Ashoka eBook Final

8/22/2019 Ashoka eBook Final

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Global Spread oAordable Housing

The BIG IDEA


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2012 The Big Idea:

Global Spread of Affordable Housing

Compiled and edited byScott Anderson or Next Billion andRochelle Beck or Ashoka Full Economic Citizenship,rom blog posts solicited, edited and published on NextBillion.net in 2011.

Published jointly by

Next Billionwww.Nextbillion.net

and

Ashoka Full Economic Citizenshipwww.ec.ashoka.org

Rights and Permissions

The material in this ebook is copyright protected.We want it to be used and disseminated widely.

All those wishing to quote, copy or reproduce portions o this work are permitted to doso by using the ollowing reerence citation:

The BIG IDEA: Global Spread of Affordable Housing. Compiled and edited by ScottAnderson and Rochelle Beck (Next Billion and Ashoka Full Economic Citizenship, 2012).

Cover photo: Slum daughter by Martina Wengle or Ashoka.
http://www.nextbillion.net/http://www.fec.ashoka.org/http://www.fec.ashoka.org/http://www.nextbillion.net/


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compiled and edited by

and

Global Spread oAordable Housing

The BIG IDEA

FULL ECONOMIC CITIZENSHIP


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Mother and her amily in ront o their sel-built shelter in India. They do not have titleto the land under their shelter and could be evicted at any moment. The roo leaks, thewalls get moldy and the children requently get sick. Against many obstacles, this motheris proud to have put a roo over her childrens heads and to provide them with a lovinghome. She is one o 26 million in India needing aordable housing. Photo : Ross Mytton orAshoka HFA India.


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Contents

FOREWORD

Launching the BIG IDEA Special Series by Scott Anderson 6INTRODUCTION

Global Spread o Aordable Housing by Rochelle Beck 9Sizing Up the Decit by Olivier Kayser and Lucie Klarseld 12

LEADING INNOVATIONS

Rights to the Land Beneath Your Home by Andr Albuquerque 16Building Sustainable Housing by Francesco Piazzesi 19When Earthquakes and Hurricanes Strike with Elizabeth Hausler 23

Shelter Ater Disaster by Mario Flores 28Community Rebuilding in Haiti by Ted Bauman 32The Power o Collecting Accurate Market Data by Keerthi Kiran 35Developing Building Standards by Martina Wengle 40

FINANCING: NECESSARY BUT NOT SUFFICIENT

Impact Investing in Aordable Housing by Aden Van Noppen 45The Value o Technical Assistance by Rakhi Mehra & Marco Ferrario 49Housing Support Services by Steven Weir & Susana Rojas Williams 54

From Loans to Asset Building to Economic Inclusion by Irena Shiba & Patrick Kelley 61The Race or Home Improvements bySadna Samaranayake 65Ashoka HFA Brazil: Hybrid Value Chains in Action a video 71

USING HYBRID STRATEGIES, BUILDING ECOSYSTEMS

The Pyramid within the Pyramid by Vishnu Swaminathan 73Beyond Four Walls by Melissa Scott 79Discovering the Next Generation o Innovations by Chip Reeves 82Dow Corning Posts rom the Field by Ronda Grosse and Frank DeLano 84Aordable Housing in our Lietime? by Valeria Budinich 89Jane Goodall and Aordable Housing by Rochelle Beck 93TEDx The City 2.0 by Rochelle Beck 100

THE BIG IDEA AUTHORS AND EDITORS

Biographies 102

CONTINUING THE CONVERSATION

New Cities Global Summit 110


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Aordable housing.

Its hard to nd a topic more complex, andyet more relevant, to the poverty alleviationpuzzle. From homeowner nancing to landrights, rom new home construction torehabilitation o dilapidated dwellings,to models that ensure sustainable, ethical

and protable development in coordinationwith low-income customers, aordablehousing is conounding in its intricacies.

But above all o these seemingly intractablecomplexities, theres one constant: Wherewe live is the most personal o economicsubjects. It touches every other part o ournancial lives: our livelihoods, our amiliesand our communities.

To say this issue is wide in scope is a drasticunderstatement. So to help home in on thetrue innovations, breakthroughs and leadingthinkers/doers in aordable housing throughenterprise, we at NextBillion turned toour Content Partner, Ashoka. Specically,we teamed up Ashokas Full EconomicCitizenship (FEC), which brings years oglobal experience and knowledge through itsHousing or All initiative. FEC has managedthree intense pilots in India, Brazil andColombia to demonstrate the eectivenesso its signature business model: the HybridValue Chain.

Working closely with Rochelle Beck,communications/media director or FEC

global initiatives, we identied a diversecross-section o leaders in low-incomehousing. The result was a lineup o strongposts rom diverse authors both topicallyand geographically whose cutting-edgeinormation, experience and openness ledto a rich online exchange.

We put these posts together on The BigIdea page, which concentrates on subjectswe know to be important to NextBillionsreadership. Past series have includedinnovations in impact investing, improvingmicronance and mobile health careapplications.

But the nearly two dozen posts in thisaordable housing series constituted oneo the most intensive examinations o anissue in NextBillions history. Indeed, theeedback we received rom our readerswas equally impressive. Over the six-weekperiod o this series, rom October throughearly December 2011, we saw intensereader trac and heard rom a wide rangeo experts, both inside and outside oaordable housing.

The eedback has been so positive, wedecided to compile the entire series into thisebook. Thanks to the ongoing support andhard work o our partners at Ashoka FEC, Improud to oer you this ebook o The BIG IDEA:

Affordable Housing series.

ForewordBy Scott Anderson


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Organized loosely by topic, and with a ewmore pieces o late-breaking inormationand videos, we hope this ree ebook willserve as a resource or those working inthe sector, as well as a touchstone or

practitioners, policymakers, students andellow innovators who ound cross-sectorrelevance o the new ideas, insights, andrameworks presented in these posts.

We hope this compilation serves asreerence to share widely in your networkand with your colleagues. Please join usin disseminating it to all who might ndit useul, and please get back us with

comments and suggestions that mightadvance this multi-disciplinary discussion.

Scott Anderson,Managing Editor, NextBillion


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Sprawling slums such as this one in Mumbai, India, are the reality or millions o peopleworldwide. Virtually no country is immune. The challenge: As the global trends o urbanmigration and population growth continue, how can we, together, envision, plan, und,innovate and build aordable housing that is better or people, economies, the planet?Photo: Joel Newell. Used with permission.


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For those o you working in aordablehousing, the statistics are by now amiliar:As o 2008, or the rst time in the worlds

history, more people lived in cities than onrural land.1

One-third o these city-dwellers onebillion people or one-sixth o the worldspopulation live in slums and shantytownsin deplorable conditions, oten withoutaccess to basic sanitation, sae drinkingwater, minimal structural integrity,let alone a house built to withstand

earthquakes or foods, amid garbageand vermin, with poor quality or arawayschools and health care, where narrowstreets and poverty breed not only diseasebut daily risks o violence and death.

Urban slums are the astest growing humanhabitat. The UN projects that by 2030, thisnumber will triple: well over three billionpeople will live in urban slums. A nightmare

1 These acts disturbing as they are and as importantor developing and nancing solutions cannot adequatelydescribe the terrible human toll and social and economicloss produced by living in crowded, disease-ridden andunsae slums. For the best, short visual tour or the eelo our planets slums, see The Places We Live by JonasBendiksen (a multimedia exhibition shown at the WorldPeace Center, produced by Magnum Photos).www.theplaceswelive.com

or slum-dwellers, a dark cloud overtheir childrens uture, a powder keg orcities management and health, a drain on

national productivity and economic growth.From Ashokas entrepreneurialperspective, such a massive social andeconomic problem must have within itthe seeds o large social and economicopportunities. As Ashoka ounder BillDrayton points out:

I a billion people are shut out o the ormal

housing market, what would it mean to yourbusiness i you could unlock the potentialo that trillion-dollar market?

A trillion dollar BoP housing market?Impossible, you say? Not really. I you addup the building materials to be produced,distributed and sold, the loans andinterest on mortgages, improvementsor construction deals, the jobs and

income generated, the land purchased,inrastructure and public services built all the related products and servicesto meet the aordable housing decitglobally it amounts to a multi-trilliondollar opportunity or multiple areas oemployment and economic growth.

Global Spread o Aordable HousingBy Rochelle Beck

INTRODUCTION
http://www.theplaceswelive.comfor/http://www.theplaceswelive.comfor/http://www.theplaceswelive.comfor/http://www.theplaceswelive.comfor/http://www.theplaceswelive.comfor/http://www.theplaceswelive.comfor/http://www.theplaceswelive.comfor/http://www.theplaceswelive.comfor/http://www.theplaceswelive.comfor/http://www.theplaceswelive.comfor/http://www.theplaceswelive.comfor/http://www.theplaceswelive.comfor/http://www.theplaceswelive.comfor/http://www.theplaceswelive.comfor/http://www.theplaceswelive.comfor/http://www.theplaceswelive.comfor/http://www.theplaceswelive.comfor/http://www.theplaceswelive.comfor/http://www.theplaceswelive.comfor/http://www.theplaceswelive.comfor/http://www.theplaceswelive.comfor/http://www.theplaceswelive.comfor/http://www.theplaceswelive.comfor/http://www.theplaceswelive.comfor/http://www.theplaceswelive.comfor/http://www.theplaceswelive.comfor/http://www.theplaceswelive.comfor/http://www.theplaceswelive.comfor/http://www.theplaceswelive.comfor/http://www.theplaceswelive.comfor/http://www.theplaceswelive.comfor/http://www.theplaceswelive.comfor/http://www.theplaceswelive.comfor/http://www.theplaceswelive.comfor/http://www.theplaceswelive.comfor/http://www.theplaceswelive.comfor/http://www.theplaceswelive.comfor/http://www.theplaceswelive.comfor/http://www.theplaceswelive.comfor/http://www.theplaceswelive.comfor/http://www.theplaceswelive.comfor/http://www.theplaceswelive.comfor/http://www.theplaceswelive.comfor/http://www.theplaceswelive.comfor/http://www.theplaceswelive.comfor/http://www.theplaceswelive.comfor/http://www.theplaceswelive.comfor/http://www.theplaceswelive.comfor/http://www.theplaceswelive.comfor/http://www.theplaceswelive.comfor/http://www.theplaceswelive.comfor/http://www.theplaceswelive.comfor/http://www.theplaceswelive.comfor/http://www.theplaceswelive.comfor/http://www.theplaceswelive.comfor/http://www.theplaceswelive.comfor/http://www.theplaceswelive.comfor/http://www.theplaceswelive.comfor/


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So why arent we hearing the sounds omassive housing construction projectsunder way?

As we listen to diverse aordable housingcolleagues working around the globe,

it seems that the very size and complexityo what is needed to close the aordablehousing gap seems too large or any onestakeholder to grab onto and succeed.

Some builders and developers seesignicant potential prots, but theydo not have accurate market inormationabout what their new customers slum

dwellers need, want, currently spendor can aord or housing. Their traditionalmarketing and sales orces have little or noexperience in slums, nor trusted workingrelationships with those who do. I a barriersuch as ambiguous land title or too ew ortoo expensive home mortgage productsare available, the perceived risk oten isenough to sink their interest. They leavemoney on the table and walk away or a dealsomewhere else.

