The purpose of this study is to investigate the possible relationship between social mix and the quality of life in housing. Quality of life is measured by levels of satisfaction, social integration, mobility and freedom of choice, etc. This study has identified some factors which may have an effect on the quality of life in socially mixed housing projects. This study has formulated general observations from these factors which could influence the way the built environment is shaped, especially ways in which residents, can or cannot, appreciate and tolerate social mix. The evidence indicates that design, quality of construction, good management, and the overall environment are much more important for the acceptance and satisfaction of the residents than the question of social mix. Even so, the findings indicate that some of the positive and negative quality of life aspects derive from social mix.

No description available.

When entering and settling into adulthood in a less than ideal developing world, youth with minimal resources continuously need to manoeuvre between opportunities and their living situation. This research project explores the phenomenon of youth residing in the inner city of Pretoria to understand their housing situation through the lens of homelessness and personal development. A qualitative field study, embedded in the research paradigm ethnomethodology, was conducted through interviews and observations with low-income, young males. The research has shown that respondents do not see themselves as ‘homeless’, even though the essence of what a ‘home’ means to them does not resonate with their perception of the inner city. Still, the various housing typologies and channels of socio-economic support that are accessed provide enough reason and resources to retain their position in the inner city. The impact of these negotiations on the identity and overall development of the respondents need further investigation - beyond what the research has suggested.

No description available.

D.Phil. (Engineering Management) / One of the greatest challenges faced by the post-1994 South African democratic government is an immense backlog and shortage of housing for poverty-stricken South Africans. Since 1994, the government has embarked on aspiring housing programmes in order to engage in mass delivery of housing, which was done to fulfill the vision of adequate housing for all, as reflected in the South African National Housing Policy Framework. Over the last seventeen years, the programmes have delivered more than 3 million houses to families, who had no proper housing previously, providing more than 13 million people with secure homes; thus ensuring that essential services were made available to advance the lives of ordinary people. This research investigated and modeled subsidised low-income resident’s satisfaction. The primary aim of the research was to model to what extent dwelling unit features, neighbourhood features, building quality, services provided by government, beneficiary participation, needs and expectations predict the occupants’ residential satisfaction, which were classified as the exogenous variables. A conceptual integrated holistic residential satisfaction model was developed based on the theory developed from the literature review and the Delphi Study findings. The Questionnaire Survey was conducted for the purpose of validating the conceptual model. The survey was conducted in three metropolitan municipalities and one district municipality in the Gauteng Province of South Africa. Results from the investigation pertained to three broad areas. The first results related to theory on housing studies. The findings were that the study addressed the lack of theoretical information about which factors are most significant in predicting resident satisfaction in subsidised low-income housing. The findings also revealed the theory that low-income housing occupants’ satisfaction is multi-faceted and that the latent variables thus lead to residential satisfaction outcome variables which could be used for residential satisfaction measurement. The second set of findings relates to the Delphi Study. The findings from this study were that a number of factors (dwelling unit features, neighbourhood features amongst others), considered to be paramount determinants of residential satisfaction in South Africa low-income housing are similar to the determinants in other cultural contexts. Further findings from literature and the Delphi Study indicated that subsidised low-income housing residential satisfaction could be a six-factor model defined by the influence of dwelling unit features...

Due to an increasingly aging population and long-term care available, the number of older adults seeking long-term care facilities is growing. Resident satisfaction indicators have become essential measurements of service quality. However, few studies have investigated the evidence on prevalent resident satisfaction indicators and associated factors. In order to understand what are the types of resident satisfaction measurements utilized in long-term care facilities in the United States and how these types of care services influence resident satisfaction, the researcher conducted the first study, which consists of a systematic scoping review by summarizing the evidence on the types of resident satisfaction indicators utilized in long-term care settings in the United States. The second study completed a further systematic review to summarize how nursing assistants impact resident satisfaction in long-term care settings.The third study aims to translate and validate a Chinese version of the resident satisfaction assessment based on the Ohio Long-term Care Resident Satisfaction Survey (OLCRSS). The fourth study will apply hierarchical regression to predict older adults' satisfaction with individual factors and care services factors in long-term care settings. The dissertation provided a holistic solution to measure resident satisfaction in long-term care settings, assist health providers in meeting the resident`s needs and improve the quality of the care. These studies are significant because they provide fundamental data for using evidence-based indicators of resident satisfaction to enhance the residents' quality of life. Findings could also add to the existing literature regarding resident satisfaction indicators.

