Tipo de autoría: Promotor

Nochlezhka

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Nochlezhka

Mismatches Services Vulnerable groups
Financing Sustainable development financing
Promotion and production Site&services

Main objectives of the project

Date

  • 2014:

Stakeholders

  • Promotor: World Habitat

Location

Continent: Asia
City: Saint Petersburg
Country/Region: Russia, Saint Petersburg

Description

Nochlezhka is an independent charity that provides a wide range of services to, and advocates on behalf of, homeless people in Saint Petersburg. The city has a huge and growing homelessness problem, and, Nochlezhka apart, there are few services available to help. Nochlezhka operates in a harsh environment in which state help for homeless people is poor and there is little public sympathy for the issue. Winter temperatures are extremely cold and living on the street is perilous. Nochlezhka operates on a tiny budget and most of its services are provided to help homeless people but it is not able to make an impact in tackling the causes of homelessness itself. Nevertheless Nochlezhka is a lifeline to many people and is almost certainly responsible for saving hundreds of lives every year.

 

Project Description

What are its aims and objectives?

The organisation provides a large range of services to help and support the large population of homeless people who live in Saint Petersburg. It provides temporary accommodation to homeless people, as well as providing social, legal and psychological counselling for homeless people. The organisation also advocates improved systems of rehabilitation to the government and raises public awareness about the challenges faced by homeless people.
The organisation’s aims are:

  • To ensure homeless people are not deprived of their human rights.
  • To help homeless people off the street and return to an independent life.
  • To challenge the generally negative publicly held myths and stereotypes about homelessness.

What context does it operate in?

Nochlezhka works in a highly challenging environment. The Russian public is generally ignorant about homelessness. There is widespread public intolerance and numerous myths about the causes and consequences of being homeless. Compared to most governments in Western Europe the state government does little to dispel the public perception and arguably exacerbates the situation with poor service provision for homeless people and significant underreporting of the scale of the problem.

The state requires people to complete a registration process and have a permanent address in order to access support from the government. This is a lengthy procedure.

The majority of homeless people have not completed and are unable to complete the registration process alone and therefore without help they do not qualify for state support.

A large number of people in Russia face homelessness due to difficult social and economic conditions. The Russian state does not recognise this fully and official statistics are believed to be unreliable. There is, however, little doubt that the scale of the problem is enormous. Some studies suggest that there are 4.5 million homeless people in Russia and the number is growing rapidly. The small number of services which are available are unable to deal with the demand. It is estimated that the average homeless person lives on the street for seven years.

Saint Petersburg is the second largest city in Russia with a population of just under five million people. Official statistics state that in 2002 there were 28,000 homeless people in the city. Nochlezhka estimates that the true figure is at least 60,000 in 2014. At the turn of the century the majority (more than 90 per cent) of homeless people were older men but this is changing and there is an increasing number of homeless women (20 per cent of homeless people in the city are women).

There is also a trend of children and younger people becoming homeless. Nochlezhka believes that there is now a substantial population of people who have lived their whole lives on the street.

Saint Petersburg experiences very cold winters during which many homeless people die. Temperatures of -20ºC are not uncommon. In the winter of 2012/13, 1,042 homeless people died of cold weather related conditions between November and March.

What are its key features?

Nochlezhka is one of very few organisations in Russia working on the issue of homelessness. It provides a range of services which provide basic support for homeless people in the city including shelters and hot meals. It also helps homeless people access state services and provides advocacy, public information and campaigning to challenge discrimination of homeless people.

Nochlezhka is the Russian word for Night Shelter and indeed the organisation started in 1990 with a single shelter. Nochlezhka still operates this 52 bed unit, which is the largest in the city. In addition, they operate heated tents during the winter months with a capacity of 50-60 people. Here homeless people can get shelter, hot food and help from medical and social workers. They also operate a “half way house” for recovering alcoholics and a night bus, which distributes hot meals.

A large part of Nochlezhka’s work is helping homeless people access state help. This involves helping people obtain registration and passports and helping them access government backed health insurance policies.

They publish a handbook annually to help inform homeless people about how to access state help and benefits. A ‘social contract’ is prepared to help people to become independent and goals are set to include assistance with employment, finding relatives and arranging documents.

The organisation has an increasing advocacy role. Its lawyers frequently take legal cases to the prosecutor’s office challenging unfair discrimination of homeless people. Its work also involves working with local government to influence local polices so that they do not discriminate and are better aligned to help homeless people. Nochlezhka also runs public awareness campaigns and writes media articles to challenge public attitudes to homelessness. It has achieved a high media profile and has received significant coverage on TV and in newspapers.

How is it funded?

Nochlezhka is a charity that operates on a very small budget. Its turnover is an estimated £250,000 a year. The vast majority of its income is from a wide range of private and corporate donations. It also runs music festivals and other fundraising events.    Approximately 20 per cent of its funds come from the city government. The charity returns an equivalent amount in rents and in taxes to the city government.

What impact has it had?

In 2013, Nochlezhka helped 8,083 people. Some of them received food, others used the night shelter or the services provided on the charity’s night bus. On average 1,000 homeless people request aid in terms of free meals, clothing, shelter and legal consultation every week.  The charity has a growing impact on enabling people to return to independent life. In 2013, 320 people were successfully helped in this way. The charity helped 29 people get jobs, 44 moved to another city to get employment, 19 received their passport, 14 received legal support in court and 15 received temporary registration. Twenty-four people received support to overcome alcohol dependency, out of which 18 overcame the dependency.

 

Why is it innovative?

Nochlezhka states it is the only organisation in Russia working on the issues of homelessness. It has demonstrated a model in which people could apply for support, which includes shelter, legal advice, medical aid and protection from the cold. The NGO develops plans to move people out of homelessness. The NGO initiated an approach with a major focus on rehabilitation and a minor focus on physical shelter. They have introduced a method called, ‘case management’, which looks at the needs, situation and past history of each person requiring support. Followed by this, a comprehensive action plan is prepared which includes social workers, psychologists and others. Based on the nature of support, volunteers also used to provide the support.

 

What is the environmental impact?

The organisation does not construct new buildings and makes use of existing buildings. It intends to construct an eco-friendly building and promotes the reuse of goods and materials in their centre.

 

Is it financially sustainable?

Nochlezhka appears to have a highly effective fundraising capacity. It raises funds through a combination of foreign donors and local events including TV campaigns and music festivals. It also relies on volunteers, who are all local. The charity has a large and diverse range of donors. 40 per cent of donations are from foreign donors. Political tension between Russia and the west has led to many foreign donors suspending their donations during 2012 and 2013 but this has been more than offset by an increase in private donations from within Russia. This in itself is a significant achievement given the public’s generally negative view of homelessness.

 

What is the social impact?

The social impact of the organisation is significant. Not only does the charity succeed in keeping thousands of homeless people alive, it is increasingly effective in enabling them to overcome medical and bureaucratic barriers to become independent.

Significantly the charity confronts public attitudes and challenges discrimination to homelessness people in society.

 

Barriers

The state owned shelter centres are in poor condition and a continuous investment is needed to bring them to a minimum standard and to support ongoing maintenance. With an increasing number of homeless people, this is a major task for the project. The other barrier is about the negative public attitude towards homeless people. Nochlezhka works on these issues by raising public awareness and maintaining the centres.

 

Lessons Learned

The most important lesson learned is to understand that shelter is not only a temporary need and it includes all aspects of social rehabilitation. Most of the official programmes in Russia are designed to provide shelter for a certain duration, with very little support for reintegration. This means that people are rehabilitated for a short period and end up on the streets again.

 

Evaluation

Nochlezhka keeps a good record of the services provided and the people receiving those services. They also collect beneficiaries’ stories. However, the foundation has not provided any evidence of its long term impact.

 

Transfer

The scaling up of the project is limited and so far only state employees have taken up the approaches they have learned from the NGO. Nochlezhka hopes that the government will take the approach forward but this has not been done due to the challenging social and economic context.

The programme has not been transferred although Nochlezhka actively shares its experiences.

NGOs from other parts of Russia send questions to Nochlezhka on issues concerning homelessness.

The organisation has prepared a manual and videos about its work and shared internationally.

Links

Authors:

World Habitat

Build Back Safer with Traditional Construction Methods

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Build Back Safer with Traditional Construction Methods

Mismatches Vulnerable groups Climate change
Urban Design Quality Inclusion Equity

Main objectives of the project

Date

  • 2014:

Stakeholders

  • Promotor: World Habitat

Location

Continent: Asia
Country/Region: Karachi, Pakistan

Description

848,000 houses were destroyed and 9.7 million people affected by severe floods in western Pakistan in 2011. This project developed and provided support to build over 20,000 flood resistant houses by the most vulnerable families based on local and traditional building designs. The houses were built using local labour and construction skills. Water resistant and lighter weight materials, such as lime and bamboo were introduced, creating huge savings in cost and embodied carbon over standard reconstruction approaches.

 

Project Description

What are its aims and objectives?

The aim of the project was to quickly provide low-cost safe housing to some of the most vulnerable families affected by the floods.  The project did not take the approach of direct post disaster reconstruction; instead it facilitated a mass community self-build programme. Most of the communities affected were remote, had few resources and families frequently had a poor understanding of the structural vulnerabilities of buildings.

The project achieved its aims by supplying disaster-resistant materials and facilitating wide-scale training of communities to rebuild buildings themselves using these materials.Within each district, local project partners worked in collaboration with government authorities to identify the most affected villages. Committees of local people who knew the families were formed. These committees selected the neediest families, using previously established criteria. Priority was given to families whose homes had been completely destroyed. The highest priority was given to those families who also had disabled or elderly family members, had particularly low incomes or where the family size was large. The project worked with the communities to provide training on effective building techniques. This approach helped people to build 23,387 houses at an average cost of US $300 per house.

What context does it operate in?

Floods affect large parts of Pakistan. The 2011 flood was particularly severe and 848,000 houses were destroyed or damaged and 9.7 million people were affected by severe flooding in Southern Sindh and Eastern Balochistan. These regions are amongst the poorest in Pakistan and many residents were very vulnerable, even before the disaster. Houses collapsed under the weight of waterlogged roofs and foundations were compromised by the flood waters. Many of the affected areas had also been hit by floods in 2010 and families reconstructing homes after those floods lost everything twice. This project has focused on helping rural communities which have suffered disproportionally from the extensive flooding.

The Heritage Foundation has been involved in post-disaster reconstruction since the 2005 Kashmir earthquake, where the organisation recycled materials such as stone, mud and wood from collapsed houses, adding lime and traditional cross-bracing (dhajji) to create stronger buildings. Another local material, bamboo, was subsequently tested and proven in housing displaced populations in the Mardan region. The use of these materials was then further developed during post-flood reconstruction in the Swat region in 2010, using multiple bamboo joists and cross-bracing to carry heavy roofs, withstanding subsequent flooding and several feet of snow.

This experience was then taken further in early 2011, after the 2010 floods in Upper Sindh, creating bamboo buildings on stilts, thus proving the feasibility of building two-storey structures of bamboo that have withstood several floods since; this included housing over 400 households. All this experience fed into the current project, implemented after the 2011 floods in Lower Sindh.

What are its key features?

Various aspects make this project unique. Most important is the experience gained by all the project partners including the UK Government’s Department for International Development (DFID) and International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in previous disasters and shared in this project. This experience, in terms of suitable building materials and building techniques, was then further piloted, tested and proven in the programme area, before being scaled up into this project. The project adopted materials that had proved to be durable and flood resistant in post disaster reconstruction in other parts of the world. This included bamboo, which was used in place of timber and steel. Bamboo was cheap, flexible and strong and experience had shown it to be more resilient than timber and steel to floods. Hydraulic lime is a form of mortar that is much more water resistant than other forms of mortar. It had not previously been commonly used in Pakistan but can be made easily from locally available materials. It was used instead of fired bricks and cement.

These materials were then adapted into traditional building designs and techniques used in the areas affected.  A significant advantage of the use of these materials were the carbon savings. By avoiding cement and fired bricks wherever possible, the wider project has saved approximately 365,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide.  Implementation was then supported by large-scale training of the communities, raising awareness around disaster risks and the vulnerabilities of their traditional ways of building. It then provided knowledge and training in using bamboo and lime materials to create safer buildings.

How is it funded?

Overall funding of £30m over three years has been provided by DFID based on detailed proposals submitted by the implementing partners, including International Organisation for Migration (IOM), which then worked with the national organisations, such as Heritage Foundation. The costs of technical consultants, training and community level training and support are included in the overall budget. The capital costs were US$300 per One Room Shelter (ORS) plus an estimated US$214 per house as the cost of overheads, transport, advisors, equipment, consultants and researchers. DFID has played a key role in the project by maintaining its funding for reconstruction after all major floods.

What impact has it had?

23,387 shelters had been completed, by Heritage Foundation by the end of the programme in 2012. The wider DFID programme, of which this was a part, implemented by various other partners, has benefitted 100,000 families in Sindh and Balochistan. The project has also enhanced the livelihoods and promoted the use of local materials. The techniques have reduced the carbon emissions and demonstrated an approach to deliver flood resistant reconstruction at an affordable price. Evaluation studies are underway to further gather the evidence of the project impact.

 

Why is it innovative?

  • Low environmental footprint due to the use of local, mainly low or zero-energy materials.
  • Re-introduction of lime to improve earth construction.
  • Improvements to vernacular construction that are innovative in each specific location.
  • Introduction of barefoot building entrepreneurs.
  • Greater involvement of women in construction, income generation and community based disaster risk management (CBDRM).

 

What is the environmental impact?

According to the estimates made by DFID’s advisor, by avoiding the use of cement and fired bricks this project has saved approximately 365,000 tonnes of CO2, which is equivalent to three days’ emissions from the city of London or 170,000 inter-continental return flights. The project has used local, light-weight materials. The use of bamboo instead of wood reduces the environmental impact on forests. The project does introduce improved stoves, which should be more fuel efficient.

 

Is it financially sustainable?

The project started by making use of the Floods Relief Fund made available by DFID. By giving beneficiaries the skills to self-build with improved vernacular technologies, no further funding is required to maintain the project, although there are still thousands of families requiring help. The decentralised procurement process also contributes to local income generation. With the help of International Labour Organisation (ILO), the Foundation has also been able to initiate a programme of village barefoot entrepreneurs, who are now marketing the project’s shelters or parts thereof, including eco-toilets, stoves and other innovations. Local tribes, known as Odhs, who are traditionally employed in construction, have also found work locally. In addition, the programme and its precursors have been piloting women-focused Community-based Disaster Risk Management Centres, which have promoted alternative income generating activities.