Local and national governments see thelarge numbers needing saer housing 26million in India alone but also know theycannot aord to build or subsidize all thatis needed. They become rustrated whenthey spend unds to build public housing,only to have a tiny raction o the need

met, slum problems continue unabated,and worse, see any potential benetseroded by poor planning or corruption.Worse, their subsidies can unintentionallyundermine market value or aordablehousing projects, thereby discouragingmore private real estate development.Many well-intentioned charitable investors

in aordable housing have lost condenceinvesting in the sector or similar reasons.

Traditional private realtors, governmentagencies and charities still rely on formalhousing to solve the shortage by buildingnew homes in large numbers, withoutrecognizing that almost 80 percent o BoPaordable housing is sel-built and sel-nanced, a consequence o being ignored bybig companies, retail chains and nancialinstitutions. It oten represents decades osaving, bit by bit, building or repairing, bitby bit, as time and income allow, and is theonly tangible asset the amily has. O theormal economic grid, and largely ignoredby housing sector value chains developedor the middle and upper classes, most BoPamilies rely on their own resourceulnessto put a roo, even i leaky, over their heads.

This series gives us all the opportunityto break down this massive problem andthe equally massive social and economic

opportunity into its various threads. Andto hear rom many voices, with perspectivesrom dierent parts o the world citizens,architects, engineers, urban planning experts,entrepreneurs, business executives andcommunity leaders all o whom care deeplyabout nding solutions that work at scale.

We invite you to share your experiences

over the next weeks as you read posts on: What are the tough, persistent barrierspreventing commercial solutions romsucceeding at the BoP at global scale?Whos tackling them?

I we ound a way to close the aordablehousing gap by 50 percent by 2030, how


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many carpenters, electricians, cementmixers, bricklayers, engineers, architects,local hardware stores, etc. would be needed?

Who exactly are aordable housingclients? What do we learn when we look

more closely at what exactly BoP meansor aordable housing?

Are there construction materials ordesigns that build houses better, saer,energy ecient and aordably?

Are there earthquake resistant designsthat BoP housing can aord?

What saety and integrity standards

protect residents rom poor qualityhousing, but do not make homes toocostly or the market?

Are there enough innovative nancialproducts and services or this sector?What do they look like? What shouldtheylook like?

Is nancing enough to ensure aordablehousing access and quality?

Beyond one project in one place at onetime, how can we nourish an aordablehousing ecosystem with the interest toaccelerate and sustain the level o growthneeded?

In addition to these questions, as thechallenge o closing the aordablehousing gap is too big or any one o its

major stakeholders to accomplish alone,we have solicited posts about emerginginnovative social-business rameworksthat are orging alliances among diversestakeholders, sustaining them over time,to collaborate, each bringing their skills,knowledge and resources to the table.

We explore these experiences in buildingtrusted relationships. What happensto competition, prots, market share,inormation and innovation whentraditional silo walls are broken downand knowledge, expertise, invention andresources are shared? How can we buildon these new systems to bring down thetraditional walls between business andcitizens, governments and entrepreneurs,researchers and pragmatic planners?

What are the advantages o workingwith the citizen organizations to improvehousing value chains appropriate to BoP

circumstances? What successes canthey help achieve, especially in areas oland tenure, amily nancial literacy andsavings, aggregating demand or nancialservices that reduce banks costs ooutreach by qualiying trusted clients creditworthiness? Or working to get an aordablehousing community the public services allcommunities need to thrive: sidewalks andplay areas, electricity and paved streets,

schools and retail shops, transportationand jobs.

Check back here oten.

Share your questions, experiences andsuggestions with your colleagues and ourreaders. Theres no time to waste.

A multi-trillion dollar market is waiting

to be tapped, and a billion people needingmore than a roo over their heads.


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Most o us know that many poor peoplelack the security and saety o a properhome. What is dicult to comprehend is themagnitude o the challenge. Some numbersmay help.

To close hal o a very conservatively

estimated housing decit in the next tenyears, our world would need to:

Train or seven million masons;

Create and operate housing nanceinstitutions the size o 22 Grameen Banks;

Grow the construction businesses toserve a $36 billion annual market!

How did we come up with these numbers?

With over one billion people currentlyliving in inadequate housing, amongthem 835 million in urban areas,1 we canconservatively extrapolate a need or closeto 167 million housing solutions (bothnew homes and home improvements)or average amilies o ve people whocurrently live in slums or equivalent

inormal urban zones.2

1 UN Habitat 2010 estimated that in 2010, 828 millionpeople lived in slums, and this number was rising by 7million per year, or 835 million people living in slums in 2011.

2 As solutions seen in this report only address urbanhousing issues, the estimations below are only ocusingon the size o the urban housing market.

I current population growth and migration,resulting in seven million additional slumdwellers per year, continue at todays rates,they would increase that gure in the nextten years will to a (very conservative) need o180 million urban housing solutions by 2020.

What would it take to address only hal othis need, with 50 percent o the 180 millionrequired homes remaining unt becausethe residents cannot aord to improve themor buy a new home?

We based the ollowing estimates on whatalready works, i.e., the best practicesor new homes and home improvementsseen during the course o our joint studywith Ashoka on housing or the poor.3These assumptions are simplied and donot capture the nuances o the aordablehousing market. Nevertheless, these basicassumptions are conservative in nature andserve a purpose. They illustrate the enormityo our collective challenge in addressing andcapturing this market, beore we even beginto address the nuances.

Assuming that twice the number opeople buying a new home will have theopportunity to improve their existing home,this would translate in the coming ten-yearperiod in the ollowing:

3 See Budinich, V., Kayser, O., and Samaranayake, S.,Access to Aordable Housing (Ashoka and Hystra, 2012).

Sizing Up the Aordable Housing DecitBy Oliver Kayser and Lucie Klarseld


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45 million new homes (25 percent o the180 million homes needed by 2020) willbe built at a price o $6,000 per unit,4 eachrequiring the equivalent o one ull-timeconstruction worker or one year (or a

team o our or three months); 90 million home improvement projects will

be carried out at an average cost o $1,000per project,5 each requiring the equivalento one ull-time construction worker orthree months. Assuming each home willhave beneted rom two improvementprojects, this would translate into 25percent o homes being improved.

