Search results for - ‘poverty’

Project Description Granby 4 Streets and its predecessor community group have, for many years, kept the Granby community together. Its ultimately successful campaign to halt the demolition of houses provided a focus for the community but its approach was unconventional and creative. It focused on reclaiming empty houses and streets from dereliction and boosting the […]

Project Description The Urban Shelter Project creates new housing units in Jordan for Syrian refugees to live in rent-free for 18 months. The project works with local property-owners whose properties are uninhabitable because they are unfinished or incomplete. The Norwegian Refugee Council provides funding to bring the properties up to acceptable standards. The refurbished homes […]

The autonomous region of Gorno-Badakhshan in Tajikistan is home to some of the world’s highest mountains. Winters are long and very cold – average night-time temperatures remain below freezing for seven months of the year. The region is sparsely populated and most of its 250,000 inhabitants live in poorly insulated homes that are in disrepair […]

Food preparation is an essential part of daily life but for women living in impoverished rural Pakistan it is a time-consuming and arduous task that puts both their own health and that of their family at risk. This is because millions of rural households depend on open-flame wood-burning stoves, which fill homes with smoke causing […]

The east Indian state of Odisha has a population of more than 41.9 million people. Over the past decade, the state’s urban population has grown by almost a third (27%), as people migrate from rural villages to towns and cities in search of work and a better life. Today, roughly one-in-four people living in Odisha’s […]

The costs of renting or paying off a mortgage in Barcelona, Spain, have risen much faster than the population’s incomes in recent years. This, coupled with growing unemployment due to the subprime crises (2007-2010) and, more recently, the Covid-19 pandemic, has increased pressure on household finances and put more people at risk of eviction. A […]

Tent City is a 269 unit mixed-income housing complex of outstanding design in the heart of Boston, Massachusetts. Originating from popular protest against the gentrification of the area, the project remains affordable to low-income households due to innovative and sustainable funding mechanisms. It provides an outstanding example of how to preserve the economically and racially integrated population mix that is typical of older urban areas, as well as providing a model for how successful developments can change public policy.   

Over 6,000 dwellings have been built in Montreal under this programme which provides affordable homes for low-income households to buy. A further 4,000 dwellings have been built throughout Canada and the United States. Building costs are halved through the use of innovative design and construction methods and by giving the buyers the option of partial internal completion. This allows them to complete the basement or top storey of the house as and when resources and needs permit. High energy-efficiency levels are achieved, as well as a reduction in urban sprawl due to the higher density of development.

This nationwide housing programme arose out of the 1996 Peace Accords established in Guatemala at the end of a long civil war. As well as providing decent homes for 18,000 people to date, the project also works to restore the communities that have been damaged by the hostilities of the civil war. Local people are involved at all stages of the project, including the construction of the dwellings.  

This incremental housing programme, developed by the community-based organisation UCISV-VER, combines resources from participating families with traditional joint savings schemes and micro-credit to help families who have no access to formal credit build new homes or improve their existing accommodation. The construction process is phased to avoid families becoming financially overstretched. Families are involved in the design process of their homes and training is provided in self-help construction methods. The consolidation of community organisation and solidarity, the empowerment of women and development of savings capacity are important elements of this well-established programme that has to date funded the construction and/or improvement of 684 homes in the state of Veracruz.   

The Centro Experimental de la Vivienda Económica (CEVE), member of Asociacion de la Vivienda Económica (AVE), specialises in research, technological development, transfer and training in low-cost housing. It works to promote social inclusion, access to housing for low-income groups and alternative ways of tackling a range of housing-related issues. Key features of CEVE’s work include the development of integral building systems and sustainable building components and to date 4,200 homes have been built using the technologies, management and financial systems developed. Its participatory approach and training processes help develop confidence, cooperation and skills among community residents. NGOs and governments throughout Latin America and beyond have benefited from CEVE’s work.   

To date the Ocean View Development Trust has assisted 700 poor and marginalised families to build and improve their own homes in one of the overcrowded Western Cape townships. Mutual aid and sweat equity help to reduce costs and workshops are used to develop and spread skills within the community. Innovative financing systems encourage the retention of wealth within the community, as well as creating jobs and a much improved living environment.  

With guidance from low-income communities, Rural Opportunities, Inc. develops and operates programs that empower low-income rural families throughout six states and Puerto Rico, promoting the responsible development of the communities in which they live. The Windy Hill Apartments located in New York State involved the redevelopment of a foreclosed, blighted apartment complex in the village of Clyde, providing affordable rental housing for 30 families earning below 60 per cent of the area median income.

The work of Johannesburg Housing Company (JHC) involves the development and adaptive re-use of city-centre buildings to deliver mixed-tenure, affordable rental housing whilst acting as a trigger for the regeneration of the surrounding area. To date JHC has provided nearly 3,000 homes in 24 buildings, adding a further eight per cent to the residential stock of Johannesburg’s inner city.