 

What is the social impact?

The project worked with the local communities and government departments.

The village committees were established to deal with the selection of beneficiaries, the management of the funding at village level and through participation in training.  The project placed great emphasis on reaching all households with awareness raising regarding disaster risks and training to improve on vernacular building. As the shelters were relatively small, the project foresaw they would be extended at some stage in the future and aimed to give beneficiaries sufficient skills to do so on their own. The project has changed the role of women, enabling more women to be involved in construction and various alternative forms of income generation. Women are also now beginning to take a lead role in the Community-based Disaster Risk Management Centres.

 

Barriers

  • Though many of the improved vernacular technologies have proven their DRR in practice, funding has been lacking to actually test them structurally.
  • Households had to divide their time between construction and agriculture, affecting quality and donor deadlines. Quality was also affected by not all households valuing some of the support staff’s recommendations. Some further work is needed to improve the quality and reach of technical support. After reconstructed houses had proven their value during the 2012 rains, motivation to build better increased considerably.
  • Many households have been unable to extend their ORS due to extreme poverty and lack of access to micro-credits.
  • Lack of funding to support trained builders to become village entrepreneurs or provide technical support.
  • The programme was unable to initiate local bamboo plantations, to ensure sustainable harvesting in future.
  • Convincing a large number of organisations quickly of the efficacy of the project methodology was difficult, but the use of volunteers in surveys and piloting of solutions enabled the programme to rapidly provide useful information and proven options. The method was soon adopted as a key component of the “Pakistan Initial Floods Response Plan” and in grant applications to donors and thus a relatively small initiative became influential.

 

Lessons Learned

  • It is possible to improve vernacular technologies using mainly simple local means to become much more disaster-resistant, in many different locations and to transfer and adapt these experiences between locations.
  • It is possible to help disaster victims rebuild or retrofit damaged houses with relatively limited cash inputs, of just over US$500 per household, and, based on continued research by the Foundation, this can be further reduced.
  • Adequate training of each participating household is key to successful construction and its sustainability.

 

Evaluation

IOM monitored beneficiary selection, as explained above, as well as the proper use of cash for shelter by randomly scrutinising 5 per cent of beneficiaries. In doing so, it also ensured that monitoring would involve a visit to each village.

 

Transfer

Following the success of this programme in Lower Sindh, the methodology was replicated in Upper Sindh, with additions based on local technologies. Currently, 11,557 ORS are under construction there and a further 3,000 under preparation.

A survey in various programme villages revealed that community members who did not benefit from the project replicated the module with their own resources, attracted by its low cost and ease of construction, sometimes with the advice of people trained by the programme.

The Foundation has conducted training for several other agencies and communities, e.g. those affected by the Awaran earthquake of 2013 in Balochistan. And following some research, HF built several prototypes there, using earth and bamboo, with Swiss Aid. A local organisation, trained by HF will build several thousand shelters there, funded by DFID. HF is currently also being considered to provide assistance with rehousing a million people displaced from North Waziristan.

Links

Authors:

World Habitat

Indigenous people building their homes

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Indigenous people building their homes

Mismatches Segregation Diversity Vulnerable groups
Policies and regulations Land Planning Evaluation and impact
Promotion and production Innovation
Ownership and tenure Ownership

Main objectives of the project

Date

  • 2014:

Stakeholders

  • Promotor: World Habitat

Location

Continent: South America
Country/Region: Mexico, Mexico City

Description

Indigenous communities in the Sierra Norte de Puebla region in Mexico live in extreme poverty in houses that are inadequate to protect people from strong rains. The project focused on the right to adequate housing for these communities. It provided social and technical assistance, and access to finance based on social financing combined with public subsidy to purchase materials; enabling people to build their own homes using traditional building practices and locally available materials.

 

Project Description

What are its aims and objectives?

Indigenous people building their homes was initiated in 2009 by CIUDEMAC in partnership with COPEVI. The project is community-led and focused on ensuring the right to adequate, affordable, environmentally sustainable housing for low-income indigenous families in rural areas, while preserving traditional culture and building practices.

What context does it operate in?

Indigenous communities in the Sierra Norte de Puebla region in rural Mexico live in conditions of severe poverty, inequality and social exclusion. More than 20 per cent of the population live in houses with mud floors and roofs made of corrugated sheets, wood, cardboard or tin, without access to basic infrastructure and services, often located in high-risk areas and vulnerable to strong rains. Access to government funding often requires families to obtain credit from financial institutions, which is not viable where there are such high levels of poverty and exclusion, being either inaccessible or leaving household heavily in debt. The project seeks to improve living conditions and demonstrate an alternative, sustainable, people-centred approach.

Mexico’s history of paternalistic government policies has had the effect of engendering a culture of dependency within many communities. COPEVI and CIUDEMAC have worked together to increase awareness, develop a sense of commitment and encourage self-management and autonomy.

Government policies in Mexico generally do not take into consideration the specific housing needs of indigenous groups, or of communities living in rural areas. COPEVI and the Social Production of Housing network have worked to articulate these needs and gain recognition within government that rural and indigenous housing processes have particular aspects that differ from urban housing issues.

The project has been carried out within the framework of the 2006 National Housing Law, which formally recognised people-led housing processes (‘social production of housing’), following long-standing efforts by grassroots organisations, academia, NGOs and other civil society organisations.

What are its key features?

The project has developed a comprehensive, community-driven, rights-based approach. Partnerships between organisations, innovative funding and sensitivity to local culture, traditional building practices and environmental sustainability are fundamental.

Led by COPEVI, the project has benefited from successful partnerships between a range of organisations.

CIUDEMAC and its members have taken a central role, including the selection of participating families, monitoring of on-site work, communications and development of local capacity. The partnership has enabled CIUDEMAC to acquire knowledge and experience in project management, construction, advocacy and collective decision-making, and transfer that knowledge to its members.

Technical support is provided through the COPEVI architects who were trained in the use of local materials through a partnership with Mesoamerikaab (a regional platform that promotes the use of local building materials).

The German development agency Misereor encouraged the initial design of the initiative and linked to earth construction specialists with the project. This support allows carrying out traditional construction processes based on earth. Misereor also provided core funding for COPEVI.

CONAVI provided federal funding for the project through its housing subsidy programme for community-led housing. An innovative funding mechanism for the project was developed through a partnership between COPEVI and local NGO Pobladores, which combines state subsidies with ‘social credit’ (in-kind contributions of building materials and labour by participating families).

Working to widen the impact, the ‘Social Production of Housing’ network of non-governmental and civil society organisations, of which COPEVI is a member, has been involved in policy and advocacy efforts to increase funding for grassroots housing processes.

Minimising the ecological footprint, making use of environmentally sustainable building materials and preserving traditional indigenous building practices is a key focus of the project. Locally-sourced materials with low embodied energy, including earth/adobe, water, stone, timber, sand and gravel, have been used in housing construction, with small amounts of iron and cement used where necessary. COPEVI and CIUDEMAC have worked to increase awareness of sustainable building practices amongst participating communities and the success of the project has encouraged families who might otherwise have preferred conventional/industrial building materials to value traditional, earth-based construction.

How is it funded?

The total capital costs of the project were US$2.63 million, of which 50.5 per cent has been obtained from the Mexican National Housing Commission (CONAVI), through its programme of subsidies for community-led housing construction, with the remaining 49.5 per cent obtained through what has been termed ‘social financing’, or in-kind contributions of building materials and labour by participating families. Technical assistance has been provided by COPEVI, with financial and technical support from the German international development agency Misereor.

Each 60m2 house costs, on average, US$6,150. Residents are responsible for maintaining their homes and each household has contributed US$77 to a communal fund, which now stands at US$34,000.

What impact has it had?

The project was initiated in 2009 with the construction of its first 20 houses, with 428 houses completed to date. A wider community development strategy was implemented in 2011 and the project is currently in feedback and transfer stages.

CIUDEMAC is currently partnering with the Tosepantomin cooperative to expand the approach and is working with COPEVI and a range of other organisations and networks to influence public policy and improve access to decent housing.

The main sector benefiting from the project are 16 low-income indigenous communities groups living in rural areas in the municipalities of Zacatlán, Tetela de Ocampo and Tepetzintla in the Sierra Norte de Puebla region in Mexico.

In addition to supporting income generation and local economic development, the project has worked to develop local leadership and community decision-making structures, both within individual communities and between the 16 different participating communities.

The project has benefitted approximately 3,000 people (22 per cent of the total population in the area) through housing improvements in the last five years and is in the process of being expanded to other areas.

Positive impacts for the communities include improved housing conditions and healthier living spaces, improved indoor air quality and greater protection from the strong rains that are prevalent in the region. Residents speak of the emotion they felt on having their dreams realised, of feeling safe from the rain and of their satisfaction with their new homes.

The mutual aid construction process has brought neighbours together and there is an increased appreciation for the use of local building materials. Dialogue between different generations of builders has contributed towards rescuing some traditional building techniques that had been lost, primarily regarding earth-based construction. Houses are larger and of significantly higher quality compared to conventional houses built by construction companies.

COPEVI and the ‘Social Production of Housing’ network of non-governmental and civil society organisations have worked to influence public policy and increase the amount of state funding available for community-led housing processes. Together they have succeeded in obtaining recognition at policy level of the value of non-traditional finance schemes, i.e. in-kind and labour contributions (‘social financing’) and their inclusion as the residents’ counterpart in accessing housing subsidies. As a result, housing is significantly more affordable and accessible to people than it was prior to the project, as residents are able to access public housing subsidies without having to obtain costly loans which they would either not have been eligible for or would have been unable to repay. The improvements enabled by the project help to generate income and employment opportunities and stimulate local economic development.

COPEVI is currently scaling up the approach to two other regions – Zoatecpan in Puebla, and the Mixteca Alta de Oaxaca region, working with small groups of indigenous families (including an indigenous women’s group, with municipal government support). CIUDEMAC has a waiting list of 145 families looking to carry out similar projects.

The approach has been adopted by various member organisations of the Red de Productores Sociales de Vivienda del Sureste (community-led housing network) and is also in the process of being transferred to the state of Oaxaca by grassroots organisation CODEP, adapting the funding scheme and building 40 houses.

In 2011, the project was highlighted as an example of best practice at a high-level meeting of the National Housing Commission (CONAVI) and senior government officials. In 2012, it received a special mention in a Latin American competition for housing projects that promote the right to the city, sustainability and good living practices, organised by the Habitat International Coalition on the occasion of the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development.

 

Why is it innovative?

  • Comprehensive, community-driven, rights-based approach – addressing the needs of the most vulnerable through a holistic approach that considers social, environmental, economic and cultural aspects.
  • Financing scheme that works for the poor and provides an alternative to traditional paternalistic government approaches, combining public and social subsidy and placing a value on residents’ labour and in-kind contributions.
  • Building technical and financial alliances with key partners (CIUDEMAC, CONAVI, Misereor).
  • Demonstrating a practical result of an innovative legal and financial framework (Housing Law 2006, PSV fund).

 

What is the environmental impact?

A key focus of the project has been on minimising the ecological footprint, making use of environmentally sustainable building materials and preserving traditional indigenous building practices. Locally-sourced materials with low embodied energy, including earth/adobe, water, stone, timber, sand and gravel, have been used in housing construction, with small amounts of iron and cement used where necessary. COPEVI and CIUDEMAC have worked to increase awareness of sustainable building practices amongst participating communities and the success of the project has encouraged families who might otherwise have preferred conventional/industrial building materials to value traditional, earth-based construction.

As the project progressed, a range of eco-technologies were developed and included in the construction of the houses to ensure a more appropriate use of energy and water resources. It is currently a requirement for at least one eco-technology to be integrated into each new housing unit, including rainwater harvesting, dry composting toilets, backyard orchard and fuel-efficient stoves.

A fundamental characteristic of the local culture relates to the cuidado de la Madre Tierra (preservation of Mother Earth), and this has guided various aspects of the project. Following the construction of the homes, community groups have begun to develop plans for additional actions to improve their living environment, including a number of reforestation projects.

 

Is it financially sustainable?

The project has enabled families to access existing government housing subsidies. Whilst there is a possibility that the policy framework and subsidies schemes may change in future, participating communities and organisations are now better equipped to deal with issues affecting their right to adequate housing and develop alternative funding solutions.

 

What is the social impact?

The project is community led and residents have been actively involved in all aspects of the process, with participation at the following three levels: the board of directors, a decision-making body comprised of representatives of each of the 16 indigenous community groups involved in the project; community committees responsible for information sharing, recordkeeping, convening assemblies and setting key priorities; and participation by all families in the construction process itself, through traditional mutual aid processes. Training has been provided by COPEVI and its partners on technical, social, governance and legal aspects. Over the last five years CIUDEMAC has significantly improved its leadership and organisational structures and is now working to support other organisations.

The mutual aid process helps to confirm the sense of belonging, increases self-esteem, provides greater security and enables residents to subsequently address other problems they may be facing.

The project has generated local employment, the creation of ten micro-enterprises and a community fund (with a US$77 contribution by each household), as well as supporting the local economy through the purchase of materials from local suppliers. CIUDEMAC has recently been working with families to carry out and manage communal savings projects – for example, for the construction of a community kitchen and a youth centre.

Through the project, COPEVI has worked to reduce existing social inequalities and improve the living conditions of marginalised indigenous groups. Women have played a leading role in the construction and governance processes and some participating communities have begun to develop programmes that aim to empower women and young people.

 

Barriers

  • Conceptual barrier: as government policies in Mexico generally do not take into consideration the specific housing needs of indigenous groups, or of communities living in rural areas, COPEVI and the Social Production of Habitat network have worked to articulate these needs and gain recognition within government that rural and indigenous housing processes have particular aspects that differ from urban housing issues.
  • Access to public resources: it is very difficult for low-income rural families to obtain access to government housing subsidies, as these are generally given to large organisations with strong political influence or require households to obtain loans which are unaffordable and/or inaccessible for the poor. In partnership with local NGO Pobladores, COPEVI has worked to increase access to existing housing subsidies for participating families and in the wider sphere.
  • Cultural barrier: Mexico’s history of paternalistic government policies has had the effect of engendering a culture of dependency within many communities. COPEVI and CIUDEMAC have worked together to increase awareness, develop a sense of commitment and encourage a can-do, self-management approach through the project.