Taken together, these would entailcumulated construction expenditure oUS$360 billion. Assuming this constructionis spread over ten years, it would createa US$36 billion market or constructionand nancing services annually.

The human resources required areenormous. Building or improving these

homes would require training close to sevenmillion masons over ten years.6 Assuminghousing micronance were available to meetthese demands, extending nance wouldrequire the equivalent o roughly 280,000loan ocers.7 This would be the equivalento creating 22 Grameen Banks disbursing

4 This gure includes labor and materials costs.

5 This gure, too, includes labor and materials costs.

6 These gures assume 4.5 million new homes requiringone man-year to build and 9.0 million home improvementsrequiring 0.25 man-years to complete.

7 Assuming 30 new home loans (at 80 percent o US$6,000)per loan ocer or 70 home improvement loans (at 80percent o US$1,000) per loan ocer, corresponding to anaverage loan disbursement o US$100,000 per loan ocer.

US$29 billion in new loans every year!8

These numbers are awe inspiring, despitethe very conservative assumptions we havemade. We can saely say that succeeding inaddressing roughly hal o the global urban

housing decit would require innitely morethan the scaling up o all existing programs.And additional models and resources wouldbe needed in rural areas, not included inthe estimates proposed here. These datashow our task is about building an entireconstruction industry.9

To achieve this, all actors will need tocollaborate, requiring:

Construction material companies to ndnew supply processes that will help morepoor dwellers to improve their homes;

Real estate developers to nd creativeways to lower the cost o their units andcollaborate with nance organization whoaccept to work with the poor;

Finance organizations to adapt theirprocesses to provide loans to inormalworkers;

Citizen sector organizations to help theprivate sector liaise with uture BoPclients and to support them along thewhole construction/acquisition process,as well as to help select and train BoPhousing workers;

8 Grameen Bank has approximately 13,000 loan ocersamong its 23,000 sta.

9 The challenge o producing the corresponding buildingmaterials appears less ormidable: assuming 10 percento the aordable housing market is spent on cement, thiswould represent a US$3.6 billion (or 72 metric tons) marketopportunity or cement manuacturers, less than hal whatLaarge produces alone and approximately 2.5 to 3 percento the world demand.


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Public authorities to implement propertyrights and create an appropriate legalramework, especially regarding nancingsolutions or housing;

Universities and trade schools to reachinto BoP or specialized training andskill certication that will support thehuge human resource need or suchan industry to emerge.

The magnitude and gravity o the challengeand investments that ace the aordablehousing community goes ar beyond whatwe can loosely quantiy, much beyond anysingle organizations capabilities. Onlyincreased collaboration and concertedeorts across multiple players, as describedabove, will allow us to make a dent to the

global housing decit.

Skilled contractor coordinates construction workers on new multi-unit housing in India.Photo: Ashoka HFA India.


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Children etch their names into the eco-riendly, innovative adoblocks which, when sun-dried, are as strong and hard as concrete bricks. They are made 90 percent rom local soil,and the whole community unites to make them at a raction o the cost o cement bricks.These children will orever remember this community improvement project as they passtheir signed bricks placed in the walls o each o their new homes. Photo courtesyo Echale a Tu Casa.


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The process o global urbanization withmillions migrating rom rural areas to ndreuge, a new lie and hope or a better

uture has created disorderly, inormaland oten chaotic growth. Cities in emergingeconomies have not been prepared orthese infuxes o people, who come withoutnancial resources to rent or buy a houseor skills to nd work. As they realize theirplight no place they can aord to live many have occupied public and privateareas illegally, usually in areas ringing theoutskirts o cities oten without any urban

or social inrastructure.

These squatters may have intended tobuild temporary shelters until they couldget work and rent or build a legal place tolive. But as time passes, they begin addingon to their temporary shelter, trying tomake it a home or their amily. Othersjoin them, and soon squatter communities

grow, even though they are built on landthat is not legally theirs.

These occupations o vacant lands havebecome a way to compensate or theaordable housing decit in many countries.While it solves an immediate problem oshelter, it creates other problems: confictsover land ownership, urban inrastructure

and public services, environmentalprotection and conficts among variousgovernment agencies that impact urban

development, but do not coordinate witheach other. This is all evidence o problemsthat go beyond that o housing alone.

Inormal settlements in Brazil. During thelast decades in Brazil, the production oaordable housing has been insucient.The 2000 Census in Brazil estimatedthere were 12.4 million people living insubstandard housing. The UN Habitat

projects this number will reach 55 millionpeople by 2020. Brazils slums, its inamousavelas, are growing ast.

Government lags behind the need to solvethe integrated problems o aordablehousing, especially to resolve issueso rights to the land under the homesnew arrivals have built. There have beenrequent changes in government policiesand programs, conficting economic andpolitical interests, and just the large amounto resources needed to compensate ownersor their land so it can be legally, quicklyand airly transerred to the amilies andcommunities that have established homeshas become an insurmountable barrier orgovernment to achieve.

Rights to the Land Under Your HomeBy Andr Albuquerque

LEADING INNOVATIONS


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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZ9QJZjBRQ

Solutions built at the grassroots level.Terra Nova Regularizaes Fundirias,which was established in the southernBrazilian state o Paran, marks a new,

and we believe, unprecedented perspectiveto solve the lack o land ownership inavelas. Over the past decade, we careullyevaluated the laws dening propertyrights, and the governments processes orsettling disputes. We ound they were overlycomplex, slow and costly, with the resultthat slum dwellers rarely used them.

