The study is mainly characterised by social, cultural, and economic aspects that influence the housing typology and design in rural areas, since these places have been in a critical condition compared to urban areas. This has led to the use of design suitable for urban areas in rural areas. This act threatens to undermine rural characteristics such as rural settlement patterns and traditional housing which acknowledge people's origin and lifestyle. As a result, people fail to contrlbute to their own development mainly because of the technological advancement that acquires people with intensive skills. The study was conducted in the rural community of Mpukunyoni in Mtubatuba. The residents still live under the traditional leadership of Inkosi Mkhwanazi. The housing project implemented in the area highlight some complications because of the housing typology that the developers have used which fails to incorporate cultural meaning in them. This questions the role played by the community which sees enabling approach as a possible solution. It encourages people themselves to be gradua11y drawn into their development. It aiso alleviates poor conditions and empowers people to restore their human dignity while recognising their potential. The study sees a need for rural housing policy to be revaluated so as to include other relevant factors like incorporating traditional authorities in decision making so as to influence the policy makers to recognise cultural aspects because rural and urban areas are not the same therefore, they must be treated differently. In that way, the developers can have a clear understanding of what housing means to rural people so as to provide them with. housing that must be passed on from one generation to the other. / Thesis (M.Housing)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2005.

Social Housing is a new form of housing delivery in South Africa that has fast gained recognition in the housing sector in the last ten years, because it has proven to be a viable option in solving the housing shortage. It is an affordable option because the government provides funding through subsidies and profit is not earned from the rents paid. Social housing can be in the form of houses, block of flats or townhouses located in Greenfield developments, infill areas or in inner city blocks that are purchased or renovated. The buildings are managed by social housing institutions through public and private funding. This dissertation evaluated and compared two types of social housing schemes, namely, Greenfield developments and refurbished/converted buildings in terms of their affordability, management and the quality of the built environment. The evaluation was done by analyzing their similarities and differences, to reveal which typology delivers a better quality living environment. It also investigated the type of social housing development most suitable for the South African environment and meets the objectives and principles of social housing. The study analysed four existing social housing developments, three in Durban and one in Pietermaritzburg, two were refurbished buildings, and the other two, Greenfield developments. Information was collected by conducting household surveys, interviews and discussions with the residents and management of the housing schemes. The case studies revealed interesting contrasts as well as some important similarities among the social housing schemes. The main findings showed both typologies were functional in providing affordable housing though Greenfield developments proved to be a better alternative in terms of effective management, tenant participation and better built environments. The study proposes recommendations to improve social housing delivery in South Africa such as making social housing affordable, strategies for affordable security and safety systems; energy efficient designs and considerations for persons with special needs. / Thesis (M.Housing)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

This research thesis examined the applicability of the enablement paradigm in the public-private partnership (PPP) of housing delivery systems (HDS) in Lagos among middle-income groups using the periods of changing historic conditions as baseline for the analysis. Nigeria’s postdemocratic Housing and Urban Development Policy for the first time in 2002 recognized the formal private sector as a major stakeholder in its framework. This recognition was in line with the World Bank’s policy recommendation for governments to create enabling environment for private sector participation in housing provision. The major changes by this policy were the grant of access to land with ownership tenure and access to housing finance with low interest rate. This thesis underscores the failure of the Housing and Urban Development Policy framework in Nigeria to achieve real gains in housing delivery. By unbundling the determinants of HDS in Lagos, this research identified the universal objectives of housing delivery in terms of the quantity and quality of housing and its environmental quality. The findings from this research work identified significant correlation between failures in government policies and poor stakeholders’ delineation and roles. The study further associated stakeholder’s delineation and role to PPP optimization: By so, identified PPP as the fulcrum for resource, process and social optimization towards achieving AHD. Through an extensive analysis of historic conditions, theories and policies nationally and internationally, this research drew relevant lessons which informed its conceptual departure for unbundling PPP within HDS. It also relied on empirical data obtained from quantitative and qualitative research instruments drawn from four estate typologies and three categorized stakeholder’s respondents’ frame it used in evaluating HDS. In its contribution, this study developed a project lifecycle framework for housing development, a proposal for PPP effectiveness and an Adequacy Evaluation Technique (AET). Common to these models was the delineation of the universal objectives of housing from which the 3-Qfactor of housing quantity, and quality and the quality of housing environment emanated as a measure of value added contribution. By this, the study established a departure from previous architectural approaches which promised value satisfaction as a functional derivative of design. Through these models, PPP can be designed at the architectural and operational levels towards achieving AHD through the window of the universal objective of housing delivery; and can be evaluated for functional satisfaction and real value (return on investment) based on assessment of profitability of housing development actors/partners. The second major contribution is the delineation of stakeholders in three dimensions namely, the household, the housing development actor/partner which reflects changing roles and circumstances and the housing development experts. Of emphasis are the changing roles and circumstances that this study is able to delineate from its literature and field work through an understanding of the social focus groups which exist within the Lagos settings. This study in conclusion emphasizes the need for delineating stakeholders’ roles contextually as a pre-condition to initiating partnerships. It also posits that there is need to deduce all resources, processes and social context as the framework for PPP before initiating partnerships. It established that, current policy practice already targets the middle-income in its use of PPP, and this can be extended to other social income groups and that the basis for the utilization of PPP should stem from an understanding of specific application of the three-step adequacy evaluation technique (AET) developed by this study as a relevant tool for evaluating the adequacy of housing development projects. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.