 

Lessons Learned

  • Building solid partnerships with other organisations has been a key factor in the success of the project, allowing for the exchange of knowledge and experience and consolidating an approach that covers diverse areas, e.g. political relationships, financial aspects, local building systems, communication with indigenous communities in their own language etc – which COPEVI, on its own, would not have had the capacity to manage.
  • The fact that COPEVI works at both ends of the spectrum – from public advocacy to direct action – has been a significant advantage, allowing them to take part in high-level policy debates as well as implementation on the ground.
  • The construction of a school at the beginning of the project played an important role in understanding the reasons for acceptance or rejection of the use of local materials as well as bringing together the technical team and local builders.
  • Although most indigenous communities work together in the collective interest, in many cases the construction of housing was understood as a process carried out by families rather than communities. Existing practices of collective construction and exchange were mainly observed in communities with strong levels of organisation and leadership.
  • The positive economic impact has been greatest for those who previously worked in the construction industry – more work in building capacities and partnerships is necessary to enable financially viable enterprises to be established.
  • Midway through the project an evaluation was carried out, resulting in the development of more specific criteria for the selection of participating families, with specific requirements for materials and labour contributions.

 

Evaluation

Whilst a formal external evaluation has not taken place, a continuous process of feedback and reflection has enabled COPEVI to adapt and improve its approach over time. The project is currently in the final feedback and transfer stages.

 

Transfer

COPEVI is currently scaling up the approach to two other regions – Zoatecpan in Puebla, and the Mixteca Alta de Oaxaca region, working with small groups of indigenous families (including an indigenous women’s group, with municipal government support). CIUDEMAC has a waiting list of 145 families looking to carry out similar projects.

CIUDEMAC and COPEVI have carried out peer exchanges and hosted meetings with members of other grassroots organisations interested in learning from their experience, e.g. the Centro para el Desarrollo Rural (Rural Development Studies Centre – CESDER).

The approach has been adopted by various member organisations of the Red de Productores Sociales de Vivienda del Sureste (community-led housing network) and is also in the process of being transferred to the state of Oaxaca by grassroots organisation CODEP, adapting the funding scheme and building 40 houses. There has been no international transfer as yet.

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Authors:

World Habitat

Rural Habitat Improvements

0

Rural Habitat Improvements

Mismatches Cultural suitability New family structures
Urban Design Urban fabrics Liveability
Promotion and production Self-promotion Progressive housing

Main objectives of the project

Date

  • 2014:

Stakeholders

  • Promotor: World Habitat

Location

Continent: South America
Country/Region: El Salvador, San Salvador

Description

A project led by FUNDASAL (the Salvadoran Foundation for Development and Low-cost Housing) to improve health and housing standards in the deprived rural settlements of canton El Pinalito in county Santa Ana, where the risk from disasters caused by natural phenomena such as earthquakes is high and services and infrastructure are poor. Supported by a wide partnership of organisations, the project has helped to significantly reduce the incidence of Chagas disease and other illnesses related to the poor condition of the habitat and has improved the durability of housing. Chagas disease is a tropical parasitic disease spread by insects that live in cracks and gaps found in poor quality housing, it is endemic to South and Central America. The objective of FUNDASAL and partners is to achieve a transferable model of intervention which will not require external funding, so the project embeds knowledge within the local communities and enables the use of locally sourced building materials. The inclusion and training of local households and support groups is integral to this project.

 

Project Description

What are its aims and objectives?

The project aims to contribute to the establishment of a replicable intervention model for the control of Chagas disease and reduced incidence of other illnesses, with the support of state institutions. It does so by tackling the physical and social vulnerabilities in canton El Pinalito in county Santa Ana, where the incidence of Chagas disease is highest.

What context does it operate in?

Many houses in El Salvador are self-built and not strong enough to withstand hazards or extreme natural phenomena such as earthquakes. Poor housing conditions and lack of support services enable the proliferation of insects that transmit Chagas, malaria, dengue, respiratory and gastrointestinal conditions and many other diseases.

Much of the local housing is built with earth and cracks in the structures harbour insects (such as the “beaked bug” that transmits Chagas disease). Around a quarter of people who contract Chagas disease develop cardiac problems which lead to heart failure. Other bugs are carried by animals that are allowed to sleep indoors.

Many households in the area do not have security of tenure due to legal issues regarding entitlement and ownership which cause complications regarding their ability to address problems with their homes.The local economy is heavily reliant on agriculture, so adjustments had to be made to the project’s implementation and engagement activities to accommodate the farming calendar, for example, when local people have to focus on crop harvesting.

Religious ceremonies are also highly important to local people, with similar adjustments being necessary to account for this.

What are its key features?

The principal objective of the project is to prevent diseases such as Chagas by tackling the underlying physical causes, especially poor housing, alongside awareness raising, education and social action (where other approaches have been mainly medical or educational only). Structural improvements were based on ideas first tested by the PUCP (Pontifical Catholic University of Peru) and then locally adapted through research in collaboration with the University of El Salvador and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The project also encourages sustainability and reduced costs through the use of local materials.

A participatory approach was used in establishing the project, to inform and empower the communities involved, regardless of gender or age. Planning was carried out with the input of local families, ADESCOs (community development organisations) and local training institutions.

The programme provides training across the breadth of the community being supported, through a variety of mechanisms. These include:

  • Training for families.
  • Training for young people via schools.
  • Support for community development organisations to improve self-management skills.
  • Training for health committees and inter-communal organisations.
  • Practical and theoretical training in technical construction for fieldwork staff and families on the improvement and construction of housing and sanitation.

Practical interventions include:

  • Physical intervention on housing and surroundings, for example, to cracked clay walls and floors, at the same time reinforcing walls to withstand earthquakes.
  • Legal support regarding the human right to decent housing. Many of the project participants were settlers in the area but the legal structure of ownership entailed the land to others. FUNDASAL provided advice and explored a variety of legal mechanisms (such as bailment and inheritance law) to expand the number of families reached.

The intervention programme is supported by several key partners:

  • The Ministry of Health, which supported the project by measuring the impact of changes to housing, contributing to the provision of training, monitoring the presence of disease-carrying insects and undertaking other measures of disease prevention in the target community, such as fumigation.
  • The Ministry of Education, which made facilities available and integrated health issues into the curriculum, involving teachers and improving the physical condition of local schools.
  • The Municipality of Santa Ana, which provided administrative support and contributed staff and other resources
  • The Community Investment Committee of TELUS International El Salvador (TELUS is one of the largest telecommunications companies in Canada), which supported youth activities and awareness raising.
  • Four community development associations (ADESCOs), which are legally recognised community-led groups committed to local improvement, training and development. These were ADESCOLME, ADESCOMAR, ADESCOES and ADESCO LA ESPERANZA.

How is it funded?

The project received financial support from a number of different organisations. These were:

  • FUNDASAL (the Salvadoran Foundation for Development and Low-cost Housing).
  • Manos Unidas (a Spanish NGO with a focus on reducing the effects of poverty through interventions in agriculture, health, education, social development and the advancement of women), which acted as the co-ordinator for the project and facilitated access to funding from five Spanish local or regional authorities. These were the Government of Cantabria; the City and Provincial Councils of Guadalajara; the Provincial Council of Valencia and the City Council of Pamplona.
  • MISEREOR (the German Catholic Bishops’ Organisation for Development Cooperation, which supports the principle of help towards self-help).
  • Two national awards (in the form of financial contributions) given by the Gloria de Kriete Foundation (based in El Salvador, which provides support to organisations committed to the well-being and improvement of Salvadorian families).
  • TELUS International El Salvador (TELUS is one of the largest telecommunications companies in Canada).

The programme was carried out over two main phases and four interphases. The total cost was US$1,464,851.21. Donor contributions paid for staff, building works, transportation, training, equipment and materials and various facilities. Communities contributed labour and local authorities provided new and existing staff to collaborate with the programme.

The project also benefited from a number of non-financial donations such as training and support from a range of partners.

What impact has it had?

The project has benefited over 300 impoverished and excluded families in ten rural settlements with no access to adequate housing or public or private programmes. It has helped to strengthen community cohesion; rather than acting individually, people now have learned to address problems together. The training provided has helped to embed improved health behaviour and increase the quality of housing, as well as putting in place institutional support from permanent institutions like the health service.

Local communities have been empowered to improve their own situation through:

  • Greater awareness and knowledge about various diseases and what causes them, leading to changes in behaviour. Two major hygiene surveys involving hundreds of families have shown a huge increase in awareness of Chagas disease and its causes and in hygiene behaviour and a reduction in presence of the bug.
  • Training in self-applied improvements to homes and services (sanitation, kitchen) which benefits their health and safety and raises living standards.
  • Increased community cohesion and joint problem-solving.
  • Establishment of an umbrella organisation which now represents and advocates for the communities on a wider scale.
  • A strengthened role for women, both in project implementation and taking a lead.

Neighbouring communities have observed and learned from the Pinalito experience and started to copy some of the techniques, sometimes assisted by Pinalito residents. The health promoter, recruited by the Ministry of Health, is also helping to transfer the experience to neighbouring communities. At least two communities have come to visit to learn from the project.

A National Network against Chagas disease has been formed, which aims to generate greater awareness and action. The initiative is also used as a model by the University of El Salvador to influence other municipalities.

The project was awarded the “Helping those who help” prize by the Gloria de Kriete Foundation in 2011 and 2012. FUNDASAL was also asked to present the project experience at three events: the First National Chagas Conference in El Salvador, the Manos Unidas Forum in Cadiz, Spain and the Terra 2012 Conference in Lima, Peru. Replica projects have been formulated for two areas of the country and presented to the Inter-American Development Bank and the Vice Ministry of Housing and Urban Development.

The Research Centre of the University of El Salvador has shared knowledge from the project with other municipalities where there is a high rate of Chagas disease. As a result, the town of Tacachico has prepared a Chagas project. In addition, the community of Matapalos in Honduras has been trained and is currently implementing the intervention model.

 

Why is it innovative?

  • The principal innovation by this project, in the context of El Salvador, is in preventing diseases such as Chagas by tackling underlying physical causes, especially poor housing alongside awareness raising, education and social action, where other approaches have been mainly medical or educational only. Structural improvements were based on ideas first tested by the PUCP in Peru, then locally adapted through research in collaboration with a university of El Salvador.
  • The use of mainly local materials in strengthening and improving houses.
  • A joined-up approach between communities, the NGOs, schools and government agencies of health and education.
  • Education across all groups in society, regardless of gender or age.
  • Alternative ways of creating sufficient tenure security to avoid evictions and enable home improvements.

 

What is the environmental impact?

The project mainly uses local materials including earth, wood, bamboo and thatch. This keeps the transport component – and related energy need – down. The building materials required are simple and predominantly recyclable. The project also recommends that bamboo is replanted to encourage sustainability.

The compost toilets introduced are designed to save water and produce a source of fertiliser with secondary benefits. The stoves introduced reduce smoke in kitchens – a health benefit – and are more fuel-efficient than the stoves previously used. The project has also improved the means of waste disposal and protection of water resources such as springs.

 

Is it financially sustainable?

The project set out to define and prove a replicable model of tackling Chagas and other diseases. If it succeeds in doing so, no future funding will be needed for similar projects by FUNDASAL, though it may still want to raise funds to promote replication.

The project was not primarily designed to generate local incomes. However, people’s assets in housing and services and therefore their wealth, have definitely increased. The emphasis on using local materials also keeps transport costs down, which saves money.The costs of home improvements are kept low by using mainly local materials and skills. By empowering residents in this way, better and safer housing, as well as related services, have become much more accessible.

 

What is the social impact?

The project has improved community engagement and strengthened the organisations representing local people (ADESCOs). This has led to inter-communal action on health. The educational aspects of the project have successfully brought about behavioural change.

The most vulnerable and excluded were targeted for housing improvements and inclusion was actively promoted (for example the participation of women in social and construction processes; the education of all irrespective of gender and age; linkages and collaboration between Community Based Organisations and state agencies). A particular effort was made to reach young people, thus raising awareness and creating skills at an early age.

 

Barriers

  • People lacked belief in institutions, because they had been let down twice by other agencies before. Thus, time was required to establish credibility and trust.
  • Agricultural and religious calendars are important to people, and the project had to adjust the timing of its activities to those.
  • Some people were not interested in the project because they already had good housing, or did not see its need. Many others were unaware of the presence and risks of Chagas and other diseases, and therefore taking action against those was not a priority to them. Thus, the project needed to spend time on raising awareness.
  • It was found that many households did not have secure tenure, preventing their participating; thanks to flexibility of the main donor, this was tackled, and at least some form of guarantee established to improve security.
  • The lessons of the project have been analysed and are being made available as an example for others to replicate; the project is aware, though, that local contexts differ, and the model offered therefore may have to be adapted to each situation.

 

Lessons Learned

  • The project has helped to strengthen community cohesion; rather than acting individually, people now have learned to address problems as a community.
  • Households face several vulnerabilities, of which exposure to disease and natural disasters is one. But e.g. land tenure is also insecure and should be integrated in such projects from the onset.
  • The project could also have integrated medical interventions more closely, alongside the physical ones addressed by FUNDASAL. This would have required closer collaboration with other agencies charged with health issues.
  • It is essential to formulate any collaboration into formal agreements, to ensure their continuity.
  • The success of projects like this lies primarily in the capabilities it leaves with families to change their health behaviour and maintain their houses well, with some institutional support of permanent institutions like the health service.

 

Evaluation

The established health committees extensively monitor families’ hygiene habits twice yearly, with FUNDASAL’s monitoring unit, thus establishing sources of contamination and any illnesses. In addition, the Health Service of Santa Ana carries out vector monitoring on bugs collected, and thus continues to maintain vector control. It is also undertaking a pre- and post-intervention evaluation of the FUNDASAL project in order to initiate a process of Chagas disease prevention. There have been two major hygiene surveys, of hundreds of families, showing a huge increase in awareness of Chagas disease and its causes and in hygiene behaviour, and reduction in presence of the bug. The project has been externally evaluated.

 

Transfer

Replica projects have been formulated for two areas of the country and presented to the Inter American Development Bank and the Vice Ministry of Housing and Urban Development. They are awaiting review and approval.

Neighbouring communities have observed and learned from the Pinalito experience and started to copy some of the techniques, sometimes assisted by Pinalito residents. The health promoter, recruited by the Ministry of Health, is also helping to transfer the experience to neighbouring communities. At least two communities have come to visit to learn from the project.

The project has become a model used by the Research Centre of the University of El Salvador to present to other municipalities with a high rate of Chagas disease. As a result, the town of Tacachico has prepared a Chagas project.