This dissertation compares the levels of housing satisfaction between the site and services and informal settlement upgrading projects. In South Africa, the government embarked on the incremental approach to housing as a way of addressing housing challenges such as slow delivery rate, poverty and budgetary constraints. Within incremental housing polices, site and services and informal settlement upgrading housing projects are two housing delivery methods that are being used to provide housing to low income households. One of the challenges with the implementation of incremental housing delivery method in South Africa has been over-emphasis on the implementation of site and services at the expense of informal settlement upgrading housing projects. The broad aim of this dissertation is to compare which of the two delivery approaches yields higher levels of satisfaction. The research method employed in the study was Normative Style of comparism which is used to compare the levels of satisfaction and usefulness of housing to the user. To evaluate the levels of housing satisfaction between the site and services and informal settlement upgrading, the researcher set indicators of housing satisfaction, specifically location, the size of the dwelling unit, the quality of building materials, residential quality, security of tenure and the ability to use a house for income generating opportunities. Polices such as Chapter 13 of the National Housing Code (2009) and the Breaking New Ground (2004) indicate a significant shift in respect of informal settlement upgrading. The study’s findings showed that there are higher levels of housing satisfaction in the informal settlement upgrading housing projects than in the site and services because, beneficiaries make conscious choices about where to locate their housing. It emerged that beneficiaries satisfaction with the choice of specific settlements was usually linked to their livelihood strategies for example, proximity to jobs, cost of transport and cost of living. Such satisfaction was not forthcoming in poorly located sites and services schemes, whose strength was therefore only on their formality, secure tenure and basic services. The contribution of this study is not only to highlight circumstances that make housing satisfactory but also to ensure that informal settlements upgrading becomes entirely practiced on an equal basis as site and services. / Thesis (M.Housing)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2011.

This thesis aimed to test the relationship between resident satisfaction and staff satisfaction. Using a cross-sectional design, administrators, staff and residents from 24 LTC homes were surveyed. Logistic regression models predicting high resident satisfaction were developed with a primary focus on the relationship to direct care staff satisfaction, while controlling for facility, staff and resident characteristics (and facility-level clustering). Regression models were developed for overall staff satisfaction and three other domains of job satisfaction. The odds of high overall resident satisfaction decreased by 27% and 31% for each 1-unit increase in overall job satisfaction and satisfaction with workload, respectively. In contrast, the odds of high overall resident satisfaction increased by 5.56 times for each 1-unit increase in mean staff satisfaction with work content. LTC homes may be able to improve staff and resident experiences concurrently by encouraging direct care staff to enter into meaningful relationships with residents.

This thesis aimed to test the relationship between resident satisfaction and staff satisfaction. Using a cross-sectional design, administrators, staff and residents from 24 LTC homes were surveyed. Logistic regression models predicting high resident satisfaction were developed with a primary focus on the relationship to direct care staff satisfaction, while controlling for facility, staff and resident characteristics (and facility-level clustering). Regression models were developed for overall staff satisfaction and three other domains of job satisfaction. The odds of high overall resident satisfaction decreased by 27% and 31% for each 1-unit increase in overall job satisfaction and satisfaction with workload, respectively. In contrast, the odds of high overall resident satisfaction increased by 5.56 times for each 1-unit increase in mean staff satisfaction with work content. LTC homes may be able to improve staff and resident experiences concurrently by encouraging direct care staff to enter into meaningful relationships with residents.

This study analyzes the determinants of housing environmental preference by consumers in Guangzhou, China. Preferences of different housing environments have been well researched by scholars in architecture, urban planning, and urban environmental science. However, few studies shed light on housing environment by measuring physical/tangible and social/intangible attributes with hierarchy models. Based on the literatures on housing environment, preference, satisfaction and housing quality, this thesis explores the housing environment preference by identifying the environmental attributes which are grouped into three categories: mobility, community facility, and community social capital. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is employed to estimate the relative importance of those environmental attributes, which are further organized into a hierarchical structure. Housing consumers and property experts in Guangzhou participate in the survey and they represent a wide spectrum of environmental performance demands as well as socio-environmental backgrounds in the sample. Statistical weights of the factors based on their judgments are then generated. It is found that mobility factors, including public traffic network, proximity to workplace, have dominant importance in the housing environment. Social capital factors and facility factors, including sense of safety, medical and health facility, and education facility are also regarded important. Property experts and consumers have diverse perspectives on the demand of end users as they represent different interest groups. Furthermore, different age groups of housing consumers attach different relative importance to the factors studied. This study develops a method to assess the relative importance of the environment factors in housing preferences, and provides a useful tool in the field of environmental assessment. Instead of measuring the monetary value of different attributes in the market, the findings of this thesis help to understand the general demand pattern and preferences of consumers in the housing market based on multidimensional values and benefits. It is hoped that the findings will offer more information for urban planners and housing developers from a social and cultural perspective. / published_or_final_version / Real Estate and Construction / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy