The document discusses various theories related to housing and human behavior. It addresses factors like scarcity of affordable housing, insecure land tenure, government policies, and discrimination that influence housing outcomes. Case studies from countries like the Philippines, Honduras, and Pakistan are presented. Theories covered include housing adjustment theory, person-environment congruence theory, transactional theory, and theories related to motivation, preferences, diffusion of innovations, and social exchange. Housing is recognized as having socio-cultural dimensions and influencing quality of life.

1. Theory plays an essential role for the advancement of
knowledge in housing
as guides of community development
SOCIO-CULTURAL ASPECT OF HOUSING
ARCHT. MARCELINO E, DUMPA, ASST PROF

2. The application of housing theory is
useful in the examination of the complex
process by which families make
decisions about how society and their
families being housed.
The study is focused primarily on
human behavior as it relates to housing.

3. 1. Scarcity of affordable housing
and Access to credit:
2. Insecurity of tenure and property
rights:
3. Role of government:
4. Class, race, age, and gender
discrimination

4. Even when housing is available, the
prohibitive costs of renting or
purchasing and the lack of easy
access to mortgage or lending
systems place decent housing
beyond the reach of ordinary citizens.

5. In Southeast Asia the lack of secure titles
and the prevalence of informal ties to land
often result in eviction. Without proper
documentation of ownership, those
evicted, usually the poor and the
marginalized, have no recourse to the law.

6. Overregulation and bureaucratic rigidity.
 The provision of infrastructural necessities like
sewage, water, and the like;
 Stringency of building codes in the area.
 Laws that are wholly incompatible with local
conditions.
Example:
In Karachi, the government involvement, where only 5
to 8 percent of the government-sponsored housing
projects were occupied by low-income groups, with
the rest occupied by middle-income groups who
bought their property on speculation.

7.  People are reluctant to integrate and share
neighborhoods with those from different
socioeconomic and racial backgrounds.
Example:
 Honduras successful initiative in the 1960s.
A housing foundation started giving small, starter
loans to squatter communities with the stipulation that
the loans be repaid.
The key, according was organizing communities, the
loans were repaid, and soon afterward the shanty
towns constructed from cardboard had been replaced
by concrete and cement structures.

8.  Philippines:
NGO groups advocating for housing rights actively search
out planners and technocrats to elicit from them ideas
about how to develop communities.
 Organized families, to construct their own houses through
low-interest loans.
 The idea of people-centered solutions to housing problems
highlights the importance of people’s access to and control
of their own resources, and their ability to participate in
larger decision-making processes that relate to their lives.

9.  These communities produced locally and
affordable housing, where provision for the poor
and homeless residents are seen as tourist
attractions.
 The process of housing provides a model for
upholding the principles of ecotourism, leading to
the creation of new communities as well as the
upgrading of existing ones. It may be improved if
the housing process is integrated in the plans and
policies for tourism development.

12.  The Philippines is beset with a huge backlog in
providing for land security and housing for the poor. In
the face of high rates of population increase and with
urban areas continuing to be magnets of hope for
economic opportunities, the demand for affordable
land and housing remains a huge challenge.
 This was the prognosis of the United Nations Human
Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) as stated in
its Country Programme Document (2008-2009) –
Philippines.

13.  Prices of land in urban areas remain way beyond the means of
families whose incomes fall within the bottom 30% of the income
strata.
 The Annual Poverty Indicator Survey of the government (2004)
revealed that four out of every 10 Filipino families do not own
their house and lot. It is evidenced by the proliferation of informal
settlers in urban and peri-urban areas throughout the country, as
well as by the increasing number of families sharing dwelling
units.
 This aggravates the deteriorating quality of life of the poor as
cramped spaces result in higher incidence of sickness and
violence that mostly affects women and children.
 Apart from poverty, there are other bottlenecks and issues
hampering pro-poor land and housing programs.

14. Apart from poverty, these include:
 High Transaction Costs
Unclear land use policies; noncooperation of land owners in the
Community Mortgage Program (CMP);
 Misinterpretation and/or Non-implementation
The provisions set by the Urban Development and Housing Act (UDHA)
and its implementing rules and regulations.
 No shelter Plans and Programs
Facilitate pro-active planning and results-based targeting local
concerns, resulting in non-appropriation of budgets.
 Provision of Land and Housing
For internally displaced persons (IDPs) due to natural hazards and
armed conflicts.
 Developed Resettlement Sites
For NHA’s reconstruction program affected by Typhoons.

15.  In The State of Philippine Cities, the rapid
increase in the urban population produces an
enormous demand for shelter and tenure
security.
 But with prohibitively expensive lands and high
rents in urban areas amidst stagnating real
incomes, it is not unusual for cities to have huge
numbers of families living in various types of
unauthorized housing units with insecure tenure.