The community of Matapalos in Honduras has been trained and is currently implementing the intervention model.

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Authors:

World Habitat

Upgrading of Audi União Shantytown: Curitiba

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Upgrading of Audi União Shantytown: Curitiba

Policies and regulations
Promotion and production

Main objectives of the project

Date

  • 2014:

Stakeholders

  • Promotor: World Habitat

Location

Continent: South America
City: SCIA
Country/Region: Brazil, Ceilândia

Description

This upgrading project has been carried out in Audi União, one of largest and poorest squatter settlements in Curitiba, Brazil. The project has protected the households living in high-risk areas on the banks of the Iguaçu river, it provides safer and improved living conditions whilst avoiding evictions and ensuring that families are able to stay within the same community. It has developed an integrated multidisciplinary and participatory approach involving partnerships between the local community, local leaders, civil society organisations and government agencies at local, state and national levels.

 

Project Description

What are its aims and objectives?

The main purpose of the project is the protection of households living in high-risk areas on the banks of the Iguaçu river in Audi União shantytown. The project includes the improvement and/or provision of urban infrastructure (drainage systems, sanitation and flood control measures); housing within the local area for families living in high-risk areas, including one-, two- and three-bedroom units; recovery of areas of environmental protection; the regularisation of land tenure and social programmes contributing to safety and security, urban mobility, gender equality and social inclusion. Investments have also been made in the construction and improvement of public health, education, culture, sports and leisure facilities. Residents have been involved throughout the process through partnerships established between government agencies and local residents’ associations. The project has improved homes without resettlement and has only resettled those people who were at risk from flooding or landslides.

What context does it operate in?

Curitiba is one of the fastest growing cities in Brazil, with a municipal population of 1.8 million people. The city is known for a number of innovative initiatives to improve the local environment. Audi União informal settlement is home to 3,144 low-income families, many of whom were previously living in precarious conditions in an area of environmental protection on the banks of the Iguaçu river – an area which is prone to frequent and devastating floods. It is the largest and poorest informal settlement in the city of Curitiba, with 70 per cent of households earning less than the minimum wage and 86.5 per cent of households lacking adequate water supply, electricity, waste collection and drainage systems. With one of the highest homicide rates in the city, residents of Audi União face conditions of insecurity and vulnerability. Many of the houses are built on stilts and are constructed using poor quality building materials. The project has been implemented by Curitiba Municipal Housing Company (COHAB/CT), a public housing institution, established in 1965 to provide housing for low-income households in the city of Curitiba. Its activities are carried out with funding from local and national government sources as well as through public-private partnerships. COHAB/CT implements Federal Government housing programmes as well as programmes for urban and informal settlement upgrading.

What are its key features?

This comprehensive informal settlement upgrading project has been carried out in Audi União through an integrated, multidisciplinary and participatory approach involving partnerships between the local community, local leaders, civil society organisations and government agencies at local, state and national levels. Residents, through partnerships established between government agencies and local residents’ associations, have been involved throughout the process. The project includes the improvement and/or provision of urban infrastructure and services. Investments have also been made in the construction and improvement of public health, education, culture, sports and leisure facilities. New housing is provided to the families living in high risk areas and land tenure has been regularised. Social programmes contributing to safety and security, urban mobility, gender equality and social inclusion have been introduced. Flood control measures, though still ongoing, have led to a significant decrease in flooding in the area.

How is it funded?

Total funding amounting to US$19.5 million (R$38 million) has been provided by the CAIXA Federal Savings Bank (67.2 per cent) and by the Curitiba Municipality (32.8 per cent), covering the following areas: a) flood control; b) recovery of areas of environmental protection; c) construction and refurbishment of housing; d) land tenure regularisation; e) urban upgrading; f) social inclusion. In addition, the Municipality has invested in the construction and improvement of public facilities relating to health, education, culture and sports, as well as collaborating with the state government of Paraná on the provision of public security and leisure facilities.

What impact has it had?

The project has made significant improvements in the living conditions of residents, including flood risk reduction, increased security and improved sanitation and environmental conditions within the community and surrounding areas. Following the implementation of the flood prevention system, there has not been any subsequent flooding in the area, despite heavy rains and flooding in surrounding areas not covered by the project. Income levels have increased, with a 206 per cent increase in the number of families earning at least the minimum wage. There has been a reduction of 33 per cent in the number of violent deaths and 26 per cent in the number of armed robberies. Urban mobility has been improved through a range of actions, including the paving and widening of streets, public lighting, improved public transport (with 20 additional bus lines), selective waste collection and formal address registration. Residents have since been involved in carrying out improvements to their housing and there has been a gradual change in habits and in the relationship of residents with public/communal spaces.

 

Why is it innovative?

  • Integrated, multidisciplinary approach, including three levels of government, carried out through partnerships between a range of actors and levels of government. The complexity of the issues to be addressed required common goals, participatory planning and integrated actions that are environmentally responsible and socially just, with community members involved throughout the process.
  • Ensuring that families were relocated only where necessary and not more than 500 metres from their original homes, respecting community and neighbourhood ties. The conventional solution might have been a full or partial resettlement of the area, as it involves the occupation of an area of environmental protection, subject to flooding. This solution addressed the environmental problems whilst ensuring that all residents were able to remain in their community, avoiding the demolition of thousands of homes built with the efforts and financial resources of the community.
  • Going beyond physical improvements, establishing effective communication channels between community residents and government, addressing gender issues (particularly around land titling) and working to ensure the right to adequate housing.

 

What is the environmental impact?

The project has used conventional building materials, many of which are locally sourced, for the construction of the new housing units.

It has kept existing housing and communal buildings except in the areas of highest risk, making use of existing resources.

The project involves the provision of adequate water supply, sanitation, waste collection and drainage infrastructure, which was previously not in place in the Audi União settlement. A macro-drainage system has been built to address the issues of intense flooding in the area as well as delineating the boundaries of the settlement and areas of environmental preservation, with the overall aim of reducing risk to people and the environment. No flooding has been recorded in the area following implementation, despite heavy rains.

 

Is it financially sustainable?

The project has been carried out with funding from both federal and municipal government sources and in partnership with a range of other organisations and public service providers. In other projects, where similar levels of state funding were not available, COHAB/CT has obtained funding for its work through public-private partnerships.

The project has supported skills development to enhance local family incomes.

A range of training courses and activities focussing on income generation and employment were carried out within the community and by 2010 there had been a 206 per cent increase in the number of families earning at least the minimum wage. In addition, the fact that residents have been able to remain in their community rather than being resettled in distant areas has ensured that existing employment and access to places of work have not been affected.

 

What is the social impact?

The project approach demonstrates the strong commitment of all actors involved and has facilitated greater cooperation both within the community and amongst different government agencies and institutional partners. Local NGOs have played a key role in facilitating collaboration and the project has worked to foster a sense of belonging, confidence, permanence and continuity within the community, resulting in the strengthening of social ties and maintenance of existing relationships and networks.

The project works with highly-vulnerable families and seeks to implement strategies that oppose social exclusion and lead to a reduction in social inequalities. Women in particular have benefited from the project, particularly with regards to the land tenure regularisation/titling process where priority is given to women heads of household.

The project has worked to improve access to rights and information, promote citizenship and empower communities. Residents now pay government-subsidised utility bills and formalising property ownership, improving urban mobility and ensuring access to public infrastructure and services have all contributed towards enabling residents to take a more active role in society.

 

Barriers

  • From the outset, the problems faced were complex and required integrated and multidisciplinary solutions. COHAB/CT has worked in partnership with the community and a range of local organisations to address these issues in an integrated way.
  • Due to financial constraints, the original project did not include the construction of public health and educational facilities and there is a demand for schools and health units in the area, as well as leisure and recreational facilities. This has affected children and young people in particular, and the gap has been partially filled through the application of municipal resources in the construction of a municipal nursery, a youth centre, health units and a centre for social assistance.
  • Although there has been a significant improvement in living conditions and quality of life for residents, a few key issues still remain, including safe access to rail transportation and improved connections to the sewage disposal system, which is in the process of being carried out through another project.

 

Lessons Learned

  • During the implementation of the project, it was found that the problems arising from informal settlements in areas of environmental preservation affected the city as a whole, causing social, economic, physical and environmental damage.
  • Partnership working was essential, as the complex problems faced cannot be fully resolved by a single institution or group of people. The establishment of strong partnerships enabled discussions to take place based on the specific conditions in the area, as well as making it possible for government actions to go beyond purely physical interventions.
  • In order to establish these partnerships it is important to recognise the importance of engaging the three levels of government (federal, state and local), the various sectors within the municipal government and relevant organisations, local groups and professionals engaged in the pursuit of access to social rights, public goods and services.
  • In order to ensure a successful outcome, it is important to establish direct links between communities and government through a participatory approach, increased access to information and improved communication channels. It is recognised that a strong partnership between the community and government is critical to effectively guarantee the rights of citizens and the development of a sense of appreciation and belonging amongst residents.
  • Integrated actions in urban upgrading and infrastructure provision should be carried out in accordance with public policies relating to housing, sanitation, social support, health, education and the environment.

 

Evaluation

Monthly reports are produced on the activities carried out by the social assistance team, as well as gathering data on the housing units and other urban and physical intervention processes. The multidisciplinary team carrying out the project meets each month in order to strengthen communication and monitor the work that has been completed. A range of indicators have been developed for post-occupancy monitoring and evaluation with funding provided by the Brazilian Ministry of Cities, in order to give visibility to the results, impacts and level of satisfaction of the local community, as well as providing an opportunity to reflect on the implementation process and the effectiveness of the results achieved. A final research project is due to be carried out on the project encompassing three key areas:

  • Housing and Urban Environment: including basic infrastructure, urban mobility, environmental quality and housing.
  • Social Inclusion: focussing on access to public services (education, health, sport, leisure, culture, social assistance and public security), citizenship and participation and job market insertion.
  • Household Satisfaction: capturing the evaluation of local residents regarding their own housing conditions, urban infrastructure and services, as well as looking at the impact of the project on social and community life.

 

Transfer

The approach is currently being scaled up by COHAB/CT and is being applied in 64 active projects in the city of Curitiba in areas that, as in the case of Audi União, require integrated actions. In each case the approach is being adapted to local specificities and complexities.

Although there has not been any national or international transfer of the approach as yet, there has been a great deal of interest in the project and Audi União has received a number of national and international visitors, including the United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Shaun Donovan.

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Authors:

Liter of Light

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Liter of Light

Mismatches Diversity
Policies and regulations Evaluation and impact
Urban Design Quality Regulación Técnica
Promotion and production Innovation Industrialisation Management and maintenance

Main objectives of the project

Date

  • 2014:

Stakeholders

  • Promotor: World Habitat

Location

Continent: Asia
Country/Region: Philippines, Quezon City [Manila]

Description

Liter of Light uses cheap, readily available materials to provide high quality lighting to homes in poor communities. Recycled plastic bottles filled with water and a bit of bleach are fitted into the roof to provide daylighting and can be upgraded with an LED bulb, micro-solar panels and a battery to provide a low cost night lighting system. Liter of Light works with the local community to produce the lighting systems creating jobs locally. By embracing social media and the philosophy of open-source technology, the project has grown from nothing to lighting up 160,000 homes in the Philippines and has now spread around the world.

Project Description

What are its aims and objectives?

The use of plastic bottles as a way to provide indoor lighting from sunlight, developed by Alfredo Moser of Brazil in 2002, has inspired MyShelter Foundation to use the technology as a social enterprise. MyShelter Foundation (MSF) is an NGO established by social entrepreneur Illac Diaz in 2006 that aims to create sustainability and reliability through capability-building and employment-generating projects. MSF launched the Liter of Light in 2011 in the Philippines in cooperation with students from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Alfredo Moser. To help the idea to grow sustainably, MSF implemented a “local entrepreneur” business model whereby bottle bulbs are assembled and installed by local people, who can earn a small income from clients for their work.

Liter of Light aims to provide poor communities in the country with a cheap source of lighting that can be produced and distributed locally. It was conceived as an open-source, DIY programme that could easily be replicated by anyone around the world using readily available materials and basic carpentry/electronics skills. Rather than relying on large-scale, imported or patented technologies, the project sought to create a grassroots green lighting movement starting from the principle that anyone can and should become a solar engineer.

What context does it operate in?

Hundreds of millions of people live in informal settlements worldwide. Many of these dwellings lack windows or adequate lighting and residents often resort to kerosene, candles or inventive wiring for light, risking health and safety in the process and many simply go without. Proper electricity is not usually an option, especially in the Philippines, where twenty million Filipinos (a quarter of the population) live below the poverty line. The Philippines has the highest electricity prices in Asia and suffers constant blackouts due to outdated power plants.

The country is also vulnerable to extreme weather events resulting in loss of life and destruction of property and infrastructure.

Typhoon Haiyan, which struck in November 2013, one of the strongest tropical cyclones ever recorded, destroyed 14 million houses and pushed millions of people into further poverty. The project has been helping the rehabilitation of areas affected by the typhoon by providing training and solar bottle nightlight kits (for homes and streets) to local partners and grassroots entrepreneurs.

What are its key features?

Liter of Light (Day) is an affordable DIY lighting system that allows the sun’s rays into homes, schools and public centres for US$2 per unit. Using recycled plastic bottles, 10 ml of bleach and distilled water, the bottle is placed through galvanised steel roofs . Sunlight refracts through the bottle to light the space below with 55-watt of brightness.

In 2012, Liter of Light (Night) began by using the database of households with the daylight bottle bulbs in their roofs, offering a package of upgrading this to a 1-watt ($10/unit) or 2-watt ($15/unit) LED with micro-solar panels and battery which would give another 10 hours of light at night. With a simple circuit panel, drill and soldering, the night solar LED light is built and inserted into the already installed bulb.

The project works with women’s cooperatives to make solar nightlights from a handful of parts, including both recycled components and a new high-tech chip guaranteed to make the light last 70,000 hours. The water bottles are covered with handcrafted woven shades, providing a new outlet for local basket-weaving skills, which are otherwise no longer in demand.

Replication is done by equipping local partners or grassroots entrepreneurs with basic tools to build and install daylight bottle bulbs, and teaching them to build solar nightlight upgrades through purchasing kits from MSF or by sourcing other parts locally. Step-by-step guides on materials and installation are available online through video tutorials and social media in order to facilitate use and replication of the technology.

How is it funded?

