The Impact Of Site And Service Projects On Urban Housing Markets: The Case Of Dandora, Nairobi

This dissertation is an evaluation of site and service projects as a strategy for meeting the housing needs for the low-income households in Nairobi, Kenya. These projects were an attempt by the government to help low-income households by increasing the housing stock available to these kinds of households.;The major source of data was from interviews conducted over a period of five months in the large Dandora project in Nairobi. Here, information was gleaned on changes in socio-economic, housing and migratory variables.;The data confirmed that the project significantly improved the housing conditions of those who moved. The project, however, did not directly meet the housing need of the low-incomes group because of the high housing costs of this project. The Dandora project benefited only a small percentage of residents from the squatter settlements and these characteristically earned higher incomes than were intended for this project. The analysis showed that the project mainly benefited respondents who had moved from standard housing (housing constructed with permanent materials and approved by the City Council). However, this does not necessarily indicate the failure of this housing strategy because the benefits to the ill housed in the squatter settlements could have been indirect ones resulting from filtering. The survey determined that 85 percent of those moving from standard housing left vacancies that could have benefited low-income households through filtering. An analysis of the migratory history of those surveyed indicated that most of the respondents had moved from the rural areas to standard housing prior to Dandora and not from the squatter settlements, suggesting that even with the second tier moves included, the site and service schemes\u27 direct impact on the City\u27s squatter settlements was limited. Even so, by enabling rural households to move to standard housing (which would not have been the case if the project had not been implemented), the project indirectly provided housing for migrants, who would have had more limited alternatives to the squatter settlements