Initiated by the Palmyrah Workers' Development Society (PWDS), this project works to enable families to build their own secure, fire-resistant homes whilst improving their livelihoods. To date, 11,000 homes have been built through a participatory, mutual-help process and the housing movement continues to grow and extend itself through community solidarity and social networks and mainstream service linkages.    

Located in the heart of San Francisco, this environmentally responsible, mixed-use development provides homes and support to 106 low-income individuals, many of whom were chronically homeless and have complex medical and behavioural issues. Fully equipped studio apartments encourage independent living and the supportive environment and ongoing capacity-building programme aims to improve the health, mental and financial-wellbeing of Plaza residents.

Initiated in the wake of the 1999 super-cyclone, this project provides technical support and expertise in the use of alternative, cost-effective, disaster-resistant building technologies. Over 3,500 families have been able to construct safer homes at a lower cost. The training programme has helped over 3,650 masons organise into groups, enabling them to develop successful small businesses and increase their monthly income by over 45 per cent.

Working with vulnerable, low-income families, unable to access government housing grants, PASO A PASO has provided 1,252 loans to low-income, predominantly women-headed households across Ecuador. An innovative, self-sustaining, housing finance system combines residents’ savings with micro-credit through a revolving fund to make up the deposit required to access the federal housing subsidy. Seventeen housing programmes have been supported enabling 725 homes to be built.

Working to support community-led, high-density urban-housing initiatives, this project has worked with nearly 5,000 families from more than 15 urban popular movements across São Paulo. Appropriate technologies have been developed to allow for the construction of complex multi-storey buildings by the residents themselves. Following construction, community facilities and income-generating activities are developed, including community bakeries, childcare facilities and professional training courses.

The Housing Center is an NGO working to improve the housing conditions for socially vulnerable groups in Serbia, particularly refugees and internally displaced persons. Not only does the Housing Center construct new social housing units, it also helps to create a supportive environment for residents through the provision of a ‘host family’ in each of the small apartment blocks. The project is delivered in close cooperation with local municipalities and their centres for social work. To date 430 new apartments have been completed in 22 different municipalities and the project approach is now being implemented ever more widely.

Founded in 1927, the Public Housing Service (SPV) is a department of the Rosario municipal government, working within a system of decentralised management of resources. In addition to its urban upgrading activities and housing improvement programmes, SPV is involved in the construction of new housing units for low and moderate income households in Rosario, as well as land tenure regularisation. The Rosario Habitat programme has helped 5,298 families to upgrade their homes and strengthen their local economy and environment using participatory methods. The programme is expected to be scaled up and has already been transferred to other major cities in Argentina.

The Better Life Association for Comprehensive Development is an Egyptian NGO established in 1995. Better Life seeks to improve the quality of life for the poor and marginalised in the Minia governorate, through a rights-based approach. It works in three main villages and several small affiliated villages, surrounded by the River Nile from the west and the Eastern Desert from the east. To date, housing has been improved for nearly 1,000 families and potable water and latrines provided for over 5,900 families. Furthermore, Better Life is the first NGO in Egypt to formally advocate and work on behalf of quarry-workers, fishermen, low-income farmers and their children. The organisation’s activities aim to empower local communities by improving livelihoods and health, reducing pollution, and encouraging and supporting them to organise around their own needs and rights, including with respect to land tenure. The organisation has also initiated innovative financing mechanisms.

The Federal Housing and Habitat Improvement Programme for Indigenous and Rural People is a state-run programme under the Under-secretariat for Urban Development and Housing (SSDUV), which aims to support and improve the living conditions of indigenous groups and low-income households in rural areas of Argentina. The construction of new homes, improvement of existing homes, development of rural infrastructure works and the creation of stable livelihoods are its four main areas of activities. National government funding is transferred to local partners or executive bodies, which work directly with beneficiaries and communities where the programme is operating. These bodies may be either provincial or municipal governments, NGOs and/or communities of indigenous peoples and are generally made up of professional technicians, social scientists and accountants. The total investment to date for 2,625 homes is US$ 70 million with an average of US$ 29,000 per unit. The autonomous programme’s work began in 2010 and is currently operating in 9 of the 23 provinces of Argentina.

The Community Programme for Neighbourhood Improvement (PCMB) is a community-driven neighbourhood improvement programme that was established in 2007 by the Social Development Secretariat (SDS) of the Federal District government of Mexico City. It uses a participatory approach to improving public spaces in informal settlements and low-income neighbourhoods, particularly those with high levels of social conflict, marginalisation and/or urban decay. Projects developed through the programme include illumination and paving of streets, provision of recreational, community and sports facilities, rain collection and drainage systems as well as small parks. Funds are distributed directly to the local communities, who are given full responsibility for delivering the projects selected, after training in financial and project management and with the support of the municipality. Over 500 million pesos (US$40 million) have been disbursed to date and the programme is ongoing, with 600 projects due to be completed by 2012.

In partnership with micro-credit institutions, Enda Océan Indien (Enda OI) established a savings scheme enabling families living in the Lower City of Antananarivo to save and borrow money for a new house and/or pit latrine. Enda OI supports the families throughout the process, from saving and adjusting to a new credit culture through to building and maintaining their new property.