Roche, Inc. and Pepsi provided a start-up grant of $57,000 to provide training to communities and also gave grants to help rehabilitate the areas affected by Typhoon Haiyan. As of 2014, Liter of Light is funded by dual cash flow from donations of $159,090 from Roche and $15,230 sales income. This came from the sale of finished lights or kits sold to other NGOs where MSF provided training on how to make lights.

What impact has it had?

Liter of Light began with one carpenter, one solar bottle bulb and one paid installation in one home in 2011. Within months, the project had completed 15,000 solar bottle bulb installations in 20 cities around the Philippines and had begun to inspire local initiatives around the world. To date, more than 145,000 installations in 100 cities in the Philippines have been completed.

The simple lighting technology creates local jobs, teaches green skills and empowers local communities.
Residents are able to save an average of $10 in electricity bills a month by installing the solar bottle day bulb. They can use this saving to upgrade to the night bulb (costing $10) which allows them to further save on electricity bills. This allows them to have more disposable income to pay for critical needs.

Liter of Light is uplifting the quality of life of thousands of impoverished families in the Philippines who have no access to electricity and use dangerous kerosene lamps indoors, which provide poor light, pollute and cause respiratory problems and fires. With the solar bottle bulbs, residents do their chores and activities efficiently inside a brighter home. Having affordable lighting not only improves the living environment of urban and rural poor families but also allows children to do homework and read at home.

Due to high electricity prices, local government officials could not afford to light up their streets. This was made possible by the project’s affordable solar bottle streetlamps ($60 each) which helped improve the public perception and attractiveness of neighbourhoods and addressed security issues. Many mayors around the country have also supported the start-up of local social enterprises with the project’s solar streetlights and houselight kits to alleviate the shortfall of energy supply in their towns/cities.

In partnership with the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), a government entity that trains young people and workers, the project has trained 572 volunteers, mostly women and disabled people and a number of local government units and non-profit organisations in building solar streetlights and houselights.

Through social media and easy replication, the movement has spread to more than 160,000 households in the Philippines and inspired local initiatives around the world lighting up 360,000 homes in over 15 countries. The project has been replicated in 15 countries (Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, Egypt, India, Kenya, Mexico, Nepal, Pakistan, Peru, Spain, Switzerland, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia) via partnerships with social enterprises that raise their own funds to run the project in their respective areas. Each country in which the project operates has developed its operations and programming at a local level but shares technical knowledge, conducts troubleshooting and crowd-sources innovations to the technology through regular coordination calls, skype, emails and social media.

Why is it innovative?

  • The project’s innovation lies in its utilisation of cheap, durable and readily available materials to produce high quality lighting enabling the urban poor to have access to an affordable, environmentally friendly, long-term alternative to electric light for use during the day and night.
  • Liter of Light provides enough initial supplies and volunteers to generate interest but its focus is on teaching a community how to manufacture and install the solar bottle bulbs, with the end goal of creating green microbusinesses.
  • By embracing social media and the philosophy of open-source technology, the project has grown from lighting up 160,000 homes in the Philippines to providing solar lighting to communities around the world.

What is the environmental impact?

Liter of Light is a zero-carbon-emitting alternative to the use of electric or hydrocarbon-burning (kerosene/gas) illumination. The materials used are readily available, e.g the reused plastic bottles, needing no additional manufacturing resources. Discarded plastic 1.5 to 2 litre bottles are reused and upcycled to a lighting system, helping reduce plastic waste. With a bit of bleach to prevent mould and just enough distilled water to fill the bottle, the solar bottle daylight bulb produces 55 watts of brightness through sun refraction and will last up to five years before being replaced.

The LED bulbs in the nightlighting system have a longer lifespan and higher energy efficiency than incandescent/fluorescent lamps.

Each daylight bulb saves 200 kilos of carbon emissions a year, and each nightlight bulb saves 350 kilos in carbon emissions a year. Compared to a kerosene lamp which emits 20 times more black carbon with 7-9 per cent of fuel burned converted into black carbon particles (black carbon is known to be a very powerful absorber of sunlight, far more than carbon dioxide).

Is it financially sustainable?

The corporate partners help to increase the impact of the project through donations which increase the number of kits that MSF is able to produce but these donations are time-limited, usually of one-three years in duration. But the income gained through sales is rising. By working with a local partner, Design Centre of the Philippines (the national institute for product design), the project now creates marketable lamps with woven designs for the solar bottle bulbs enabling them to charge a premium rate.

With simple training and tools, local partners and grassroots entrepreneurs could easily replicate and install the solar bottle bulbs earning $0.50 from clients per bottle bulb installed. Products are available in micro-stores in neighbourhoods and the project supplies kits to these stores.

Partnerships with national and local government agencies, institutes, non-profit organisations and private companies enabled the project to be replicated in towns and cities nationwide. The project aims to install 15,000 solar bottle lights in the provinces affected by Typhoon Haiyan in 2014 and to expand the programme to energy poor areas in 12 provinces by 2015.

What is the social impact?

The project is coordinated with local organisations and communities, who are given initial training. Technicians work with them by providing further training and undertaking installations. In order to lower installation costs, the local residents or organisations usually collect and provide the used materials e.g. pre-used soda bottles for the solar bottle bulbs. Residents help each other during the collection of materials and installation of solar lights.

Most of the 350 affiliates working with the production and assembly of solar night bulbs are women’s cooperatives. The project also trained disabled people and economically marginalised groups to build solar lighting products. MSF has established a training centre that conducts workshops with young people, companies and other groups interested in volunteering their time to build lights in their communities. The project also partnered with technical schools and prison facilities to equip women with marketable skills in electronics increasing their employment prospects once they complete their skills-based programmes or become reintegrated in the workforce.

Barriers

  • Using appropriate durable, leak-proof, space-filling glue is one of the main challenges. Many local groups are experimenting with different glues to find the best solution for both cost and quality; silicone-based or polyurethane glues have usually been found to work best.
  • Several villages experienced problems with the early version of the linked in batteries series where one battery drained and had to be completely replaced at the project’s expense. Through trial and error, the correct parallel connection is now used.
  • Access to knowledge on product improvement is limited as there are only a few specialists in the country. The project tries to overcome this by trial-and-error learning and seeking partnerships with specialists and training agencies. The project currently experiments with assembling solar panels out of readily available SunPower solar cells and, though a slow process, is learning how to cut the solar cells and assemble connectors by hand.

Lessons Learned

  • The Liter of Light (Night) was built with rudimentary knowledge in mobile chargers and solar lighting. It would have been better to look for partnerships earlier in the process to speed up product development.
  • Despite their benefits, there is still not much financial support (e.g. tax exemption or assistance programmes) from the government for green technologies such as solar energy.
  • A person’s life can be made dramatically better through simple solutions that are affordable, use local materials, are easily replicable and generate sources of income.
  • The use of the internet and social media for sharing instructions/information about the project and for the coordination with partners has proven to be very successful to disseminate ideas.

Evaluation

The project has a database of the families with the daylight system and families are advised to keep a record of their electricity bills to monitor their savings. After two to three months of installation, the project revisits the families, surveys them about their energy savings and also offers them a package to upgrade to the nightlight system. MSF has not yet carried out an evaluation of the whole Liter of Light project in the Philippines.

Transfer

MSF began with one carpenter, one solar bottle bulb and one paid installation in one home in 2011. Within months, the project completed 15,000 solar bottle bulb installations in 20 cities around the Philippines and began to inspire local initiatives around the world. To date, more than 145,000 installations in 100 cities in the Philippines have been completed. The project aims to install 15,000 solar bottle lights in the provinces affected by Typhoon Haiyan – Cebu, Iloilo and Leyte – in 2014 and to expand the programme to energy poor areas in 12 provinces by 2015.
Local and National: MSF’s work and the success of the Liter of Light have been possible through partnerships with national and local government agencies, institutes, non-profit orgs and private companies. These partnerships enable the project to be replicated in towns and cities nationwide.

International: Liter of Light is a network of partners sharing sponsors, best practices, and successes (or failure) in fundraising and community implementation. The project has been replicated in 15 countries (Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, Egypt, India, Kenya, Mexico, Nepal, Pakistan, Peru, Spain, Switzerland, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia) via partnerships with social enterprises that raise their own funds to run the project in their respective areas. Some countries have made small adaptations to the design. In countries where battery or solar cells are unavailable, MSF ships them these materials with samples and instructions and shares with them information about the suppliers.

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Authors:

World Habitat

Community Management of Urban Infrastructure and Housing Improvements in Greater Buenos Aires

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Community Management of Urban Infrastructure and Housing Improvements in Greater Buenos Aires

Policies and regulations
Financing Progressive financing
Urban Design Liveability Regulación Técnica
Promotion and production Materials Self-management Cooperatives

Main objectives of the project

Date

  • 2013: Finalista

Stakeholders

  • Promotor: World Habitat

Location

Continent: South America
City: Buenos Aires
Country/Region: Argentina, Buenos Aires

Description

Over the last 20 years, Fundación Pro Vivienda Social (Social Housing Foundation – FPVS) has worked to improve living conditions in Greater Buenos Aires, by promoting social inclusion, empowering communities, improving housing conditions and connecting them to basic services. Since 2010, FPVS has been implementing the Community Development Plan (CDP) in all the communities where it works, giving a holistic vision and an increasingly important role to residents in the development of their communities. Three strategies have been defined to carry out the CDP: community empowerment, design and implementation of innovative projects and promotion of pro-poor businesses, with five programmes running to date, namely the Integral Gasification Project, Housing Improvement and Young Builders Project, Community Education Centre (CEC), Neighbourhood Development Observatory and Inclusive Business Park.

 

Project Description

Aims and Objectives

The mission of FPVS is to provide long-term, community-led solutions to the habitat problems facing low-income neighbourhoods. This participatory model relies on the active collaboration of residents, companies, banks and governments, and its central objective is to promote community development. The model aims to stimulate community life and civic participation, social capital, affordable access to goods and services, household budgets and savings.

Context

Rapid, unplanned urbanisation has given rise to alarming inequalities and housing deficits across Latin America. In Argentina, more than five million families rely on government action to gain access to services, but public policy has failed to meet their needs, leaving the process of urbanisation in the hands of local residents. In Greater Buenos Aires, over six million people live in poverty with limited or no access to basic services or affordable adequate housing. This, combined with a culture of distrust and disinterest among banks and companies, has led to financial exclusion and social marginalisation of millions of people.

The municipality of Moreno is characterised by processes of self-construction, high levels of informality and unemployment, lack of infrastructure and little or no access to basic and financial services. Only 19 per cent of the population has access to drainage, 41 per cent to potable water, 32 per cent to the natural gas network, 45 per cent of families live in precarious housing conditions.

Key features

The Project is being implemented in 18 marginalised neighbourhoods in the municipality of Moreno, in Greater Buenos Aires. It promotes social inclusion by empowering communities, improving housing conditions and connecting them to basic services. FPVS acts as a facilitator, promoting a model in which residents and a range of actors work together to achieve a common goal. Links and partnerships have been formed with public and private entities at local, national and international levels, which include financers and donors, government (at various levels), international organisations, technical support intermediaries, and research and academic bodies.

Community empowerment: FPVS trains local community members as Community Developers to work in areas of promotion, conflict resolution, administration, communication and computer science, generating social capital. Additionally, the Young Builders’ Project trains students from local technical school in construction and provides practical experience through internships and professional experience.

Housing improvement and gas supply: The Neighbourhood Trust Funds (NTFs) are used as a platform that provides a collective guarantee, ensures transparency and reduces the risk involved for investors. The NTFs act as savings and credit schemes, with initial funds provided by donations, which the FPVS has sought specifically for this purpose, acting as a collective guarantee for lenders. The model requires more than 60 per cent of residents to sign up to participate in the programme to make viable, who start repaying the loan once the service is provided. As part of the Integral Gasification Project, five NTFs have been set up to date (one for housing improvement and four gasification funds), bringing together 16,000 families from which 4,500 have already been connected to the natural gas network. The NTF set up for housing improvement serves all families participating in the gasification projects, to facilitate housing improvements and make better use of the new gas connection. The beneficiaries typically use them to purchase gas appliances such as hot water systems, ovens and heaters.

The model consists of a series of steps:

  • Residents are trained to participate in the projects as Community Developers, who promote the programmes in their blocks. Community organisation is consolidated via the establishment of NTFs.
  • A financial and technical plan is created for each household based on individual family needs. Later, a single proposal is made to the bank on behalf of thousands of residents, taking into account their diverse financial capacities.
  • The financers accept the collective guarantee offered by the community – this includes an additional sum (18 per cent) paid by residents to the bank until the works are completed (a contingency fund), which is returned to the community via NTFs.
  • After the works are carried out, the residents repay their loans at the pace they can afford (over a maximum period of 72 months).
  • Once the lenders have been repaid, the residents determine how they would like to reinvest the contingency fund into the community to further improve neighbourhoods with e.g. drainage, pavements, street lighting, or community centres.

Promotion of pro-poor markets: FPVS acts as a mediator, connecting demand for services and credit in low-income communities with goods and services from companies (bank, gas providers, etc.) which are apprehensive about working with these sectors, aiming to stimulate fair, inclusive and responsible business practices.

Covering costs 

  • FPVS relies on operational and institutional revenue to carry out its work. Operational revenue is obtained from the fees attached to the services to the NTFs and the administration of funding for the ‘Mejor Vivir’ programme (from the national government). Institutional revenue is sourced from open donations and project funding provided by the IADB (Inter-American Development Bank) and IAF (Inter-American Foundation).
  • Collaboration is promoted between companies, governments, local suppliers and residents as well as with local and international banks. More than US$5 million has been sourced from diverse investors, including resident’s contributions (36 per cent), Multilateral Investment Fund – MIF – (22 per cent), service providers (5 per cent), commercial credits (19 per cent), public subsidies (11 per cent) and FPVS (7 per cent).
  • The NTFs are established with initial funds provided by donations through FPVS.
  • The current, standard price of a household natural gas network connection is US$1,680. The average home improvement loan is US$340.
  • The current loan interest rate is 39 per cent. Given the high inflation rate (25 per cent), the actual rate is 14 per cent per year. Given the long period given to repay the loans (up to 72 months) and the small size of the instalments, the majority of families are able to repay the loans with little or no impact on the household budget. On average, residents take approximately 40 months to repay loans. The monthly repayment is made via the gas bill, and despite the payment, families increase their disposable income by five per cent per month due to reduced energy costs.

