Community based process to build affordable home for low income people  Low cost housing models as per people’s needs Objectives: • identify housing challenges by community itself (Rahman, • start community based savings • develop housing through participatory design and planning • empower slum communities by building network

1. Affordable Housing Practice:
City-Wide Housing Project,
Jhenaidah
Presented by:
Fabiha Rahman
Fatema-Tuz-Zohora
Md. Saiful Islam
Date of presentation: 23.06.19
1

2. Fig 02: Many left homeless after korail
slum fire (Hosen and Mollah, 2016)
Fig 01: Slums in Mirpur, Bangladesh
(Mollah slum, 2018)
• 1/3rd migrated people living in overcrowded slums
(Chowdhury and Khan, 2017)
• 21% of population living in urban poverty (Akhter, 2018)
• High rent: BDT 47 per square foot (Hossain, 2018)
• Tenure insecurity (Akhter, 2018)
• Lack of basic facilities (Chowdhury and Khan, 2017)
• Safety issues (Brac, 2017)
• Private developers hardly focusing on low income groups
(Rahman, 2019)
Affordable housing can be a solution to solve these issues.
Housing condition of low income population
in Bangladesh
2

3. Low income affordable housing: housing that meets affordability criterion (income
level, size of dwelling) for low income groups (Gopalan & Venkataraman, 2015)
Four low income housing and slum improvement projects in South-East Asia:
1. Visakhapatnam city project
2. LGED slum improvement project (SIP) in Dhaka Metropolitan City
3. Bombay urban development project
4. City-Wide Housing Project, Jhenaidah
Fig 03: Visakhapatnam-UNCHS slum location
(Co.Creation architects, 2018)
Fig 05: new houses at Mahishakundu,
Jhenidah
Fig 04: Slums of DMA
(Slum Improvement Project, n.d.)
(Vishakhapatnam City Project, n.d.)
3

4. City-Wide Housing Project, Jhenaidah
➢ Community based process to build affordable home for low income people
(Brac explores solution to urban housing crisis, 2017)
➢ Low cost housing models as per people’s needs
(Akhter, 2018); (Chowdhury and Khan, 2017)
Objectives:
• identify housing challenges by community itself (Rahman,2019)
• start community based savings
• develop housing through participatory design and planning
• empower slum communities by building network
(Baidya, n.d.)
Fig 06: Women expressing their
view on design of building
(Farzana, 2016) 4

5. Project initiated by:
Architect Hasibul Kabir and Architect Suhailey Farzana
Seed fund provider:
ACHR with support from ACCA
(Asian Coalition of Community Action)
Professional support group:
POCAA (Platform of Community Artisans and Architect)
Brac University – DoA (Chowdhury and Khan, 2017)
Community organizer:
ALIVE - local NGO (Farzana, 2016)
Administrative/ Legal support:
Jhenaidah Thana Nirbahi Officer and District Commissioner
Design And Implementation Team
(Baidya, n.d.)
Fig 07: City wide upgrading partners
( Alam and Baidya, 2019)
5

6. The initiative received advice from Jhenaidah municipality, Polytechnic institute of Jhenaidah,
Jhenaidah chambers of commerce etc.
Responsibilities:
✓mobilizing, skill developing and construction supervision in the communities (Alam and Baidya, 2019)
Women of communities took lead in the whole process (Co.Creation Architects, 2018)
Tentative timeline of the project:
Conception
of the project
Beginning of
construction
of houses
Completion of
construction
DEC 2014 SEPT 2015 DEC 2015
Fig 08: local authority and NGO
representatives at the inauguration
ceremony (Farzana, 2016)
(Baidya, n.d.)
6

7. Context of Jhenaidah
Jhenaidah; a city situated in south-west of Bangladesh. It stands on the bank of the
Noboganga river.
Characteristics of communities:
• High population density
• 50 disadvantaged neighborhoods (slums)
• Lack of man-power to initiate development program
• Residents lacking financial capacity
(CIA, n.d.)
(Alam, 2016); (Baidya, n.d.)
Fig 09: Jhenidah district (Jhenidah-
map, 2015)
Fig 10: Comparison between Jhenidah,
Dhaka and Gothenburg of Sweden
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8. Community selection for project
Communities initially selected by POCAA for
small project fund: (Alam, 2016)
• Mohishakundu Shordarpara
• Mohishakundu 2
• Shoshanpara
• Vennatola
• Arappur (Baidya, n.d.)
First community to receive fund for big project:
• Mohishakundu Shordarpara (Baidya, n.d.)
ACCA funds for city-wide development:
• Fund for big project: to build houses or infrastructure
• Fund for small project: goes to community savings account, where households receive loan
to repair/extend housing (Baidya, n.d.)
Fig 11: Location of five initial communities (Alam, 2016) 8

9. • Community of 52 households
• Occupation- farming, driving vans, daily labor and small businesses (Farzana, 2016)
• Conflict within community
• Lot size: 20 sqm. - 200 sqm.
• Construction material- mud, Corrugated Iron, bamboo mat etc.
• Insufficient space for household chores
• Lack of proper drainage and toilet facilities (Baidya, n.d.)
Fig 12: Temporary houses in Mohishakundu
neighbourhood (Baidya, n.d.)
Fig 13: Local resident making basket
(Baidya, n.d.)
Mohishakundu Shordarpara
9

