STRATEGIES TO ENHANCE AFFORDABLE HOUSING FOR INDUSTRIAL WORKERS

Abstract

There have been efforts to make the world sustainable not only for the existing population but also for the generation to come. Affordable living is one of the important factors in this sustainability effort. The challenge is to not only provide an affordable resident but also to maintain other attached strings, which are safety, adequacy, accessibility, and affordability of daily life amenities. This challenge of providing affordable living is huge, especially for the cities in which the population count is increasing at a rapid pace, that is why even the major cities of the world are falling for this challenge and are unable to manage their residents into affordable living. Pakistan is not an exception to this scenario. Its population has crossed the 220 million mark, making it difficult for policymakers and the government to narrow down the gap in house shortage. Pakistan is currently facing a backlog of 4.3 million units. This figure includes the housing needs of the general public, taking into account the housing needs for upper middle, lower middle, lower, and lowest income groups of the country. However, the story is different for the low- and lowest-income groups, which due to the rise in inflation are in the vicious cycle of poverty. In the face of high prices of daily life amenities, the low-income group finds it near impossible to sustain their lives, when these are ladened with the burden of high house rents. The labor class working in industries of Pakistan is part of this low-income group that is facing above mentioned phenomenon. To evaluate the condition of industrial workers, the Industrial Estate of Peshawar was selected as a case study for this research. Both primary and secondary sources were used in gathering data for this research. Suiting the purpose of this research, data were collected through interviews about socio-economic status, their living style preferences, accessibility to various components, their priorities, information about the land and houses workers living in, the general administration of the colonies, availability of affordable housing, housing finances and much more. While the secondary data was collected from various journals, articles, reports, and documents polished online related to the scope of the study. The data analysis was done using SPSS software and a correlation test was applied. SWOT analysis and need assessment was carried out for the provision of affordable housing. 15 At present, there is a total of 3 residential colonies inside Hayatabad industrial estate namely Old Labor Colony (Constructed 1986) Benazir Labor Colony (Constructed 1996), and Musharraf Labor colony (Constructed 2006). 750 housing units are having an overall population of 6000 individuals. It was noted that the housing construction quality was good but mostly overcrowded, the resident tempered the original design to make space for their living, and the literacy rate for the children of the workers was high, as almost all of the children were studying in the government-provided education facilities. Through the data analysis of the economic variables, it was found that most of the residents were unable to save for activities apart from their routine life including marriages, buying healthy food and good clothes, etc. However, the rent that the government was charging for these residential units was very low and affordable for the residents. As for the analysis of the data collected through questionnaires, the locals expressed their satisfaction over the indicators of educational quality, health care facilities, availability of water, and accessibility of amenities, but expressed their dissatisfaction over the indicators of cleanliness, waste management, and sanitation, open and green spaces, and leisure facilities, etc. the residents also expressed their views regarding the shortage of housing units, the political allotments and old age benefits. Based on data analysis, literature review, and stakeholder interview, to address the major challenges, recommendations and conclusions were drawn for filling the gaps in the provision of affordable housing for industrial workers. The recommendations covered the topics of housing ownership, housing for informal workers, government to workers relationships, a conflict resolution mechanism, fair use of funds, addressing the issue of illegal residence, a mechanism for performance evaluation, increasing the density and points related to the improvement of leisure facilities and green spaces