Impact

  • As per 2013, 16,000 families participate in five NTFs, of which 4,500 have already been connected to the natural gas network, having a positive impact on the health, quality of life and comfort for approximately 20,000 people in 18 neighbourhoods.
  • 8,500 micro-credit loans and technical construction support have been given to improve housing conditions of families.
  • Alliances have been formed with local grassroots organisations and international bodies.
  • 300 Community Developers have gained new skills, and 30 Young Builders have been trained to date.
  • Households with natural gas increased their disposable incomes due to reduced energy costs (five per cent on average) and home values increased (between 15 and 20 per cent), as a result of the improvements undertaken.
  • Communities are empowered and organised, and continue to make improvements on their living environment once the initial works are finished.
  • By acting as a nexus between the communities and service providers, the FPVS has an impact on the access of these sectors, which changed from being considered ‘high risk’ to viable clients for the companies serving them.

 

Why is it innovative?

  • Community trusts and innovative finance mechanisms are used to manage resources and deliver the project, using housing as a mobilising agent through which the community gets together to combine savings and resources, which it has pioneered in Argentina. The financial model offers a diverse range of plans, with high repayment rates.
  • Neighbourhood Committees and working groups are formed within and across neighbourhoods, and partnerships have been established with a number of actors. The project works on the basis of consensus and inclusion and all decisions are taken through a participatory process, with communities playing a leading role in managing every stage of the process.
  • Establishing an inclusive, pro-poor business model: FPVS acts as a mediator between the communities and service providers.

 

What is the environmental impact?

  • FPVS encourages the participation of local businesses, builders and gas fitters for the supply of materials and services needed for the different programmes, using a public tender process.
  • Home improvements made via the gas project encourage residents to consider changes in layout, insulation and the use of appliances in order to reduce energy consumption and promote new greener habits amongst residents.
  • Natural gas is a cleaner energy source than wood, charcoal, and kerosene, and its use for cooking and heating has a positive impact on people’s health and the environment.

 

Is it financially sustainable?

  • Although residents pay for the goods and services they receive, lines of finance have been made available to cover project costs. In the future, it is hoped that creditors and companies will participate in the NTFs making non-returnable contributions to finance part of the preoperational costs required to establish them, currently covered by donations through the FPVS.
  • Households participating in the gasification programmes have increased their assets by between 15 and 20 per cent, thanks to a rise in the value of their homes as a result of the improvements undertaken. On top of this, their disposable incomes have increased by an equivalent of five per cent, due to reduced energy costs.
  • The NTFs permit resources to be invested to address lack of infrastructure and in housing improvements. In addition to increasing home value and the savings generated by energy costs, residents can improve their houses incrementally, and use their proven credit performance to access other financial services from banks.

 

What is the social impact?

  • FPVS works to stimulate interaction between residents, banks and companies at a local level. The project helps to bring alive a spirit of community and solidarity amongst families, and a sense of trust and civic culture is cultivated through the participatory approach, resulting in neighbourhood development for the whole community.
  • Community Developers (mainly women) have been trained in areas that have not only improved their employment opportunities, but have also had a positive impact on their self-esteem and position in the community.
  • The Young Builders Programme trains students in local construction and provides practical experience in housing projects in their own neighbourhoods, generating local employment.
  • Families connected to the gas network suffer from a 50 per cent reduction in gastro-illnesses (as food is cooked more thoroughly for longer periods), 20 per cent less from respiratory illness and 40 per cent less from colds and flu thanks to improved heating and cooking methods (charcoal, wood and kerosene or gas bottles typically used otherwise).
  • FPVS is working with UNDP to allow residents to access legal titles to their homes and land. The planned activities include carrying out a study to understand different situations and types of land and home ownership problems in the area; producing a mechanism for residents to obtain property titles and normalising their situation within the existing legislation; undertaking training and awareness campaigns via the CEC; and providing legal support.
  • Social initiatives are being implemented to include the poorest families: the NTFs are open to all residents, and users begin to pay once they use the service. In order to make it available to all, the repayment plan is calculated according to each family’s needs and possibilities, including those in informal employment, unemployed and retired.
  • The model empowers residents to be agents for change. They are involved in every step of the process, and play a central role in the management and promotion of projects. The creation of NTFs requires between 60 and 70 per cent of residents to participate, and residents promote the project and are responsible for reaching this target level of engagement.
  • As well as their involvement as Community Developers, residents participate and benefit by acting as suppliers of materials and services needed to carry out the projects.

 

Barriers

  • Distrust and lack of coordination between stakeholders. This has been overcome by promoting collective social platforms, which increase collaboration and understanding. Public tenders provide a space to work together and overcome these problems.
  • Encouraging residents to invest in their neighbourhoods is a challenge. In order to overcome this, the creation of NTFs helps to promote investing in infrastructure and housing, instead of spending on consumer goods, helping to break the poverty cycle.

 

Lessons Learned

  • Experiences demonstrate the importance of including participants at all levels in the development of programmes to combat poverty. In fact, residents have the capacity to build their houses and invest their savings, with a high repayment rate (98 per cent).
  • Pilot programmes are used to identify successful strategies and create programmes with high success rates, specifically tailored to the needs of the community, providing important lessons on methodologies and timeframes for scaling up.
  • Working with governments is important to put ideas in the public sphere and help them to be heard by decision-makers. FPVS is collaborating with CIPPEC (‘Centro de Implementación de Políticas Públicas para la Equidad y el Crecimiento’ – Public Policy Implementation Centre for equity and Growth) on public policy implementation, in conjunction with central government programmes.

 

Evaluation

The Neighbourhood Development Observatory initiative, developed by FPVS with Torcuato di Tella University, aims to better understand the neighbourhoods and evaluate the impact of the other programmes. Additionally, FPVS will evaluate the results of the gas project in 2013, in conjunction with the MIF.

 

Transfer

The Integral Gasification Project, currently being implemented, is the direct result of the pilot experience acquired in two previous smaller scale gas projects: ‘Union por los Vecinos’ and ‘Redes Solidarias’ which connected 4,000 families in the same area.

In an informal manner, NGOs have taken the model and applied it to smaller scale projects.

A range of government and private sector organisations have requested technical assistance from FPVS to transfer the model to other parts of the country. In the context of the MIF initiatives in the country, the model will be transferred to a region outside the municipality of Moreno, where it will benefit approximately 3,000 families.

Links

Authors:

World Habitat

The Struggle for Housing in Central Areas

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The Struggle for Housing in Central Areas

Policies and regulations
Promotion and production

Main objectives of the project

The Associação Cortiços do Centro, Condomínio Vanguarda (Association of Tenements in Central Areas – ACC) is a grassroots organisation comprised of residents of cortiços, or tenement-style slums in collective buildings in central areas of the city of Santos. The ACC seeks to improve the living conditions of low-income residents of five neighbourhoods in Santos city centre, working to ensure the right of low-income families to have access to decent housing whilst remaining in central areas, close to jobs and making use of existing urban infrastructure. This community-initiated project involves the construction of 181 housing units for low-income families. The first 113 units are at the finishing stages and the final 68 units are due to be completed by the end of 2013.

Date

  • 2013: Finalista

Stakeholders

  • Promotor: World Habitat

Location

Continent: South America
City: Santos
Country/Region: Brazil, Santos

Description

 

Project Description

Aims and Objectives

The aim of the project is to provide decent, affordable housing for low-income families living in inadequate, overcrowded conditions in the city centre of Santos, addressing the issues of gentrification and displacement and working towards ensuring the right to adequate housing and the right to the city for all. Its approach seeks to empower residents to be agents of change within the community, working together to regenerate the neighbourhood and transform the reality in which they live.

Context

In the city of Santos, south eastern Brazil, approximately 14,500 people – the majority of whom are women and young people on very low incomes – live in precarious conditions in cortiços in the historic city centre. Houses built in the late 19th and early 20th century for well-off families have fallen into disrepair and now house up to 24 families each in overcrowded conditions, lacking in privacy, adequate sanitation, lighting or ventilation. Residents must pay very high rents and are often under threat of eviction. The area is known as having the highest rate of tuberculosis in the country, as well as the highest proportion of people living with HIV in Latin America.

Over the years, many government initiatives have been announced to improve the living conditions of residents in the area. The majority of these have not come to fruition, causing residents to become despondent and lose hope. In addition, a process of gentrification has begun to take place in the historic central areas, with rising property values due to a regeneration initiative that has recently been announced. As a result, an increasing number of families are being evicted from their homes.

Key features

Within this context, the ACC has taken a proactive approach to addressing some of the key issues, working to mobilise the community, engage with government agencies at the local, state and federal levels and obtain the necessary resources and technical support to provide concrete solutions to the critical housing needs of cortiço residents in the city centre.

In 2007, after spending time learning from the successful experiences of other grassroots organisations and examining local, state and national legislation and potential funding streams for housing with the assistance of a group of volunteer architects, the ACC was able to obtain a 6,000m2 plot of land in the Santos city centre from the Federal Assets Secretariat of the Ministry of Planning, Budget and Management and have it classified as a ‘Special Zone for Social Interest’ (ZEIS), enabling access to funding. The following year, funding was approved for the construction of the first 113 housing units and additional funding was secured in 2010 for the second phase of the project, involving the construction of an additional 68 units through a system of mutual aid and self-management of resources. Technical assistance has been provided by the Elos Brazil Institute, the Alliance of Housing Movements and local NGO Ambienta and a number of environmental features have been incorporated into the project, including rainwater harvesting and the use of solar energy. Following the key priorities established by the ACC, the project is characterised by high quality design and construction as well as a collective, participatory approach.

Participating families were selected based on housing need, family size and level of participation in collective activities and meetings. A conscious effort was made in the selection process to include residents from particularly marginalised groups, including older persons, persons without fixed income, young people and women-headed households. Fifteen per cent of the families had already been evicted from their homes as a result of the gentrification process currently taking place.

The project comprises a multi-use group of buildings that, in addition to the 181 one-, two- and three-bedroom housing units, includes a playground, communal areas (library, community bakery, training restaurant, internet room, multi-sport area, outdoor grill, etc) and commercial units on the ground floor. From the beginning, residents have been at the centre of the process, from the initial negotiations and mobilisation to collaborating with the architects through a participatory design and planning process, working in the construction through a system of mutual aid alongside skilled construction workers contracted by the ACC, and managing the project resources during the implementation phase.

Covering costs

Total project costs are US$5.66 million and funding has been obtained from two main funding streams of the CAIXA Federal Development Bank: ‘Crédito Solidario’ (phase 1) and ‘Minha Casa Minha Vida’ (phase 2), with counterpart funding received from local and state government agencies:

  • US$3.5 million in CAIXA federal funding (US$1.7 million for phase 1 and US$1.8 million for phase 2).
  • US$1.5 million counterpart funding from the São Paulo state housing agency (CDHU).
  • US$500,000 counterpart funding from the City of Santos.
  • US$150,000 in residents’ contributions in the form of labour.
  • US$12,700 was provided by the UNDP for the recreational areas for children.

In addition to contributing with their labour, self-management of the resources and construction process, residents make monthly repayments which are linked to income (ten per cent of income, or a minimum of US$25 per month, over a ten year period).

Impact

  • The experience has already had an important impact, both for the residents who have been actively involved throughout the process and for other grassroots groups around the country due to the enabling policies and legislation that have been created as a result of the experience. As a result of pressures mobilisation of these groups, national legislation has been approved that enables other community-based organisations and social movements to access federal land for housing construction. The ‘Concessão de Direito Real de Uso’ [Concession of full rights to the use of land / CDRU], now allows land to be handed over to the community for social housing purposes, giving it exclusive use of the land for a period of 99 years (renewable).
  • Residents have been trained in building construction and self-management of resources and have been able to access employment opportunities and set up their own small businesses. Two social enterprises, including a community bakery and jewellery-making business, are already running.
  • The project has succeeded in mobilising a diverse group of people who previously felt a sense of hopelessness. Community meetings went from having 15 persons in attendance to over 300 people currently participating.
  • The ACC has become a national example of struggle and victory for grassroots groups facing difficult situations and many other similar groups from around the country have learnt from the experience through direct exchanges and training carried out by the ACC.
  • The project is directly benefiting 800 cortiço residents (181 families) with the construction of new housing units.

 

Why is it innovative?

  • Partnership between a community-based organisation and government agencies at local, state and national levels.
  • The ACC was the first community-based organisation in the country to secure federal land through the CDRU as well as funding for housing construction through the Minha Casa Minha Vida programme, paving the way for other similar organisations.
  • Fully self-managed process, with residents involved in all decision-making, planning, resource management, execution.
  • Incorporation of environmentally sustainable features in a community-led mutual help housing project.

 

What is the environmental impact?

  • This project represents a first step towards improving overall environmental conditions in the historic city centre.
  • Conventional building materials have been used in the project, most of which are locally sourced. Recycled materials have also been used in construction, including recycled timber and roofing tiles made of recycled Tetrapak and toothpaste tubes.
  • In addition to providing safe drinking water and energy to residents previously living in precarious housing conditions without access to adequate services, the project also incorporates a range of environmental features such as rainwater harvesting systems and the use of solar energy for lighting common areas. Exchanges carried out by the ACC with other community groups have led to other housing projects adopting a similar approach.
  • An individual metering system is used to increase awareness of energy use and encourage energy efficiency.
  • A mini recycling centre has been established and environmental education activities are carried out with residents to encourage sustainable living practices.

 

Is it financially sustainable?

  • Funding for both phases of the project has been secured and includes post-occupancy work. Residents are responsible for ongoing management and maintenance.
  • The ACC is in negotiations with local and federal government agencies to obtain land and funding for future projects.
  • Income generation is key element of the project, with three social enterprises established to date, including a community bakery, a jewellery-making enterprise using recycled materials and a training restaurant. Spaces for these and other small businesses are included on the ground floor of the buildings, which are open to the wider community.
  • ACC has obtained funding to support the above income-generating activities from a range of sources, including the state-run energy company Petrobrás, HSBC Institute, Libra Terminais, and CAIXA’s ‘Housing and Citizenship’ NGO.
  • The project is affordable even for those on the lowest incomes. Household income must be less than three times the minimum monthly wage (i.e. approximately US$945 per month maximum). Repayments are linked to income, with residents paying ten per cent of their income in monthly instalments, over a period of ten years.
  • The combination of contributing their labour in the construction process along with affordable repayments has enabled families who would never previously have had the means to do so to have access to decent housing.

 

What is the social impact?

