`„Self-Help“ Housing and Participation Projects in developing countries` by Philip Stapel

istanbul technical university

faculty of architecture

ws2010/11

housing in developing countries

philip stapel

„Self-Help“ Housing and Participation Projects in house building in developing countries

abstract This essay handles the controversial terms of "self-help" and participatory housing projects. Before analysing some case studies of applied projects, the general conditions of housing shortage in connection with the transformation from rural/feudal to urban/capitalistic society are reflected. A focus is set towards the laws of private property of the means of production and its effects on settlement structures in so called developing countries. Basic theories of housing and settlement upgrading are introduced as well as a range of criticism of urban-political practices.

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istanbul technical university

faculty of architecture

ws2010/11

housing in developing countries

philip stapel

brief history of urbanisation Once upon a time – in barely conceivable pre-capitalistic times – people used to take care of their living space on their own. Personal contribution was obligatory and simply necessary for having a shelter comprising found caves or simply designed huts. In process of early civilization and settlement, people were organizing housing discrete or in communities in a mainly selfcontained way. Later, in feudal societies, they had to obtain the authorization to built on a landlord´s territory, but implementation was primarily on their own responsibility. Fundamental requirement therefore was access to natural, topographic and material resources. Approaching to the controversial issue of "self-help" or participatory housing politics, it is worth taking a look at how this situation changed.

exclusion and homelessness The term of "self-help" implies its exceptional case; meaning the general impossibility of autonomous organizing of living environment due to social and economic regulations. Their beginnings can be dated by the establishment of capitalism which principally causes the transformation from rural to urban society. Evoked by the exclusion of the majority of people from access to mentioned resources – especially concerning land-usage – this transformation is characterized by rural exodus, concentration of increasing numbers of people in big cities inducing high density and shortage of living space. Manifesting their unpropertied and excluded status through the rule of private ownership of the means of production and ground, urban poverty became a phenomenon related to the capitalistic city (where self-contained housing is at least illegal appropriation of land) and being simultaneously basis and productive force of economy. Due to private property and market laws, living space becomes a commodity as well. Depending on the opportunity of gaining income by wage labour and the presence of affordable housing, indigent people have hardly any choice to make a draft on rented housing or primitive informal settlements at the urban periphery.

social housing as task of nation-states With the formation of nation states and social struggles, states were forced to create several measures for social stabilisation which included social housing. In fact, low- or no-income citizens of so called welfare states received government support for becoming rewarding clients of housing enterprises. Social housing development became a major task of middle european urban planing in the beginning 20th century, for example, while in the context of rising international competition – related to the century´s second half – the government expenditures of welfare were reduced proportionally with the increasing costs of measures to secure sites and maintain competitiveness. But besides the specific tendencies owing to the attending discharge of labour, proceeding urbanization and reduction in social outlays, the difficult access to affordable living space for a large proportion of the population has ever been symptomatic of the logic of economic utilization. A rather new trend following this period was the emergence of non-governmental "self-help" housing projects, based on personal contribution of citizens in need mostly dependent on third party organisations.

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istanbul technical university

faculty of architecture

ws2010/11

housing in developing countries

philip stapel

housing shortage in developing countries The situation of deficiency in housing in so called "developing countries" can be seen as result to similar transformation processes. As these countries adopted or got imposed capitalism as life-determining condition, people´s constrains (in trying to sell their labour) are quite the same with the exception that their demand as labourers - or in case their wage - is far lower; due to unattractiveness for international capital to invest in these countries. While laws of private ownership of the means of production and ground are certainly fixed, meaning the impossibility of self-supply for the majority, a high proportion of the population is forced to live illegally and without regular income in shanty towns. More precise, fifty Percent of the urban population in developing countries are "officially" declared as urban poor living in informal settlements - also known as squatter areas or slums. Long distances to work or little prospect of waged labour and virtually no access to education and healthcare provision are further characteristics of this living environment. Lower government expenditures because of ordinarily lower social wealth compared to "first world" countries lead to a huge lack of housing and wide governmental acceptance of extensive shanty towns without awarding legal status of course.

the impossibility of real self-help Returning to the issue of "self-help", a high number of people are forced to develop a high degree of own initiative while they are simultaneously excluded from the essential conditions. Finally, own initiative besides waged labour market mostly appear as punishable illicit work or concerned to informal settling as illegal acquirement of land and material. In fact, real "self-help" by propertyless people seem impossible and must end in clandestine structures being threatened by expulsion and abuses by state´s authority.

