Perceived Quality of Residential Life in Port Harcourt, Nigeria: the Role of Public Policy.

This study investigated two public housing estates designed for low- and high-income groups in Port Harcourt, one of Nigeria's major cities, primarily to find out how the objective residential (dwelling unit and neighborhood) conditions and personal characteristics of the beneficiaries were related to their perceptions of the quality and adequacy of such public residential interventions. Information was obtained from public records, photography, personal communication with government planners and architects, and primarily by means of a questionnaire administered face-to-face by trained interviewers to a total of 285 respondents (a whole count in the high-income estate and a 20 percent probability sample in the larger low-income estate). A variety of statistical data analytical methods were used, but Multiple Classification Analysis was the principal multivariate analytical tool employed to estimate the relationships. The major findings included (a) that the distribution of beneficiaries of the public housing even in the low-income estate was skewed in favor of higher-income employees in the formal sector, (b) that perceptions of planning adequacy and residential quality were low in both estates, and negative quality ratings helped to account for the desire to move, (c) that a reasonable proportion of the variation in perceived residential quality (up to 45 percent for the dwelling unit) could be accounted for by evaluations of residential attributes; those attributes per se and personal characteristics emerging as much weaker predictors, with the latter being more important; and (d) that the major sources of dissatisfaction were estate security, the internal design of dwelling units, and dwelling utilities. These findings point to the need to re-think direct public housing delivery with a view to making it more accessible to target groups, and more responsive to their needs.PhDUrban planningUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/161700/1/8801385.pd