  • One of the aims of the ACC is to reduce the extreme social and economic inequalities prevalent in Brazilian society and to ensure access to land, housing and employment for low-income groups.
  • The project approach and mutual help construction process promote the values of solidarity and cooperation, prioritising collective action and social integration. Social inclusion is a key priority of project and residents include traditionally excluded groups, promoting the participation of all with the same rights and responsibilities, regardless of any social, ethnic or cultural differences. Women are active in leadership roles within the ACC and 80 per cent of the property titles are in the names of women.
  • All decision-making is carried out in Assemblies and residents work together at all stages of the process. The experience has brought together residents from different backgrounds and helped to create strong social networks.
  • Residents have gained skills in construction, community organising, dealing with social and legal aspects, procurement and financial management through the self-managed mutual help housing process. The three social enterprises that have been created involve a strong training element, and training is also provided in areas such as non-violent communication and human values.
  • Residents are empowered to take a leading role in the process, acquiring knowledge and experience. They have successfully lobbied different branches of government.
  • The process of self-management and collective production confirms the sense of belonging, increases self-esteem, provides greater security and enables residents to subsequently address other problems they may be facing.
  • ACC members have attended international events and exchanges, and the skills and abilities of other grassroots groups have increased as a result of these.
  • The project provides decent, safe and sanitary living conditions, in contrast to living conditions in the tenements. Monthly workshops are carried out with residents and healthcare professionals, with a view to preventing some of the more prevalent diseases in the area including HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, STDs, hepatitis and others.

 

Barriers

  • A company that was contracted to work with the residents in the first phase of the project did not fulfil its contract, leading to a one year delay until the matter could be resolved. Despite this setback, the first phase of the project is now nearing completion.
  • The counterpart funding from the municipal government was only received in late 2012. Given the fact that the project is located in an area where land speculation is high, the local government had limited interest in being a partner in the project. Through various demonstrations and negotiations, the ACC was finally able to obtain the promised funds.

 

Lessons Learned

  • The key lesson learned is that no matter how long it takes it is important to never give up on your dreams. The struggle has taken several years, people have come and gone, but the dream was kept alive until the goal was realised.
  • It is important to study all of tools that are available to help to secure funding and maximise the resources available.
  • Regarding the process itself, a key lesson is that working with people requires care and understanding – it is important to recognise that diversity enriches rather than divides.

 

Evaluation

Regular monitoring is carried out both by the ACC (on a monthly basis), as well as by the CAIXA Federal Development Bank.

 

Transfer

The project has received considerable local media coverage as well as featuring in two national TV programmes. Short films and documentaries have also been produced and many visitors have come to see the project, including grassroots groups, community leaders, international visitors and university students.

The project was extended to include a second phase, with the additional 68 units that are currently under construction.

The ACC is in negotiations with the Federal Assets Secretariat for more areas to be allocated both for new construction and the renovation of historic properties for social housing purposes, to help address the demand. Advanced talks are underway for the concession of an area of 100,000m2 to the ACC.

The ACC has carried out a number of workshops and exchanges with other communities to transfer knowledge and tools, and a blog has been created to share the experience more widely.

The ACC is currently advising two other community based organisations in the city who have secured land on which to build approximately 500 housing units.

The work of the ACC has led the Mayor of Santos to announce that further projects will be carried out in central areas to provide housing for low-income families. Funding is currently being sought for a comprehensive programme to transform historic buildings in the city centre into housing for low-income families currently living in cortiços.

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Fundació Mies van der Rohe Barcelona
World Habitat

CCOC Beaver Barracks Development

0

CCOC Beaver Barracks Development

Mismatches Services
Urban Design Liveability Inclusion
Promotion and production Participatory processes Innovation Management and maintenance

Main objectives of the project

Date

  • 2013: Finalista

Stakeholders

  • Promotor: World Habitat

Location

Continent: North America
Country/Region: Canada, Ottawa

Description

Beaver Barracks is a large affordable and environmentally sustainable housing development located in downtown Ottawa, on a brownfield site. It was commissioned in 2007 to the Centretown Citizens Ottawa Corporation (CCOC) by the City of Ottawa through the Action Ottawa programme – the City’s primary programme for increasing the supply of low-income affordable housing in Ottawa. The programme is designed to facilitate the development of mixed income communities that are appropriately designed and managed, and built on a scale that ensures integration within the neighbourhood. The Beaver Barracks innovatively integrates a mixed housing model with environmentally sustainable building design and operations. In fact, Beaver Barracks is one of the most sustainable rental housing developments in Ottawa from both a design and lifestyle perspective. The development is mixed in terms of incomes – with market, below-market and deeply subsidised rents – as well as access requirements, age and household composition.

 

Project Description

Aims and Objectives

CCOC is a community-based, tenant and member directed, private non-profit housing organisation whose mission is to create, maintain and promote housing for those on low and moderate incomes. It is one of the largest private non-profit affordable housing providers in Canada. In 2007, CCOC won a competitive Request for Proposals from the City of Ottawa to develop the Beaver Barracks site,  which is the biggest and most sustainable single development CCOC has done to date. Beaver Barracks aims to increase the supply of long-term affordable rental housing in downtown Ottawa and show that high performance energy-efficient buildings can be attractive, accessible, and affordable.

Context

Key problems faced in downtown Ottawa before the redevelopment of Beaver Barracks were similar to those in many other North American cities – the vast majority of new residential construction is private condominiums, which are unaffordable to a growing low and moderate income population. Older privately owned rental housing stock is in disrepair, providing poor quality housing, and is at risk of conversion and redevelopment. Specifically, there is a lack of affordable housing stock for families, older people living alone and people with accessibility needs.

At the time of the commissioning of the Beaver Barracks redevelopment, there were approximately 10,000 households on the City of Ottawa Social Housing Registry waiting list for subsidised housing, and a need for all household unit sizes from bachelors to large family sized homes. There was a gap to fill in terms of developing affordable rental housing that would regenerate the existing site, improve the quality of life of its tenants and keep families in the downtown area. The area where the development is located had previously been in decline throughout the 80s and 90s as residential and commercial development stagnated and parking lots proliferated. The influx of condominium developments in the last 10 years has threatened the mixed-income nature of the area, eroding the existing social fabric through gentrification.

Key features

Beaver Barracks is a large affordable housing development located in downtown Ottawa, on a brownfield site that was formerly occupied by WWII military barracks and which was sold by the Federal Government to the City of Ottawa in the early 1990s. It was earmarked for controlled rental housing and was the first site to be developed when a jointly funded government affordable housing programme was re-established.

The development comprises 254 dwelling units in five buildings, offering a blend of market, below-market and deeply subsidised rents for people on a range of incomes. Units range in size from studio flats to three bedrooms, for single persons and families, including older persons and those with accessibility problems. There is also ground floor commercial space in two buildings and meeting space for community groups. Tenants on subsidised rents are drawn from the City’s pre-qualified waiting list. The market rental tenants are selected on a first-come first serve basis. Market rents are capped to be no higher than the average market rent for the neighbourhood. It is one of the few affordable rental buildings in Ottawa’s core because of the gentrification pressures to build more profitable condominium developments.

During the design phase, integrated design workshops, known as charettes, were found to be an effective way of encouraging communities and their building professionals to think in a positive, innovative and collaborative way about building design, construction, operations and lifestyles.

Built to a high environmental standard, the development includes geothermal heating and cooling, a green roof, tenant-run gardens and a high performance building envelope, including triple glazed windows. Beaver Barracks is also wheelchair accessible and smoke free, with residents committing through their lease not to smoke in their apartments or on the property. Responsible waste diversion (recycling and organics) is encouraged by not providing rubbish chutes and having all waste sorted in a common room. Tenants are actively involved and sign a Green Commitment Pledge to reduce their environmental impact through lifestyle and consumer choices (although these green commitments are not legally binding).

Fifteen per cent of all the apartments are reserved for tenants who benefit from additional daily living support, and CCOC partners with several organisations to deliver that support, including to tenants with intellectual and physical disabilities, mental illness, or who have recently experienced homelessness. At Beaver Barracks there are 25 wheelchair-accessible units, and over 90 per cent of remaining units as well as all building amenity spaces are ‘visitable’ to people in a wheelchair.

Covering costs

  • The total capital budget for the development of Beaver Barracks was US$64 million. CCOC used a combination of public and private financing, including CCOC equity (three per cent), government grants (35 per cent) and mortgage financing (62 per cent). Over 70 per cent of Beaver Barracks revenue comes from rent, either by tenants (42 per cent) or rent subsidies paid through the City (30 per cent). The remainder comes from a small mortgage subsidy from the Province of Ontario (16 per cent) and fees from various services (12 per cent).
  • Over 80 per cent of CCOC’s total operating revenue in its full portfolio comes from rent (either paid by the tenants themselves or with state assistance,) 13 per cent from state operating subsidies, with the remainder coming from miscellaneous revenue from parking, laundry and commercial rent. A surplus of US$10,000 is anticipated on the US$20 million budget in 2013.

Impact

Although only recently fully completed, there has been a noticeable change in the neighbourhood. For 15 years the site was unoccupied and had been an eyesore. With 254 households including over 100 children, the development has helped reinvigorate the immediate neighbourhood. Local schools and day care centres which used to struggle with declining populations now have a permanent new source of families and children to use the available services.

CCOC is working with the City of Ottawa to develop financial templates and projection tables that will help the city and other local housing providers plan new affordable housing developments.

 

Why is it innovative?

  • Integration of a mixed housing model with environmental building design and operations.
  • Offering a blend of market, below market and deeply subsidised rents within one project.
  • The sites and buildings have a reduced environmental footprint, including the materials and technologies used but also the active engagement of the residents in the process.
  • Comprehensive waste recycling managed by residents is innovative in the Canadian context.

 

What is the environmental impact?

Beaver Barracks is one of the most sustainable rental housing developments in Ottawa from both a design and lifestyle perspective.

Resource efficient design features include:

  • A geothermal heating/cooling system, an energy recovery ventilator, tight building envelope; and triple glazed windows ensure that the buildings use 40 per cent less energy than comparable buildings.
  • Waste diversion is encouraged by not installing garbage chutes and using a common sorting room for waste, recycling and organics.
  • Energy efficient washing machines, low-flow plumbing fixtures and drought-resistant xeriscaping (water-wise landscaping) help save water.
  • The building envelope and floor include 40 per cent recycled material, and reclaimed wood was used for architectural details in the common areas.
  • Promoting a sustainable lifestyle: All tenants sign a pledge to commit to greening their lifestyles and reducing their environmental footprint. During their annual lease renewal, tenants will be provided with a summary of their past year’s pledges; a calculation of the reduction in their carbon footprint as a result of their green commitments. Each building has signs in common areas that promote the environmental design aspects of the building and reinforce green norms of behaviour.
  • CCOC facilitates a tenant-run Green Team to engage other tenants in green lifestyles, such as growing food in the on-site organic community gardens and providing workshops on harvesting fruit and nut trees.
  • CCOC sees gardening as a step toward food sovereignty. Summer 2013 will see the grand opening of Victory Gardens – a central tenant garden which will include a children’s garden, an accessible garden and a plot for donation to the Food Bank.
  • A variety of local food and food security programmes have been developed, including giving out ‘Buy Local’ food guides to all new tenants, with maps and lists of local farmers markets, helping start the Ottawa Good Food Box programme, providing free meeting space for gardening groups and working with local food security and gardening groups to increase participation.

In addition, the project also has wider environmental impacts:

  • Reuse of a brownfield site reduces the need for urban sprawl and the destruction of natural habitat.
  • The site’s central location enables tenants to walk to local shopping amenities, or use their bikes, take public transport or participate on a car-sharing programme which is located on site. Secure indoor bike parking and accommodation for e-bikes is provided. Car parking is available to less than 40 per cent of units.

 

Is it financially sustainable?

  • The initial work relied upon grants being available from the government. However, an independent audit by the City of Ottawa found that Beaver Barracks may begin to generate a modest surplus after the first five to ten years of operations.
  • Although the project was not conceived as one of community economic development, having an affordable home helps residents to live within their means and opens doors to education, employment and training.
  • Beaver Barracks provides high quality rental housing to many households that would not otherwise be able to afford it. Over the full development, 45 per cent of tenants will pay ‘rent geared to income’ (30 per cent of their gross household income); 15 per cent of tenants will pay ‘below market rent’ (70 per cent of the full rent) and 40 per cent of tenants will pay no more than the average market rent for the neighbourhood, which in itself is significantly lower than typical rent for newer condominium apartments.

 

What is the social impact?

Community co-operation and social integration:

  • Adding outdoor amenity space on balconies, rooftops or decks increases the available living area and provides a natural meeting spot for neighbours.
  • Planter boxes and gardens provide a launch point for discussion, which CCOC facilitates by distributing free flower, vegetable and herb plants to tenants, and by setting up tenant-run gardens.
  • As tenants get to know each other, they have organised pot lucks, games nights and kids’ clubs. They have also worked together on community issues, for example, leading the fight to restore a neighbourhood park after it was turned into a parking lot.

Skills development and resident involvement:

  • CCOC has developed partnerships with a number of community groups to provide opportunities to tenants to increase their skills, two of which are Resilient Kitchen which provides workshops on cooking, canning and preserving and, more recently, knitting; and Just Food, which provides free workshops on seed saving, organic gardening and pest control.
  • In addition to participating in CCOC governance, tenants are encouraged to get involved in their building at a practical level, taking advantage of green education programmes, gardening, composting, and participating in waste diversion initiatives.
  • Further opportunities for social engagement have been facilitated, including Ottawa School of Art (provides bursaries to tenants for art classes), YMCA-YWCA (provides reduced membership fees for recreational programmes).

Combatting social inequality:

  • All apartments are of the same quality and design, regardless of whether they are for market or subsidised rent.
  • CCOC has always worked to meet the housing needs of those who struggle with issues that make their housing more difficult or precarious, such as mental health and addiction issues and physical disabilities.
  • An accessible community garden is being designed in conjunction with tenants from ‘The In Community’, the agency that provides attendant support to people with complex physical disabilities.

 

Barriers

  • As this project represented a 20 per cent growth in CCOC’s portfolio, it found itself absorbing a proportionate growth in staff, new tenants and new technologies in a short period, complicated by changes in the senior staff team. CCOC had to carefully manage transition and integration of new staff.
  • This was the first multi-residential unit building in Ottawa where the entire development (indoor and outdoor) is smoke free. CCOC had to provide notice of eviction to some tenants who violated this policy, but in all cases tenants changed their behaviour and no one was evicted.
  • There was a significant increase in construction material costs during the development that challenged the financial viability and affordability of the project. CCOC learned that a significant risk analysis when doing such an expensive project as well as redesign of the project is necessary in order to adjust the budget.