Besides the limits of knowledge in complex construction, the governmental laws fixing economic limits or illegalization concerning the basics´ procurement are the capitalistic hurdles, which cause the need and block the establishment of independent self-provided housing at the same time. In this context, individual "self-help" is intensively dependent on the benevolence of the regulating authorities, namely on the question if there might be a benefit for the state, or the association to organizations with resources. Benevolence must include at least supporting groups with the access to land and material resources to develop a more sustainable settlement structure. Logically, the term of "self-help" is inappropriate, pretending more individual freedom to act for individuals than actually given. Although self-help is still an used term, participation would rather be fitting for the wide-range of implemented projects as propertyless housing developers are dependent from other parties to a high degree.

development of organized "self-help" strategies Applied forms of external-organized "self-help" housing can historically be found from the early 20th century in middle-europe. With the "Third decree of the President of the Reich to support economic and financial affairs and to deal with political excesses" from 1931, the "small settlement" and organized self-help concepts were institutionalized as a national programme in 3

istanbul technical university

faculty of architecture

ws2010/11

housing in developing countries

philip stapel

Germany, for example. Adopting ideas of Ebenezer Howard´s garden city concept, these "small settlements" with individual parcels and small animal keeping should serve as basis for nutritional economic self-supply, as addition to the settler´s income and to secure a certain crisis proofness.

Regulated and controlled by the government, the first settlements were created in personal contribution including production of building materials, construction of streets and supply lines. Especially in the context of housing shortage after the first and second world war, organized group"self-help" was an important factor of housing supply in germany and usually synonymous with the development of "small settlements". Besides the early semi-rural forms of "self-help" housing various types of urban housing were installed since then.

Organized group "self-help" is also an widespread and important factor in developing countries, where a huge part of urban housing is supplied by participatory projects from the second half of the 20 th century. In difference to projects in developed countries, concrete measures are often the upgrading of existing informal settlements, which emerged as a preferred alternative to moving people or replacing slum areas with high-rise buildings. Thereby, national governmental bodies create just the legal framework in many cases while financial and structural help is often provided by non-governmental organisation - providing means for many reasons. As major body for "technical cooperation" at the international level, the UNCHS-Habitat, a suborganisation of the United Nations based in Nairobi, should be mentioned collaborating mainly with the national governments under the United Nations Development Programme, while the World Bank appears as the most important financier. Concerning housing in developing countries and especially the upgrading of slums, the United Nations (Habitat, UNICEF, UNDP and ILO, in particular), the World Bank, the regional development banks, most bilateral donors including CIDA, DFID, French development cooperation, GTZ, SIDA, Italian aid, and USAID; and thousands of NGOs and community groups have been actors in implementing projects over the last decades.

Relating to their practices, the theoretical foundations of John Turner concerning the theory, practice and tools for organized self-managed home and neighbourhood building might be regarded as trend-setting. Working for the government of Peru during the 1960ties, Turner studied the housing processes among the urban poor and observed the potential and resourcefulness of squatters. He used the illegal construction of cottages in self-help by the poor, which started because of great hardship and fundamental needs, to advertise their activities as a solution to their homelessness. He urged the support of self-help with little governmental support under the slogan "Freedom to build” and the reason: "The people themselves know best their needs". On the basis of this guiding principle, other social problems should be solved concurrently to the housing issue.

The self-organized settlements ("squatter settlements"), which resulted out of necessity and not of a free choice, were declared to be a panacea – extended by another argument for self-help by Turner, that says: “(...) shortcomings and imperfections in their own living are much more tolerable, if they fall into one's own responsibility and not that of another."

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istanbul technical university

faculty of architecture

ws2010/11

housing in developing countries

philip stapel

controversial issue of "self-help" While John Turner was - and still is - celebrated for his contribution to humanity by the mainstream of bourgeois publicness, controversial positions came up early as well. Basic critics elaborated on the point, that his theories refer to technic and organisation only, but not to general conditions of the capitalist path of development. The effects of financing of the funds through loans had to be questioned, which excludes usually the absolute poor, who could hardly afford the refunds. Furthermore, the legal status concerning land-rights were a problematic issue, which – if undefined - didn´t prevent a sustainable security for residing in the area. Otherwise, if their status was upgraded by a legal residence permission according to the squatter area being integrated into the official city structure, potential land taxes could face the inhabitants. Expenses, which could even increase proportionally to the value of the upgraded environment. The forced emancipation of the squatters to minimally supported actors in the official urban development and the imposed commitment to upgrade their material environment on their own diverts moreover from the governmental co-responsibility for housing shortage as the legal and executive authority preserving the rules of exclusion. With this strategy, the accountability of bad environmental conditions can partly be pushed towards the residential groups and gain internal conflicts.