We developed a methodology that

signicantly reduces the bureaucracyinvolved in the process o regularization(the term the Brazilian government uses todescribe the legal and air transer o landtitle rom the current private or public landowner to the squatter amily or community).This ensures that the confict related to landownership is resolved quickly and peaceully,

allowing the occupants, with their ownresources, to obtain title to the lot in whichthey reside. Watch the video to learn moreabout how the new methodology works.

Results surpass home and communityimprovements. By creating an entrepreneurialprocess whereby amilies engage in and payor the process to acquire land rights, therelationship o that person or amily to theland is larger than mere ownership. It is avery dierent and much stronger relationshipthan when the government gives this title tothe residents or ree.

Land titling transitions residents romillegal squatters with insecurity about theiruture and no real asset in the homesthey build because they lack title, to beingable to participate in the ormal economyas legal homeowners and communitymembers, now with a tangible, legal asset
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZ9QJfZjBRQhttp://www.schwabfound.org/sf/SocialEntrepreneurs/Profiles/index.htm?sname=216537http://www.schwabfound.org/sf/SocialEntrepreneurs/Profiles/index.htm?sname=216537http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZ9QJfZjBRQ


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as collateral. Not surprisingly, we haveseen more home improvements aterregularization.

From the moment a slum is regularized,the area is recognized by rest o the public

(neighbors, public works employees,government agencies) as a legitimatepart o the city. Residents begin to enjoybasic services like water, electricity andsewer systems. Residents acquire a ormaladdress. This is more than a detail. It comesto signiy a personal responsibility or thearea, which encourages them to invest inimproving their property, not contaminating

or degrading surrounding property, to actjointly to make the community a cleaner,more healthy and attractive place all roma sense o pride that ownership conerred.This gives a common sense o purposeor residents to become active agents ochange. The process osters communityorganization and strengthens leadership.

Through regularization, slum residentshave a dierent relationship with theenvironment in which they live. The processo regularization results in social andenvironmental revitalization.

Over the course o a decade we haveseen that when we unite a communitytowards a common objective, residentsbecome agents or change. Their new-ound condence ater having been a parto the regularization process, then askingpublic agencies to build inrastructure,or meeting with other residents to solvelarger problems or clean up contiguous

land where garbage spilled over in thepast were made possible through thisprocess o land regularization. When weenable people to take ownership and dothe work o regularization, they becomeproactive agents o social and communitytransormation.

Principal avenue in a squatter community inCuritibia beore the transer o land rights.Photo: Association o Residents.

The same principal avenue in a squattercommunity soon ater land title was secured.Photo: Terra Nova.


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Humanity is losing the global race toprovide sae and sustainable habitat oritsel. By 2030, world population is projectedto be 9 billion: 3.6 billion will live inprecarious housing conditions, witha terriying 25 percent o them, homeless.

I we truly want to solve the aordablehousing problem, rst we must conronta critical equation in a way that createswealth or builders and is sustainable orthe public and the planet.

Right now, the worldwide equation isramed as: More unplanned and shoddyslum urbanization equals more rural andurban impoverishment.

Rural communities become receptacleso solid wastes, contaminated water, labormigration, amily disruption and lack oincome opportunities. Communities are

then abandoned, their residents attractedby a alse image o urban wealth andbetter living conditions. The reality thesemigrants ace in slums is stark: lack odecent housing, sanitation, overcrowdednarrow streets with ragile, dangerousstructures, insecure tenure, violence,

human tracking, lack o potable water andan endless list o social and health diseasesand habitat degradation. And these socialills hurt cities and nations economicprosperity and social and political stability.

A Better Equation: Build sustainable humanhabitats in communities equals betteraordable housing, community cohesion,environmental protection jobs, and economic

growth. This equation rests on principleso social inclusion, nancial education,nancing and technical assistance to useconstruction best practices.

Building Sustainable CommunitiesBy Francesco Piazzesi

http://www.youtube.com/

watch?v=lNtJHjpXI-M


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All photos courtesy o Echale a Tu Casa.

We began Echale a Tu Casa over 25 years

ago as a nonprot to help low-incomeamilies improve the saety, health andhygiene conditions o their homes in Mexico.We soon realized that philanthropy wouldnot permit us to have much o an impact onthe source problems generating these poorliving conditions. So we created a or-prot,social enterprise built on an integratedsystem o savings, credit and subsidies or

amilies who were not being served eitherby private home developers or the publichousing agencies here in Mexico.

In Mexico today there is an 8.9 milliondecit o aordable housing , meaning that49 million people are without sae, adequatehousing. O the 8.9 million households, only3 million have access to public assistance or

credit or housing rom Inonavit, Fovisssteor a private home nance source. This meansthat 5.9 million households 32 millionpeople are still excluded. Thesehouseholds are our target population:those with some land but no unds to builda home, or who live in a room whose wallsare made o corrugated cartons.

Echale a Tu Casa starts by engagingentire communities. We work with 20 to30 households in the community. First,we meet with them to listen to their needsand gain their trust.

We tell them about our work in othercommunities, the innovative building blocksweve invented that are ecologically riendlyand build strong, sae houses. We let themknow well help them get credit towardbuilding the home i they agree to save andinvest 10 percent o its total cost to start.

I they agree to work with us, we begin

courses in nancial education (to help themmanage their amily budget, see options ornew income, and develop saving patterns),start the process to link them to a microcreditagency to get a mortgage or homeimprovement loan and technical capacity-building in sustainable building materials andpractices to build their own new homes.

Then we introduce them to the innovative,eco-riendly and strong Adoblock abrick engineered to be made 90 percento local soil, with benets o being strong,buering noise and temperature extremes,resistant to water and, best o all, produced
http://www.echale.com.mx/http://portal.infonavit.org.mx/wps/portal/TRABAJADORES/!ut/p/c5/04_SB8K8xLLM9MSSzPy8xBz9CP0os3hnd0cPE3MfAwMLfwsLAyM_1wAXIxNvA_dAU30_j_zcVP2CbEdFABfWMig!/dl3/d3/L2dBISEvZ0FBIS9nQSEh/http://portal.infonavit.org.mx/wps/portal/TRABAJADORES/!ut/p/c5/04_SB8K8xLLM9MSSzPy8xBz9CP0os3hnd0cPE3MfAwMLfwsLAyM_1wAXIxNvA_dAU30_j_zcVP2CbEdFABfWMig!/dl3/d3/L2dBISEvZ0FBIS9nQSEh/http://www.echale.com.mx/


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at low cost by the community itsel.1

We bring in machines to manuacture theseeco-bricks and teach the community how touse them to generate enough materials or

all the houses to be built.2

We help them plan their new home layout,including other eco-riendly, simple

1 Adoblocks result rom an engineering innovation byItal Mexicana and the Institute CRAT o the University oGrenoble in France. This innovation was the rst ecologicalconstruction system based on earth as a material moreresistant than concrete and made by the community thatis, the manuacturing o the blocks is done in and by thecommunity, not providing preabricated building materialsas has been done in the past. This adds economic valueand appropriate technology benets to the communitiesthemselves.

2 The machine is a hydraulic press that exerts pressureo more than 40 tons to orm each brick. Tests conrm theAdoblock is stronger than one o concrete or clay. Regulartests evaluate brick quality and Adoblock always comes outas strongest.

and cost-eective technologies, suchas catching and storing rainwater ordrinking and cooking, gray-water lteringor recycling waste water, and solarphotovoltaic cells to generate electricity.

As this work continues, we nd that theentire abric o this community evolves intoteamwork, excited to implement these newopportunities and together create new skillsand jobs, which then restructures the socialabric o individual amilies and the entirecommunity.

To date, Echale a Tu Casa has helped

communities build nearly 26,000 homes,generating over 130,000 jobs and US $65million of income.

Making living conditions better in ruralareas to improve lives where communitiesexist, instead o increasing urban migration,is another track or Echale a Tu Casa.

Just one year ago, poor communities were

threatening to deorest the natural habitatsurrounding their settlements in Calakmul,a town in Campeche. It is one o the largestMayan cultural sites in Mexico and home toone o the worlds largest and most diversebiosphere.


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In order to stop amilies rom cutting downtrees to build low-quality shack sheltersand, while there, engaging in clandestinesales o endangered species andarchaeological relics, instead o bringing

in police orces to stop, Echale a Tu Casastarted technical workshops or greenhousing construction and topics includingsustainability.

We began an on-site production system ogreen construction materials. Mortgagesthrough micronance were oered.

Ater one year, 1,000 strong, sustainable

homes have been built, increasing amilyincome rom 500 new jobs created, aneconomic spillover o US $6.5 millionand new ways to improve lie in Calakmuland communities like it AND protect theenvironment by the same community.

These results provide all involved withEchale a Tu Casa the enthusiasm andenergy to share our processes and results

with many in the aordable housing sector.


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Earthquakes dont kill people, poorlybuilt buildings do, says Elizabeth Hausler,a highly skilled engineer who turned hereducation into a lie-long mission to vanquisha dangerous social problem that kills andmaims innocents and causes billions indamages in places all over the world. Herinsights over many years in many countries

helping adapt sound principles to greatlyprevent serious damage to human lie duringnatural disasters are wise, and we wantedher to share them with NextBillions readers.So I asked:

RB: What motivated you to become soengaged in this dicult eld?

EH: I grew up in a small town outsideChicago, where Id work as a bricklayerduring the summers or my athersmasonry construction company. Ater mycollege degree (in general engineering)I was working in environmental engineeringwhile I was nishing my PhD in earthquakeengineering, when three very important

things happened all in the same year.

First, an earthquake in Gujarat, India, killedover 20,000 people, mostly because theirunreinorced masonry houses collapsedon them. That made me wonder whyearthquakes were so deadly in emergingeconomies.

When Earthquakes and Hurricanes HitAordable HousingA conversation with Elizabeth Hausler and Rochelle Beck


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Second, when the twin towers ell onSeptember 11, I took it as a personalmission to use my engineering skillsto make the world a better place.

And third, I met the co-ounder and CEOo KickStart, which had the right modelor how to use technology to improvepeoples lives. With these clearly imprintedin my mind and on my soul, I nishedmy dissertation, and with a FulbrightFellowship, headed to India to be parto the reconstruction eorts ollowingthe earthquake.

Thus began years o working around theworld where earthquakes struck, andlearning all she could about the specicchallenges that make earthquakes so muchmore deadly or the poor.

Why do earthquakes and hurricanesdisproportionately hurt the BoP?

The problem, I discovered, is that mostaordable housing building practices oreven earthquake-proo technologies dontt the cultural preerences, economies ormaterials in the communities that needthem, Elizabeth says, refecting on manyplaces shes visited.

Most o the populations who suer todayin earthquakes never lived in brick houses

with heavy roos. They adapted to nature,to the traditional building designs o theirancestors, who had empirically adaptedhousing construction to either withstand or at least not collapse with deadly orceupon people inside during an earthquakeor a hurricane.

But when they move to cities (eitherbecause their lands are depleted or nolonger have enough water to arm, or theircommunities become caught in the midsto civil war or other conficts, or simply

because they need a closer, better schoolor their children), the houses in slums oroutskirts o cities are built the modernway i.e., made with bricks, concrete andother materials not o their experience.Those houses most oten are not built withthe right standards or enough structuralsupport to protect residents. High densityin slums increases the risk actors oncestructural integrity ails.

But it does not need to continue this way,Elizabeth quickly adds. This is somethingthat we can change i we know how to do itcorrectly, she says, citing how developingthe strategies and best practices to buildsae and aordable housing became herlies work and sparked her to ound BuildChange, an international nonprot social

enterprise that designs earthquake-resistant houses in developing countriesand trains builders, homeowners, engineersand government ocials to build them.It uses the principles o local skills, localmaterials and local demand and leavesin place a suite o simple engineeringprinciples which make permanent changein construction that can survive the violenceo earthquakes and hurricane-orce winds.

What made you create Build Change?

My approach is a sharp contrast withmany modern programs that rebuildcommunities with disaster-proo homes,such as sturdy geodesic domes, that dontt in with the aesthetic or culture o the


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local community. As a result, the buildingtechnology isnt replicated ater theinternational helpers leave.

What has Build Change learned over theyears across so many geographies?

Elizabeth has ormulated her work arounda ew ordered sets o principles. The rstinvolves the three essential ingredients thatbuild an ecosystem change in aordablehousing construction that continues toguide it ater the crisis is over.

She calls these three principles:

Technology, Money and People.

Technology includes two things, she says.Clear government standards enorced todene construction project or commonstructures, and training and skilledtechnical assistance to get all builders theknowledge and expert advice they need.

Money is critical, not only access to it,but in how it is used. Elizabeth saysaccess to sucient capital to build a housecompletely and correctly is a must to ensuresaety. She says, Governments can helppush quality standards by releasing theirunds (or giving incentives to banks ormicronance institutions to approve loansor reconstruction) when proo o goodplans meeting best practices or earthquakeor hurricane resistant construction aresubmitted. In some places, where theright materials may be too expensive,governments could give subsidies to osetthe costs or example, when cement is an

important component.

People, she says, are the key tomaking these changes widely adopted,commonplace and continue overtime. Itis critical to motivate residents, builders,government ocials and relie agenciesto want to rebuilt correctly.


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What is the second set o guiding buildingprinciples or sae housing?

I call them the 3 Cs, she says. Manyhomes in disaster-prone areas do not knowabout these, and while they appear simple,they are oten key to assuring homes arebuilt to be able to withstand high stress.

Elizabeths 3 Cs are: conguration,connections, and construction quality.

The rst C, conguration, means payingattention to a homes design plan and layout,keeping an eye out or things such as load-bearing walls in each direction o the hometo improve durability. In an earthquake,you dont want a heavy roo over your head,Elizabeth says, while a lightweight roo ina hurricane-prone region needs to be tieddown so it wont blow away.

Good conguration includes the placemento windows and doors. Such openingsweaken the structural integrity o a wall thatholds up the roo, but in many regions o theworld lots o open windows and doors areneeded or climate control. Instead o sayingonly small windows are acceptable, Elizabethpromotes putting reinorcements in place.

The second C, connections, uses theengineering principle that everything has

be connected together to perorm well inan earthquake or hurricane, Elizabethcontinues. Walls connected to theoundation, roo connected to the walls, etc.

The third C, construction quality, is usinglocally available building materials andqualied labor. This is another exampleo how doing it right can be simple, but

must be learned, she says. Laying bricksso that theres enough mortar in the spacesin between. Or soaking bricks in water beorebuilding a wall to improve its strength. I yousel-build or ollow instructions romsomeone who has no experience withearthquakes or high winds you may neverlearn to do construction this way andit does not cost more or require anythingspecial to get it saely done.

By working in disaster-prone regions thatcurrently lack the engineering expertise tobuild sturdy homes with limited unding,Elizabeth through the work o BuildChange and others hopes to empowerlocal homeowners and builders to continueimplementing the three Cs long ater theorganization leaves town.

House damaged by an earthquake.

House rebuilt using Build Change techniques.


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That is the true test o sustainability, shesays. That is our ultimate goal: that peoplecontinue to build earthquake resistanthouses on their own without us and withoutany nancial subsidy. The best designs in

the world will not save lives i they are notbuilt properly, or local engineers remainunsure how to design them.

How can we make it easy or localgovernment ocials to enorce buildingcodes?

Make it aordable, easy to implement,and leverage the window o opportunity that

exists right ater an earthquake disaster.Create simple building codes, trainingseminars and inspection systems that workin rural areas with small budgets, littleinrastructure, time and personnel.

Build Change partners with governmentsand nancing institutions to provide accessto capital that is contingent upon meeting

minimum standards or construction quality.

Any nal insight?

She is quick to answer. Seeinghomeowners building sae houses withtheir own resources not simply living inhouses built or them that is the true testo sustainable, long-term change.

Build Changes Six Strategic Steps to BuildSae Houses

Step 1. First learn: Ask:why did houses collapse inthe earthquake? Why did

others not collapse? Startwith orensic engineeringstudies ater earthquakes

and dont make the same mistake twice.

Step 2. Design earthquake-resistant houses:Its easier to make minor,low or no-cost changes toexisting ways o buildingthan to introduce totally

new technology.

Step 3. Build localskills: Ask: How canwe disseminate thisknowledge to largenumbers o engineers andbuilders?

Step 4. Stimulate localdemand: Ask: How toconvince poor homeownersto invest more to build asaer house? How can weget government ocials todevelop and enorce standards?

Step 5. Facilitate accessto capital: Ask: What isthe minimum amount ounding necessary to builda sae house?

Step 6. Measure thechange: Ask: Are otherpeople building saehouses now? Will they doso ater the emergency orrelie crews leave?


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Jan. 14, 2010, Post-earthquake Port-au-Prince,Haiti. Photo: Habitat or Humanity Haiti.

Shelter ater Disaster

Over the ew past years, the globalhumanitarian community has been workingto develop solutions that oer disaster andconfict-aected amilies a more durableshelter than the tents traditionally provided.Tents can be appropriate in certaincircumstances. Yet they do not last long

enough to protect amilies until longer-term reconstruction options are available.Nor do they represent the best investmento humanitarian unding in the disaster-aected economies to stimulate recovery,economic activity and jobs.