16.  High Land Market Values
 Housing Assistance Programs
 Informal Settlements

17.  Market values of residential lands in Metro
Manila, for example, range from Php 3,000 to as
high as PhP42,000 per square meter, far beyond
the incomes earned by the majority of the urban
poor.
 But because people need to live in areas where
economic opportunities, including informal
activities, are present, it becomes expedient for
most of them to occupy idle lands owned by
government or the private sector.

18.  The proliferation of slums in Philippine cities is
thus seen as a coping mechanism for urban
dwellers with incomes that are too fragile to afford
land ownership.
 Slum areas are often blighted, overcrowded,
and lacking in standard conveniences

19.  Extended by government institutions such as;
1. Social Security System (SSS) and
2. Pag-IBIG
 Housing programs that cater to the urban poor include
those implemented through Presidential land
proclamations and the Community Mortgage Program
(CMP).
 The Housing and Urban Development Coordinating
Council (HUDCC) reports that the 102 presidential
issuances as of 2006 covered 26,367 hectares, most of
them in Metro Manila and occupied by more than 195,000
informal settler families.

21.  Nowhere is the housing problem more evident
than in the phenomenon of slums and squatter
settlements.
 Recent estimates show that more than a third of
urban populations reside in slum areas and
squatter settlements.
 In Metro Manila, a little less than four out of
every 10 residents are living in slums and
squatter settlements in 2002.

22.  Globalization has brought about the expansion of the
service economy and has resulted in an increase in
the supply of basic life necessities for the street
homeless.
 These conditions have worsened the worker’s
situation;
• Some workers had part-time jobs with the informal
sector,
• other workers transferred from companies to
informal occupations economically depressed
people become homeless.

23.  Globalization has given birth to a financially slim government through
neo-liberalism, and has accelerated the financial crisis of the
developing country.
As a result, the policies concerning the homeless became deadlocked:
 Four (4) Deadlock Policies
1. Job Creation:
For the urban poor, especially the squatter inhabitants;
2. Relocation and House Construction
For squatter inhabitants (compensation to those evicted was
only paid to some of the squatter inhabitants);
3. Pauper and homeless; and
4. Employment and Welfare Policies
To provide relief to the street homeless.

24.  Definitions:
Ranges from the narrow – equating homelessness
with “rooflessness” – to the broad, based on the
adequacy of the dwelling, the risk of becoming
homeless, the time exposed to homelessness and
responsibilities for taking alleviating action.
 For statistical purposes, the United Nations has
defined homeless households as “households without
a shelter” that would fall within the scope of living
quarters.

25. Eight (8) Housing Theories:
1. Housing Adjustment Theory
2. Person-Environment Congruence Theory
3. Transactional Theory:
4. Symbolic Interaction Theory
5. Diffusion of Innovation Theory
6. Social Exchange Theory
7. Theory of Human Motivation
8. Preference Theory

26.  A sociological behavior where people seek self respect and seek to
change housing made below society’s norms for corrective
measures undertaken to remedy the situation.
Three (3) Possible Corrective Measures:
1. Housing Adjustment:
- Moving to different dwelling.
 - House Alteration
2. Adaptation:
- Changes made by reducing needs,
constraints and resources.
3. Regeneration:
- Disintegration and reorganization of
household or society.

27.  Dynamic relationship between human behavior
and physical environment.
 Appropriate care for Older People examining the
fit between environment and people to include
interactions.
 Example:
Sick patients, caregivers and home environment.

28.  Holistic system showing all the elements of the
whole are inseparable.
 The entry of Front Porch in plan will embed
physical, temporal and social environment.

29.  Reciprocal relations between individual and
society by architectural restrictions.
 Religion
 Power
 Status
 Conflict
 Symbolism through architectural space;

30. Consumers decision making process of accepting
or rejecting an innovation ( anything perceived as
new both socially and technologically).
 Four (4) Foundations of Diffusion Process:
 Innovation
 Communication Channels
 Social System
 Time
 Housing innovations depends a level of change that makes
impact on housing needs.

31.  Social interactions and relationships are exchangers of valued resources.
 Mental bookkeeping that balances of:
 Rewards;
 Social Approval
 Love
 Gratitude
 Security
 Costs;
 Social Disapproval
 Damage Self Esteem
 Barriers:
 Discriminations (Elderly)
 Rental Advertisements in Newspaper
(Prohibition of PWD)
 Racial Discriminations
 (Black renter /White Owners)

32.  People motivations by a quest to fulfill their own needs and
strive to reach the highest levels of capabilities.
 Human Needs:
 Hierarchy (Food, Shelter & Clothing)
 Psychological Needs:
 Physiological
 Safety/Security
 Love/Belonging
 Self Esteem
 Self Actualization

33. Cognitive model of effective experience
dealing with people making aesthetic choices.
 Example : Housing Styles.

34. CHAPTER 5
HOUSING THEORY