As a critical voice of international urban theory, Peter Marcuse describes in his essay "why self-help won´t work", published in 1992, the mainly unsustainable and unsocial character of self-help housing in general. As mentioned above, Marcuse criticizes that the established self-help principle "does not address those societal conditions that produce housing shortages to begin with". Market laws like speculation or incomes problems might evoke again processes to displace "those initially benefitted by the self-help".

Before, within the creational process, the labour of its participants was exploited in the way that they work usually harder and for lower payment that would be received within the normal economy. He stresses the individual character of these projects, competing for the means of realisation against other groups, resulting in social division. Furthermore, the social division instead of collective actions and the focus on individual projects instead of facing general social problems besides the illusion of the self-managed opportunities without governmental aid or governmental reforms can lead to a politically reactionary attitude of the participants. Finally, Marcuse notes that a progressive contribution to the solution of housing problems can only be done by collective self-help programmes with an expansionist and collective democratic decision-making structure, associated with a political movement willing to change fundamental features of the system of producing houses. Limited equity ownership with rigid resale and rental controls must be ensured at least.

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istanbul technical university

faculty of architecture

ws2010/11

housing in developing countries

philip stapel

"self-help" in practice Applied "self-help" or rather participatory projects presenting serious contribution to the question of housing in a progressive manner - as mentioned by Marcuse - are hard to find. Participation of the people in needs often ends with the influence on architectural and urban design, the personal contribution during the construction and low involvement in the costs while the general coordination is usually managed by external bodies. Therefore, the projects are rarely linked to social movements questioning the reign of the market in housing and elsewhere and demanding emancipation from their excluded status. Furthermore, projects seldom lead to a sustainable marketindependent living environment preventing displacement by economic changes. Concerning sustainability, an system-immanent approach - within the existing property laws - is only done by gaining own property rights from the user-perspective. Participatory projects which enable the option to gain collective or cooperative property certainly don´t touch the basic problems in housing shortage and they are heavily restricted, but they are at least a tool for individual sustainable housing; as a kind of cooperative housing in selfconstruction.

The settlement “Quinta Monroy” from Elemental in Iquique, Chile, can be mentioned for such a kind of project. Between 2003 and 2005, 96 row houses for low-income people were realized as later property of the residents. The available sum amounted 7,200 U.S. dollars per unit - provided by the government - and additional 300 U.S. Dollar raised by private savings of each family. In order to establish the group of land squatters permanently and not to be settled to the periphery, a large proportion of the available publicly funded construction sum had to be applied for the acquisition of the land. The vanishingly low residual was used to build a shell structure that could be further built by the residents themselves. As architectural result, each unit was accompanied by an equally large space that can be used for an extension at some point. Due to this tactic, the residents were enabled to participate active at the system of private property, which released them from the threat of sudden displacement. Besides the positive critics concerning the architectural base structure, this aspect of social security can be seen as the project´s major achievement. Furthermore, the arrangement of the three storey row houses forming courtyards as public space, sets another socio-spatial plus point.

Another real cooperative model with the addition of self-construction, which originated from “self-help”, can be found in the settlement of “Minas Polvorilla” in the village of Iztapalapa in Mexico. According to the plans of establishing a housing quarter for the squatters of the territory of an abandoned mining region, a different strategy was used to upgrade the space and quality of the typical low-level housing structure, which could be afforded by the ordinary governmental credits. The founded “Cooperativa Acapatzingo” grouped a heterogeneous population and provided organizational and decision-making capabilities for the common benefit.

Thanks to the cooperative body with its legal constitution, the residents as a group were enabled to access credit; a collective credit of 3,000 minimum wages, 12,000 USD, to be repaid in 30 years, which, in turn, enabled the residents to build bigger houses by providing the necessary extra resources to cover the budgetary difference. At the beginning of realization, the residents

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istanbul technical university

faculty of architecture

ws2010/11

housing in developing countries

philip stapel

were integrated in the urban design process by considering their wishes for the urban structure of the settlement, evaluated through cooperative workshops. Moreover, an agreement was reached with the builders, by which cooperative members would be actively involved in various parts of the constructive realization. These labours were evaluated, accounted for and paid by the builders, what generated savings for the cooperative and employment for several members. The project strategy and the addition of economic and material resources, especially the copious amount of labour provided by the community, allowed the attainment of results from higher quality as those offered by the governmental housing bodies, as well as different projects that had been proposed.

