many years. The problem is the gap between their incomes and the cost of housingin locations with good access to employment. This is compounded by their lack ofaccess to credit and the lack of incremental housing options (housing that can be builtor extended over time) that are affordable. The same is true in Dharavi, the informalcity of some 600,000 inhabitants which originally formed on the outskirts of Mumbaibut which, as the city grew, became a valuable inner-city location. Housing conditionsin Dharavi are very poor but at the same time, it provides a very good location withregard to income-earning opportunities and cheap accommodation.This point has great relevance for any post-disaster reconstruction because most ofthose whose homes are damaged or destroyed want to return to the same location dueto the access it provides both to income-earning opportunities and services, and totheir social networks with neighbours. To relocate those made homeless by a disasterto ‘safe’ places far from where they have income-earning opportunities simply compoundsstill further the disaster’s impact and most will not stay there. It also has greatrelevance for any initiative to improve housing conditions because most households inan informal settlement are far better served by in-situ upgrading than by moving themto new housing in a new – almost always worse – location. In Haiti, as this report goesto press, there is much discussion of decentralizing urban development so the highdensityinformal settlements in and around Port-au-Prince are not rebuilt. But sucha decentralization will only work if underpinned by a decentralization of livelihoodand income-earning opportunities – which is unlikely to happen. Households need achoice: some may wish to leave owing to the risks and trauma to their families, whileothers prefer to remain in, or return to, the areas where they had previously made theirhomes. And it should not be only those with proof of land and housing ownership thatget help for rebuilding.A final complication for disaster response is that the very poor quality of so muchhousing prior to the disaster, including inadequate infrastructure and the fact that it
Strictly under embargo until Wednesday 22 September at 00:01 GMT (02:01 Geneva time)was ‘illegal’, makes reconstruction very difficult. There is rarely a map of the settlementshowing plots and plot boundaries. There is often little infrastructure to repair.The sites are frequently difficult or impossible to reach with trucks or any constructionequipment as there are no paved roads and they are often built on challenging terrain(on swamps or hills). In most informal settlements, there is no register of who ownseach plot and most of the population has no formal documentation. And there is thecomplication that many are tenants and their ‘landlords’ (who may also be occupyingthe land illegally) want to retain control of any reconstruction. If the informal settlementis on land that has become valuable, a further complication is that developerswant to displace the population from it and governments often support them in evictingthe residents.External agencies also wish to obtain adequate accommodation for those whose homeshave been damaged or destroyed – but they are rarely very good at dealing with all thecomplications mentioned above. And in most instances, they will face opposition frommiddle- and upper-income groups, government agencies, landlords and often developersregarding the solutions that work best to enable low-income groups to reconstructtheir homes and settlements. We know the good principles on which housing reconstructionshould be based – the greater the control of local residents, both individuallyand as a community, the more successful the support is likely to be. The InternationalFederation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has specified key principles: “It isincreasingly recognized that the meeting of shelter needs in the aftermath of disastershould be seen as a process of ‘sheltering’ undertaken by the affected household withvarying types of material, technical, financial and social assistance as appropriate ratherthan simply the provision of a pre-determined shelter ‘product’.” Even if governmentsunderstand this important principle, it does not mean they will allow it to be implementedon the ground. Governments may prefer to control the emergency shelterfinance that is being made available but their record in housing provision is poor. Topdownhousing provision tends to be expensive, often of inadequate quality, with insufficientflexibility to take on board community requirements, and in a disadvantageouslocation if resettlement is involved.What you do after a disasterTo state the obvious, disaster response should centre on the needs and priorities ofthe survivors – and others who are negatively impacted. In low- and middle-incomenations, very few home-owners will have insurance to help fund rebuilding or reconstructionand most people will have very limited savings or assets to tide them overuntil they can get back to paid work. So helping them to re-establish sources of incomeand livelihoods rapidly is a high priority. In most instances, a high proportion willwant to return to their damaged or destroyed settlements and there re-establish theirhomes and their own organizations. They need to feel supported as they do so – supportedto meet, to network, to give space for their community organizations, oftenWorld Disasters Report 2010 – Focus on urban risk25
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214INDEXStrictly under embargo unti
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The International Federationof Red
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