This dissertation examines the housing conditions experienced by the AIDS orphans at Malangeni. It documents and highlights the housing conditions and makes policy recommendations with regards to addressing housing needs of AIDS orphans. AIDS orphans are faced with the problem of inadequate housing. They are living in houses that have a variety of defects. These houses have broken windows, broken doors, leaks, holes in roof, cracks on walls, mould as well as poor ventilation. These, AIDS orphans are being cared for by their relatives, like their aunties but in most cases it is their grandparents that are getting money from the pension grant to support the whole family. The community of Malangeni is very poor and it does not have adequate funds to provide assistance to solve this problem of inadequate housing. The government and the community organizations have done very little to trying and provide assistance in this regard. AIDS orphans get emotional and moral support from members of local churches who visit each and every household that has AIDS orphans. It can therefore be argued that given the inadequate housing conditions that AIDS orphans live in, there is a need for housing policy to address the problem by providing AIDS orphans with housing that has basic infrastructure facilities that ensure basic health and safety and most importantly, improve the overall quality of life. / Thesis (M.Housing)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2006.

This study looks at the potential contribution of informal housing delivery in establishing enabling low-income housing standards in Kitwe, Zambia as a way of addressing the shortage of adequate and affordable housing for the urban poor. Informal housing delivery is increasingly being seen as the urban poors' response to the chronic shortage of housing in most cities in developing countries. Proponents of informal housing delivery have been alluding to the many positive impacts that informal housing has on the poor households since the 1960's. This aspect is slowly gaining acceptance in many housing policies in developing countries that are now opting to work with rather than forcefully relocated informal dwellers. The Zambia National Housing Policy set an ambitious list of objectives aimed at realising its goal of providing adequate and affordable housing to all income groups in the country, including the reform of housing standards which currently inhibit the incorporation of informal housing techniques and materials into conventional practices. However, there appears to be no framework within which this objective will be achieved. The study, therefore, investigated the positive attributes of informal housing delivery through a literature review of standards and general discourse and policies regarding traditional, informal and formal housing settlements. Through the literature review, a set of indicators was established to measure and analyse informal housing standards prevailing in Kamatipa, an informal settlement north of the city of Kitwe in Zambia and building regulations that substantially hinder the incorporation of these standards into conventional low-income housing standards. They study establishes a number of positive attributes of informal housing in Kamatipa and the regulations that they contravene under current standards. It concludes by making recommendations towards establishing guidelines for assimilating these positive elements in a reformed regulatory framework to achieve enabling low-income housing standards in the city and country. / Thesis (M.Housing)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2006.

This research seeks to explore what role the church can, should and does play in the dynamics of inner city housing. Given the experience of certain overseas church groups at the successful implementation of housing initiatives this research seeks to explore what certain groups are doing in various cities to establish their ideal of the new Jerusalem. This is in keeping with the vision of Isaiah in chapter 65-66.where the church has a responsibility to transform the place of the city to a place of hope and joy and celebration .This is the motivation that drives this study to see how the church can play a role in the housing development of the inner cities of South Africa. Very little has been written on this newly emerging field for the church in South African cities. Hopefully this will motivate, empower and encourage others to follow those who are already involved in this new challenge to the South African and African inner city church. Four cities in which contact with housing related projects has been established will be used as case studies. These four cities coincidentally cover the largest proportion of urbanised South Africa namely the Johannesburg/Pretoria urban agglomeration and the Durban/Pietermaritzburg area. Apart from the aforementioned reasons, the fact that there are limited church-based inner city housing initiatives in South Africa, it was felt that these case studies could provide an initial base for research. A more detailed rationale is listed in the section on the scope of the dissertation. / Thesis (M.Housing)-University of Natal, 2002.

Given that access to adequate housing is defined under South Africa's constitution as a fundamental human right, it is understandable that the post Apartheid government focuses significant time and expense on establishing human settlements intended to redress the historically unequal distribution of wealth and resources. This thesis is concerned with looking at why, in spite of this attention, the government has underperformed in delivering low income housing projects that evolve into socially sustainable and integrated communities. Since there is no substantial evidence that a comprehensive study of the consolidation of human settlements has been done in South Africa, this research and the recommendations it engenders will be an important resource for planning truly sustainable and integrated human settlements in the future. Both theoretical and applied research methodologies were utilised in this thesis to examine specifically six human settlements in the KwaZulu-Natal Ethekwini region, selected for their diversity in terms of social, economic and location characteristics, as well as the differing historical circumstances surrounding their establishments. That the analysis included three settlements with Greenfield and social housing projects developed during the Apartheid regime and three settlements established after the 1994 democratic elections, permits comparisons to be drawn and so facilitates a deeper understanding of the successes and failures of the creation of sustainable housing settlements. A thorough review of the limited literature in South Africa in this field and an assessment of strategies contained in the National Housing Policy, was complimented by a more practical approach, including the use of a Delphi survey method, which was conducted with experts in the housing field, policy makers and settlement inhabitants, and extensive on site data collection. This investigation shows that, paradoxically, the Apartheid housing settlements, designed to entrench racial segregation and inequality, have in fact flourished as consolidated communities, in comparison with post Apartheid housing projects. The thesis draws the conclusion that in the Apartheid settlements inhabitants are using their housing units as an invaluable asset to improve their living conditions and to create a sustainable environment. However, in the settlements developed by the post Apartheid regime, inhabitants are struggling to use their home as an asset to improve their living conditions and to create a convenient and sustainable environment. Consequently, poverty, social exclusion and vulnerability of the beneficiaries of low-cost housing are deepening. While this does not justify the Apartheid policy of enforced removals or the subsequent social evils, the sense of ownership that ensued from forcing inhabitants to thererafter pay for their dwelling based on a calculated proportion of household income, is key to understanding this disparity. In comparison, post Apartheid housing policy, framed within a socialist agenda, does not allow for equitable distribution based on income levels and so for the mainly poor and economically inactive inhabitants, there is an absence of this same ownership incentive to either care for or improve the dwellings that they are given. Furthermore, the current National Housing Policy fails to take a holistic approach to the issue since its priority is simply meeting short-term high demand to eradicate the most visible effects of Apartheid. Subsequently, the National Housing Policy has failed to consider how access to education facilities for children, availability of consumer goods and the proximity to commercial activity, jostle with the need for shelter as high priorities for low income households, which fundamentally affects the success of any housing policy. For this reason, several beneficiaries of post Apartheid housing units have sold their homes to raise income to meet more pressing needs. All social housing settlements that formed the sample of this research study have long term viability issues and so replicating any model is problematic. The thesis suggests therefore, that in the future, legislators and policy makers look towards cultivating mixed use housing settlements centred around vibrant commercial, business and retail sites with connecting public transit and pedestrian networks, and various tenure options, including rentals, rent-to-buy and outright purchase. Development initiatives taking into considerations the reforms and recommendations outlined in this thesis could be implemented on housing projects that use developed buffer zones of land that were left over from the Apartheid era housing policy or on "lost spaces" within existing human settlements. The advantages of such a new approach for creating sustainable housing settlements provides an opportunity to link spatially and economically dislocated communities while ensuring beneficiaries and stakeholders in housing settlements meet a wider variety of needs. The conclusion that this thesis draws is that South Africa needs a post Apartheid approach to create sustainable human settlements. The Delphi Study reveals that the strategy to be adopted should represent the expectations of both policy-makers and beneficiaries. Consequently, this thesis proposes a sustainable housing development model and has developed guidelines and processes that take into consideration the many issues affecting housing policies and so becomes a workable tool for future housing professionals. Consolidated and integrated settlements that evolve into socially sustainable communities then becomes a real possibility. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2011.

This dissertation investigates how the upgrading of informal settlements impacts home-based enterprises (HBEs). De Soto’s ‘Mystery of Capital Theory’ suggests that the formalisation of tenure rights, through informal settlement upgrading, can result in poor households gaining access to capital using their houses as collateral against loans. Furthermore, these households can then use this capital to finance the operations of their HBEs. Rust’s conceptualisation of the ‘Housing Asset Triangle’ explains the importance of HBEs in the lives informal settlement households as an economic asset. Thus, the lack of support for HBEs in the implementation of informal settlement upgrading, by municipal officials, impacts negatively on HBEs, and demonstrates Huntington’s ‘Clash of Civilisations’ Theory. Huntington states that when state officials implement informal settlement upgrading, disagreements arise between the officials and the beneficiaries of upgrading, in terms of the objectives and the results of upgrading, stemming mainly from the fact that the state officials and the beneficiaries belong to different civilisations. The researcher uses Cato Crest located in eThekwini Municipality as the case study area, where interviews were conducted with the municipal housing officials that implemented the in-situ upgrade in Cato Crest, using the Informal Settlement Upgrading Programme (ISUP) of the Breaking New Ground (BNG): Housing Policy. Household surveys were also conducted with the Cato Crest households that operated HBEs in the upgraded settlement, who had also done so in the informal settlement prior to the upgrade. The researcher found that HBEs in Cato Crest informal settlements are heavily dependent foot paths, for customers, used by people walking through the settlement. However, the upgraded settlement has lower housing densities than the informal settlement and the foot paths are replaced by road-side pavements. Only the businesses trading from containers located on the road-side survive, as customers using the roads and pavements stop easily to purchase goods. As a result, HBEs suffer and are unable to attract customers anymore and re-establishing HBEs in the upgraded settlement becomes a useless task as only businesses trading from the roadside are successful in the Cato Crest upgraded settlement. Trading from the road-side requires moving the HBE out of the house and into a road-side container, where the latter needs to be purchased by the household in order to take advantage of customers using the roads and pavements. This process proved to be too expensive for poor households operating HBEs in Cato Crest. HBEs are an important income generation strategy for Cato Crest households, and the upgrading of their informal settlement creates a better living environment for these households. However, the inability to continue generating an income using the house in the upgraded settlement creates a harsh environment for households that depend on HBEs for survival. Based on the findings of this study, the recommendations for the future implementation of informal settlement upgrading are that there is a need for a more collaborative effort between municipal housing officials, the Business Support Unit of the eThekwini Municipality, the Local Economic Development Offices, as well as households operating HBEs. More research of the phenomenon of HBEs in informal settlements of any particular area to be upgraded should be conducted. Thereafter, the implementation of HBE accommodating and fitting upgrading plans to each settlement, needs to be carried out by the upgrading officials, so that the upgraded settlement does not only give people access to housing and infrastructure, but creates an environment where they can continue using their houses for income generation in the upgraded settlement. / Thesis (M.Housing)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2011.

Disparities between housing, water and sanitation policy initiatives continuously undermine the efforts of informal settlements upgrading programme of transforming living conditions of people living in informal settlements. The objective of this research project was to explore the disparities between the above mentioned policy initiatives in informal settlements upgrading with the view to develop an understanding of various elements leading to these disparities. To achieve this research two case study areas were selected from which data was collected. The case studies were selected purposively. Household surveys were conducted from each of the two case studies and interviews were conducted with housing, water and sanitation officials. Findings of the research indicate that there are indeed disparities between housing, water and sanitation. It indicated that the disparities manifested themselves at various levels of policy. The nature of these disparities also varied according to the level at which they manifested. The research concludes that disparities in housing, water and sanitation manifest themselves in informal settlement upgrading. Various levels of policy indicate the manifestation of these disparities. Informal settlement upgrading efforts are undermined by the lack of coordination and integration in the implementation of policy. The research therefore recommends adjustments from all levels of policy from formulation to implementation. Housing, water and sanitation policy formulation process should be conducted in an integrated and coordinated manner. All parties involved in policy development and implementation should adopt high level of communication and consultation on all policy related issues. Policy objectives should be consolidated. / Thesis (M.Housing)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

This study examines the case for in-situ upgrading of informal settlements. The housing delivery process as set out in the housing policy has been slow and, to an extent, qualification for subsidy has tended to exclude some sections of the society. The main objective of the study is to identify the social, economic and physical characteristics of informal settlements that would justify in-situ upgrading as opposed to relocation of the residents to a Greenfield development. Both primary and secondary sources of data were utilised in data collection. The research confirmed residents of Barcelona 1 need proper houses with basic services. The general use of land; is also problematic, there are no roads and the residents walk in between shacks to access their sites. Living conditions in Barcelona 1 do not match up with what is proposed in the recent Breaking New Ground (BNG) policy initiative, which states that everyone should have access to sustainable human settlement conditions with basic services such as water, electricity and sanitation. Community Based Organizations (CBOs) focus on assisting the community with socio-economic activities, and have contributed in the development of the settlement by providing training skills workshops on small business and issues concerning HIV/AIDS. The present study sees a need for the settlement to be upgraded on site, in preference to other options less favourable to people’s needs, such as greenfield development which disrupts social and economic networks when people are relocated far from their workplaces and burdened with added transportation costs. By comparison, in-situ upgrading will create minimal disruption for the inhabitants of the settlement. Among the recommendation put forward is that the government, the housing department, non-government organisation and community based organisations should all intervene in the upgrading of informal settlements. The study concludes with none of the development promised by the government having yet taken place in the study area, any forthcoming housing policy implementation should take account of the impact of different development option on informal settlements. It can be argued that government and the housing department alike have failed to satisfy housing demand in South Africa, since people continue to suffer from inadequate housing. Secondly, in-situ upgrading rather than relocation to Greenfield where feasible should be the preferred from development option given the social, economic benefits and networks of existing informal settlements. / Thesis (M.Housing)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.