The "Mietshäuser Syndikat" (tenement syndicate) in Germany - as an example from a developed country - is worth mentioning as a third example in this context. Founded in 1992 by former squatters to get rid of the negative effects and restrictions through living in someone else´s property, the syndicate aims to purchase tenement houses and deprive them of the real estate market as the noncommercial association is not acting as an speculative body. With its self-organized, open and basic-democratic structure, the organisation increases continuously as new groups of cooperative tenants try to transfer their rented real estates into collective property to gain affordable living space. It addresses the point that in general the capital base of young, diverse groups is very thin, but the debts could be paid off constantly and reliably on rents. Simultaneously, the syndicate promotes a solidarity-transfer between the more powerful and the financially weaker projects. Participation in this process of solidarity is the condition for inclusion in the syndicate network. The networks main work consists of supporting and advising the project tenements in the financing and legal matters. The main instrument is a jointly managed "solidarity fund", which included 2008 200.000€, and the access to reasonable credits. The houses in question - often housing projects don´t become property of the syndicate, but of a company of limited liability, in which the respective house association and the syndicate are represented.

Both bodies have voting parity, so that sale or conversion is only possible by consensus and can be prevented. Decisions such as housing allocation, financing and rent lie exclusively with the house association, so with the people living in the project, who manage their object independently and usually provide a big proportion of personal contribution. In 2010, 71 projects were associated in all parts of germany.

These case studies demonstrate three different ways of participatory housing development for low-income groups. Referring to the statements of Peter Marcuse, the chosen sequence of the projects can be read as a link to the level of complied criteria for sustainable, social and political significance. From elemental to the Mietshäuser Syndikat, the grade of autonomy, the independence from future economical changes and the level of the social and political network increases, yet also the financial capabilities of the participants. Therefore, it´s problematic to derive one suitable model for the large range of economical circumstances. However, the qualitative results and system-immanent success in "self-help" projects seems obviously dependent on the power and size of the people´s social association, which allows to appear more confidently towards the real estate and land actors.

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istanbul technical university

faculty of architecture

ws2010/11

housing in developing countries

philip stapel

conclusion Irrespective of the specific circumstances and the variety of participatory or "self-help" projects, all models have certainly one thing in common: None of them touches seriously the basic causes of housing shortage, which must be seen in the exclusion from social wealth and the means of production of wide parts of global population. Singular groups might see the commodity character of living space as the main cause for restricted access to adequate housing, but usually try to find system-immanent solutions to handle its effects. Otherwise, the ideology of the real estate market´s abolition and the elimination of housing as a ware would contrast diametrically with the basic rules of capitalist economy, that makes a transformation within the system impossible. Furthermore, the results of a fictive transformation in this sector would only be marginal relating to the dimension of precarious living conditions, in which the lack of affordable housing is just a part. Going one step beyond, the term of creating "affordable housing" implies the acceptance of the system of wage labour and that a big proportion will always afford only small scale values resulting in the task of humanity to deal with that.

The believe in a social justice potential within capitalism – concerning increasing incomes for the poor and their supplement of housing, for instance – neglects the fact that a poor majority isn´t undesired in the economical logic. As long as people are defined as disposable source of labour, products including accommodation as commodity and the means of production and ground as private property, as long will intense exclusion exist, which affects inter alia living space. Without a general criticism on the prevailing economical conditions and their negation, social housing strategies - in “selfhelp” or not – will lead nowhere special.

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istanbul technical university

faculty of architecture

ws2010/11

housing in developing countries

philip stapel

sources Marcuse, Peter: “Why Conventional Self-Help Projects Won´t Work”, in: Mathéy, Kosta (ed.): “Beyond Self-Help Housing”, München: Profil Verlag, 1992. Pages 15-22 de Arce, R.P. & de Ferrari; F.: “The Raw and the Cooked: Past, Present, and Future in Quinta Monroy, Iquique, Chile”, in: Elser, O., Rieper, M. & Künstlerhaus Wien (eds.): “Housing Models. Experimentation and Everyday Life”, Wien: Folio Verlag, 2009 Bokern, Anneke: “Small Scale, big change”, in BAUNETZWOCHE, no 196, October 22, 2010 Onder, D.E. & Der, V.: “A Criteria for Increasing Quality in Housing Area : User Participation”, publ. For: Sustainable Urban Areas Conference, Rotterdam 2007 http://www.argentinien.mundorf.org/selbsthilfewohnungsbau.html; retrieved on November 28, 2010 http://www.unhabitat.org/bestpractices/2004/mainview.asp?BPID=2641; retrieved on November 22, 2010

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