 

Lessons Learned

  • Accessible unit design had to be adjusted in order to address individual resident concerns. CCOC realised after the first stage that tenants with accessibility issues need to be accommodated to address their individual needs and revised the design of the accessible units for the second stage to accommodate individual tenant accessibility concerns.
  • CCOC invested a large amount of capital in the geothermal technology. Although this is innovative, it was expensive and complex, causing increased costs to operate. As a result, CCOC will put an emphasis on passive design in future development to decrease a building’s environmental footprint rather than active technology such as geothermal.

 

Evaluation

CCOC is monitoring several environmental and social performance indicators, including the utility consumption and waste diversion, as well as tenants’ fulfilment of their green commitments. Data is currently being collected on solid waste, energy use and electricity consumption to understand whether the designed energy savings can be achieved.

 

Transfer

Beaver Barracks serves as a model for future CCOC affordable housing developments, and has served as a pilot for many CCOC ‘green living’ tools: tenant working groups, environmental building signs, no smoking policy, waste diversion, community gardens, biking parking, and car sharing.

One of CCOC’s partners has used their experience of being involved in the Beaver Barracks development to go green in their other properties.

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Authors:

World Habitat

Renewable Energy for Farmers

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Renewable Energy for Farmers

Policies and regulations

Main objectives of the project

Date

  • 2013: Finalista

Stakeholders

  • Promotor: World Habitat

Location

Continent: Asia
City: Jinma
Country/Region: China

Description

Continuity of an integrated planning approach over the last 30 years has led to the development of Freiburg as a leading exemplar of sustainable living in a compact car-lite city. Two urban extensions – Vauban and Rieselfeld – provide homes for 17,500 people and have been developed using low carbon technologies, self-build, and with excellent mass transit systems. The intention was to develop these districts to high environmental standards as well as ensuring that they had strong social structures and communities. A key success factor in Freiburg’s approach has been its focus on citizen participation and active democracy, enabling it to engage a wide range of stakeholders in its radical urban planning approach.

 

Project Description

Aims and Objectives

To create an environmentally and socially sustainable city through enlightened planning and pioneering use of renewable energy systems.

Context

Freiburg is an ancient university city with a population of 220,000 located in southern Germany near the Swiss and French borders. It is a rich city with a GDP per capita 11 per cent above the European average and has the highest concentration of sunshine in Germany, with more than 1,700 hours per year. Urban planning and development have always had a special impact on Freiburg. After the devastating destructions of the World War II and with 85 per cent of the inner city destroyed, the programmatic corner stones for Freiburg’s exemplary spatial and settlement development were laid out during the post-war years. The city was rebuilt from the 1950s onwards, taking note of traditional urban patterns and cultural heritage, but with a focus on sustainable development. In the 1960s, the crucial decision was made to hold on to the tram network as the backbone of urban development in Freiburg and consequently, to expand it accordingly. In addition to this, the “five fingers” concept was developed for the distribution of green spaces to clearly separate open zone from building zones. These elements – the tram as well as the division into green areas and building areas – are still the guiding aspects for Freiburg’s urban development today.

The Planning Department has long been a key department in the municipality and has always been progressive, introducing pedestrianisation, for example, in the city centre in 1949, and refusing to build shopping malls outside of the city. There is a stable political system, with the Green Party having dominance for the last decade. With up to 35 per cent of the overall city vote, the Green Party is the strongest in any major German city.

Key features

The process of sustainable city planning started in the 1970s when the citizens of Freiburg did not want to accept a planned nuclear power station. In 1986, with the nuclear catastrophe at Chernobyl fresh in their minds, Freiburg’s municipal council decided to have a future-oriented energy policy based on renewable resources wherever possible. This led to the development of Freiburg as a global first-rank model of sustainable urban life. It is a compact city development with car-lite systems.

Freiburg has a strong orientation to walking, bicycling, and public transport, with car-free areas and high levels of accessibility for people of all ages. It seeks to be ‘a city of short distances’. This involves three major strategies: restricting the use of cars in the city, providing effective transport alternatives to the car and regulating land-use to prevent sprawl. Two-thirds of Freiburg’s land area is devoted to green uses. Just 32 per cent is used for urban development, including all transportation. Forests take up 42 per cent, while 27 per cent of land is used for agriculture, recreation, water protection, etc.

As a result of the Chernobyl catastrophe in 1986, Freiburg made the saving of resources the most vital factor for all future planning which included the clear prioritisation of public transport over individual traffic and goals to reduce energy consumption of buildings and realise future planning areas through self-financing schemes. The two major urban extensions Vauban and Rieselfeld were developed under these guidelines. Both developments have been built on brownfield sites – Vauban was on the site of a former military barracks and Rieselfeld on a sewage farm. Vauban is a neighbourhood of 5,500 inhabitants, located four km south of Freiburg town centre and is estimated to be one of the largest solar districts in Europe. All houses in Vauban are built to a low-energy consumption standard – maximum 65 kWh/m2/year (the average energy standard for new-build German houses is about 100 kWh/m2/year, 200 kWh/m2/year for older houses). Low-carbon technologies include heating from a combined heat and power station, solar collectors and photovoltaics. Self-build is used extensively in Rieselfeld, an urban extension for 12,500 people started in 1992. Direct mass transit links were created to the city centre. The current land-use plan for the city focuses on developing within the current city limits to optimise the existing infrastructure. Although the new concentration is on interior development, Freiburg’s population figures are still climbing and the number of jobs (mainly in the field of universities and of high-ranking scientific facilities) is also constantly increasing.

Freiburg’s success owes much to its democratic strength. Three key factors are direct citizen participation, dynamic planning, and consensus. Active democracy was the first step when citizens worked to oppose the planned nuclear power plant. This early activism has evolved so that citizens are directly involved in land-use planning, the city budget, technical expertise committees, developing public information on sustainability, and as shareholders in local renewable energy providers (e.g. solar, wind). The broad base of involved citizens is credited for Freiburg’s development of a consensus on sustainable development across the major stakeholders. This has enabled goals to be pursued steadily over decades.

Covering costs

The usual sources of income available to the city authorities have been used to deliver this work. The Vauban and Rieselfeld developments were built without any contribution from the city budget. The income received from selling the serviced plots of land to co-operatives, individuals and small builders covered the costs of the land and all the necessary physical and social infrastructure that the city provided.

WHA2013_GERMANY4

Impact

  • The standard of living in Freiburg is recognised as one of the highest in Germany, not only due to the natural climate and landscape advantages, but also to the active engagement of the citizens in decision making and sustainable city living.
  • The citizens of Freiburg have a well-developed understanding of environmental issues, which affects their lifestyle choices.
  • As a national exemplar of sustainable urban planning, ideas developed here have been used in countries around the world.
  • The project itself involves the development of local government planning policies, which have also been used in other cities. Freiburg is very well known throughout Germany for its sustainable approaches, which have influenced both regional and national governments. Germany now has some of the strongest environmental protection policies in Europe.

 

Why is it innovative?

  • Development of an integrated planning approach to develop an environmentally sustainable pattern of city living thirty years ago, before such approaches were widely recognised.
  • Encouragement of citizen engagement in the decision making for the city.
  • Recognition of the importance of an integrated mass transit system throughout the city in creating a ‘city of short distances’, enabling high levels of public transport use, cycling and walking.

 

What is the environmental impact?

Low-energy building is obligatory in the Vauban district; zero-energy and energy-plus building and the application of solar technology are standard. There are over 50 passive houses and at least 100 units with ‘plus energy’, which is estimated to be one of the largest ‘solar districts’ in Europe.

Freiburg is a centre for innovative sustainable energy generation – solar, wind, hydropower, co-generation and district energy. Extensive use of permeable ground surfaces, bio-swales (vegetated areas designed to attenuate and treat rainwater runoff) and green roofs helps save water. Property owners are charged a storm water fee according to the percentage of their land that is permeable.

The Freiburg Climate Protection Strategy 2030 provides a clear focus and wide-ranging framework for local action in key areas identified for effective GHG emissions reduction. The city’s focus is now on achieving the new target – a 40 per cent reduction by 2030 on the baseline year of 1992 – with the support of an action plan, a structure established to support the implementation process and engaging its citizens.

Vauban is virtually car-free with over 70 per cent of households not owning a car. Car owners have to purchase a parking space in a multi-storey car park on the outskirts of Vauban for US$23,350, plus a monthly service charge. Transportation planners make use of five mechanisms to encourage healthy and sustainable transportation modes – extension of the public transportation network; traffic restraint; channelling individual motorised vehicle traffic; parking space management; and promotion of cycling. Today there are 30km of tramway network, which is connected to 168km of city bus routes as well as to the regional railway system. Seventy per cent of the population lives within 500m of a tram stop.

 

Is it financially sustainable?

The stable political system, with a strong Green Party, is likely to ensure the continuity of funding sustainability in the city. The city takes a hard-headed commercial approach to development. Loans have to be repaid, grants are limited and only five per cent of the housing in Rieselfeld is funded by the municipality. Expenditure on roads is minimised, most of the streets are only four metres wide and limited to car use only. There is a betterment levy, with the city authorities taking one third of the increase in value on the sale of open land. Land for building is sold off in small plots (190 to 210m2) with limits on the number of plots any one group can buy, thus favouring small builders and co-operative groups. In Vauban, less than 30 per cent of the land area was built up by large developers, 70 per cent of the plots were sold to small builders and co-operatives, resulting in 175 different building projects.

Homes are reasonably affordable in the city, reflecting partly the German housing market with its low rate of house-price inflation. There is a high proportion of affordable rental housing (80 per cent of stock). Co-operative building groups help to keep home ownership affordable with building costs much lower than buildings with similar quality bought ready from a development company.

The city is one of the wealthier cities in Germany and it has created a specialised service sector relating to renewable technologies. The university is a leading institution for renewable energy research, with many manufacturing off-shoots. A variety of small eco-focussed businesses and eco-tourism have emerged. For example, Genova, a private enterprise building co-operative is pursuing ecological concepts of solar installations for publicly co-financed housing.

 

What is the social impact?

WHA2013_GERMANY4Freiburg has long had an emphasis on citizen engagement. There are many opportunities for citizens to be engaged within their communities and in city-wide campaigns for environmental improvement. When the two new urban areas were developed local community forums were established which acted as joint place promoters, offering critical support to the city council and through its energy and activism, encouraging it to move forwards.

The new urban extensions in the city have a family friendly character, with the city’s emphasis on being a ‘city of short distances’. There are flourishing community centres where people can hold meetings, organise entertainment, have a meal etc. Community participation in the city’s Land Use Plan involved 19 working groups of technical officers and local communities.
In Vauban, the city used the principles of the community architecture movement, encouraging groups working together with their own architect to develop a block of buildings around a defined open space. In Rieselfeld there was a strong emphasis on self-build and the municipality provided serviced sites, enabling people to have homes costing up to 25 per cent less. Over 100 different builders were involved (20 per cent were co-operatives). Co-operative self-build improves the skills of those involved in a wide range of areas. Wide-scale development of eco-based industries has developed specialist skills in academia, services and manufacturing.

Emphasis on cycling and walking rather than car use, the availability of local produce and the development of close community networks all serve to improve the health and safety of local people. The car-lite living patterns, especially in Vauban and Rieselfeld, enable children to play safely outside of the home. The emphasis on social sustainability in all aspects of life has ensured a reduction in social inequalities. The housing development process has led to a wide range of designs and development and it is difficult to gauge people’s wealth from the outside of their house.

In 2008 the city of Freiburg used meetings as well as online discussions about participatory budgeting with the use of a budget simulator, enabling citizens to better assess the impacts of their choices. The results of this deliberative process were then collaboratively aggregated and edited by the participants of the process themselves.

 

Barriers

Initial resistance came in the early days from many of the city’s population, especially those who lived in the suburbs, who did not want to reduce their dependency on the car and wished to have out-of-town shopping facilities. There was also strong resistance coming from the developers who wished to have a free hand in the development of the city. Both were overcome by having a clear strategy for the development of the city and making this clear to developers and by convincing and inspiring the people that this was a good choice for the city through engagement in the discussion and decision-making process.

 

Lessons Learned

  • Implement controversial policies in stages, choosing projects that everyone agrees on first.
  • Keep plans flexible and adaptable over time to allow for changing conditions.
  • Policies should include both sticks and carrots to encourage people to change behaviour, i.e. making parking more expensive and difficult, but making public transport, cycling and walking much easier.
  • Organise land use and transportation on an integrated basis to ensure that travel distances can be kept short.
  • Involving the citizens should be an integral part of policy development and implementation.
  • Support from regional and national government is vital in helping local policies to work.
  • Long-term goals need to be pursued on a consistent basis.
  • City leaders have to be committed to long-term engagement, but always with the support and engagement of the people.
  • Be creative and tactical in working with a wide range of different investors and other actors.
  • Be proud of the achievements and celebrate them with the citizens.
  • Continuity is vital.

 

Evaluation

Active monitoring is carried out across a range of city activities to ensure that the Freiburg Climate Protection Strategy 2030 is on target to achieve the planned GHG emission reductions of 40 per cent by 2030 on the baseline year of 1992.

 

Transfer

Freiburg has long been an exemplar par excellence for urban planners wishing to look for models of sustainable urban development. There is widespread media coverage of the pioneering work being done in Freiburg, as well as citation in academic literature. The city and its planning system have received many plaudits and awards over the last 30 years. Some more recent ones include the European City of the Year 2010 (Academy of Urbanism), the European Green Capital (Finalist 2009) and the Federal Capital for Climate Protection 2010.

The city has established the Freiburg Charter with a set of 12 principles to guide planning and development if a sustainable city is to be achieved. This is being widely discussed and used by planning authorities around the world, with many presentations and international congresses on the approach, as well as academic and professional visitors coming to learn directly how to establish a similar charter in their own situations and learn from its numerous good practice examples, including energy, transport, buildings and waste management.

Local towns and cities have adopted many of the examples set by Freiburg. Other German cities continue to learn from the experience at Freiburg, with both the planning professionals as well as city leaders seeking to develop similar approaches. The Freiburg model has spread to cities in neighbouring countries, including Mulhouse in France and Basel in Switzerland, as well as further afield. Freiburg is twinned with nine cities around the world and it continues to have close connections with them, providing support and planning guidance.

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