10. 1. Saving 2. Mapping and designing
3. Building
Steps undertaken:
Fig 14: Managing saved money
(Akhter, 2018)
Fig 15: Base map of the community
(Farzana, 2016)
Fig 16: Community people participating
in building their houses (Farzana, 2016)
10

11. Step 1. Create seed fund and a savings group
Seed money: BDT 2,000,000 for two years
Provided by: ACHR, with support from ACCA (Chowdhury and Khan, 2017)
(Brac explores solution to urban housing crisis, 2017); (Baidya, n.d.)
Loans distributed to
member households
by committee & ALIVE
Formation of 5
savings group
Repayments collected
into fund to upgrade
facilities in future
Households repaying
certain amount per
month
Savings mechanism:
Each community sets up
saving management
committee (Baidya, n.d.)
11

12. Financial mechanism
❑ Fund from ACHR
• Chosen beneficiary group get no-interest loan
• Individual households avail max. 1,00,000 taka (around 1300 USD)
❑ Repaying loan
• Loan returned to committee (BDT1200/month) with a certain percentage of
administrative cost
• Administrative cost of first community: around 2.4% with each instalment
They agreed to repay loan with monthly instalments over 8 years 4 months.
❑ When the seed fund is repaid
They can start to give loans to:
✓the next members of their own community
✓to the city-wide network to start the process in other communities
(Baidya, n.d.); (Alam and Baidya, 2019)
12

13. ❑Empowerment through group saving:
• Community takes responsibility to manage their savings
• Economic independence and development: As saving increases, they can take small loan
for emergencies or investing in small entrepreneurships. Members became independent
from outsider micro-financing organizations (Alam and Baidya, 2019)
Fig 17: Women working together and sharing
ideas for small craft business (Farzana, 2016) 13

14. Step 2. Envision and design models and map for the neighborhood
(Farzana, 2016); (Brac explores solution to urban housing
crisis, 2017)
• Community women created a map of their
neighborhood in 5 days, with technical
guidance from architects
• Through a ‘Dream House’ workshop they made
preliminary designs of the houses (Farzana, 2016)
Role of architects:
Provided technical guidance to women.
They designed and finalized two models, with
variations according to the needs of each family.
(Baidya, n.d.)
(Brac, 2017)
(Farzana, 2016)
Fig 18: Community
map
Fig 19: Women with model
of their dream house
Fig 20: Two design prototypes by the community
of architects (Baidya, n.d.) 14

15. No. of buildings: 20
Cost of each houses: BDT 100,000 (about USD 1,200)
Features:
• Visually unique buildings
• frameless doors and windows
• exposed brick walls
• roofs with filler slabs
• one toilet; window & door panes for additional BDT
20,000 (USD 243)
(Brac explores solution to urban housing crisis, 2017)
Role of ALIVE:
With the help of the NGO, a building construction committee was built with 2/3rd
community members for purchasing materials and supervising the construction process
(Alam and Baidya, 2019)
Fig 21: Two storey building (Farzana, 2016)
Fig 22: One storey building (Farzana, 2016)
Step 3. Building the houses
15

16. Co-operative action within communities:
Mohishakundu Shardarpara later started assisting other communities
➢ in explaining how to produce and use a community map. Ex: Vennatola women
produced their first map with women of Mohishakundu.
➢ in starting savings program to expand fund from their own savings along with
external funds. (Baidya, n.d.)
Fig 23: Women of Mohishakundu explaining savings
mechanism to women of Shosanpara (Baidya, n.d.)
16

17. Currently the network has 9 communities in total (Alam, 2016)
Since 2015, the communities of Jhenaidah have built 46 houses in total (Farzana, 2016)
Mahishakundu:
• Housing: In 2015-2016, Mohishakundu community built 20 houses
The same community built 8 more houses in next year
• Open space: Design is under plan (Alam, 2016)
• Drainage: They used mapping technique to propose tertiary connection with existing drain.
(Alam and Baidya, 2019)
• Others: Many residents used funds to get electricity for their homes (Alam, 2016)
• Mohishakundu is designing a community center that can also be a school for elderly people
(Alam and Baidya, 2019)
Vennatola:
• Housing: In 2016-2017, Vennatola community built 18 houses
• Vennatola has designed and now building a community center after housing constructions.
(Alam and Baidya, 2019)
Further progress in communities
17

18. ➢ A way of re-imagining and building cities (Brac explores solution to urban housing crisis, 2017)
➢ Breaking the barrier of gender inequality (Alam and Baidya, 2019)
Achievements
Fig 24: Housing before and after the project (Alam and Baidya, 2019)
Fig 25: Community women sharing their knowledge and experience (Baidya, n.d.)
18

19. ➢ Variation in structures with same budget
➢ Reducing communal conflict (Farzana, 2016)
➢ Saving mechanism promoting local business
➢ Financial independence
➢ Inclusiveness
Achievements (Contd.)
Fig 27: Prayer corner for a hindu family (Baidya, n.d.)
(Akhter, 2018); (Baidya, n.d.) 19
Fig 26: Two storey building within 1500
USD (Akhter, 2018)

20. References
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00&cl=CL2.3&d=HASH017ada90cde42c75ac4d6a49.9&gt=1&fbclid=IwAR2G-
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25. THANK YOU
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