The shelter sector has been innovatingtransitional shelter solutions that, unlike

tents, can be incorporated into the nextphase ater a crisis to get amilies intobetter, permanent housing. Based on thelocal context, hazards, culture, availablematerials, labor and household needs, actualtransitional shelter products will be dierentrom a design perspective, and componentswill oten be used in dierent ways.

But as important as the innovative productor immediate, sae shelter is the processthat can lead amilies ater a disaster to amuch improved, lasting home. The process,called transitional shelter, guides amilieson a pathway to durable shelter solutions

through an incremental process supportingamilies themselves to understand theirdiverse possible housing options and tochoose their uture.

Pathways to Permanence and TransitionalShelter

Habitat or Humanity has implementedsignicant shelter responses ater disasters

and conficts based on a core belie thatdecent and sae shelter, especially after adisaster, is a key moment o opportunity tobuild a new, participatory platorm aroundhousing that leads to improvements inmany needs o these amilies: health care,jobs and livelihoods, protection, education,water and sanitation, community cohesionand continuing improvements.

Shelter Ater Disaster: Temporary Aid OrPathway to a Better Future?By Mario Flores


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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H63QaSlGyww

Habitats disaster response shelter strategy,known as Pathways to Permanence, bringsaected amilies along this path to durable,permanent shelter solutions acquiredincrementally. The concept is perhaps best

described by our response to the devastationollowing the 2010 earthquake in Haiti.

Ater the earthquake, Habitat initiallyprovided amilies with Emergency ShelterKits (ESKs) containing a high quality plastictarp, tools, xtures and ttings. This helpedaddress their immediate shelter needsvery quickly and with materials generallyo higher quality.

Instead o discarding these ater a while,the same tools and materials were thenused along with additional materialsand technical assistance provided toupgrade their emergency shelter into atransitional shelter: more durable, witha longer liespan, as well as more resistantto seismic atershocks, the heavy rainyseason, hurricanes and fooding.

Once amilies were stabilized in saer,transitional shelter, Habitat locals initiatedcommunity-based processes to inormamilies about various types o permanentaordable housing solutions, and continuedto provide inormation and technicalassistance as the amilies and thecommunity considered, discussed and

nally chose the right ones or them.

Options range rom the incrementalupgrade o transitional shelters (orexample building permanent oundationsand foors and installing panelized wallsto substitute the plastic sheeting) to theconstruction o permanent core homes.

Lessons and Guidelines

Following years o innovation and use o

transitional shelter in dierent disasters,a number o shelter organizations,including Habitat, collaboratively developedguidelines that incorporate the lessons andbest practices to guide uture humanitarianshelter responses:

1. Assess the Situation. A number odierent approaches exist or providing

shelter in post-disaster or post-confictsituations. Comprehensive assessmentsshould be undertaken to understandthe potential strengths, weaknesses,opportunities and threats o all shelterresponses prior to selecting the mostappropriate.

2. Involve the Community. Invariably, thegreatest eort in any response is made

by those directly aected. They are alsomost aware o appropriate, sustainableand rapid routes to recovery. The greaterthe involvement o the community inimplementation, the more ecient andcost eective the response.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H63QaSlGywwhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H63QaSlGyww


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3. Develop a Strategy. Transitional shelterprograms should be used or a shortperiod o time, only as part o acomprehensive inter-sector shelterstrategy that includes tent camp

construction and management (CCCM),early recovery, health, saety andprotection and water, sanitation andhygiene (WASH). Other cross-cuttingissues must be included that supportthe entire population, both displacedand non-displaced, until durable sheltersolutions are reached.

4. Reduce Vulnerability. Transitional

shelter programs must reduce thevulnerability o the aected population.Using appropriate design andconstruction, site selection and sitepreparation as well as communicatinghazard resilient techniques and bestpractices will build capacity within theaected population and assist them inthe recovery process.

5. Agree on Standards. While there can beno one universal standard (because othe local diversity and natural resources),it still is important to agree with thecommunity served on standards ortransitional shelters. Options even ortransitional shelters must considerlocal hazards, climate, available laborand skills, available material, traditionalbuilding practices, cultural requirementsand social and household activities.

6. Maximize Choice. The design andconstruction o the shelters themselvesshould maximize the choice o shelterand settlement options or eachhousehold by allowing beneciariesto upgrade, reuse, resell, recycle and

relocate their shelters as necessaryand desired. It should also considerthe selection o assistance methodsprovided.

7. Buy Time. Sustainable permanent

reconstruction ollowing a major confictor disaster can take a number o yearsto complete, much longer than the usualliespan o plastic sheeting and tents.I solutions are too rushed, they mayresult in inequality, poor sustainabilityand greater vulnerability. A process ocommunity participation, securing landtenure and the agreement o standards

or permanent housing will add realvalue to the results, while sustainablereconstruction is taking place.

8. Incremental Process. The process otransitional shelter starts with the rstdistribution o relie items. Inorm andoer opportunities or incrementalupgrading, reuse, resale or recyclingo materials by beneciaries at their

own pace until durable shelter solutionsare achieved. Transitional shelter isnot an additional phase o a response:emergency shelter, ollowed bytransitional shelter, ollowed byreconstruction. Transitional shelterbegins as part o the initial response andcontinues in parallel to reconstruction.

9. Plan the Site. Transitional shelter

programs need to be located on landthat is sae, legal and appropriate. Thismay be achieved through site planninginvolving the integration o hazard riskreduction, zoning and service integration.Site planning should consider the wholecommunity, including displaced and non-displaced populations.


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10. Reconstruction. Transitional sheltersshould be designed to complement andcontribute to a reconstruction programthrough the process o being upgraded,reused, recycled or resold.

Sheltering people ater disasters is amonumental task. Helping those aectedonto a pathway to permanent, durableshelter solutions demands a comprehensiveapproach that ocuses in the process itselas a catalyst or recovery.

Transitional shelter can contributesignicantly to this approach. Not done

correctly, it may become the slums otomorrow. Properly done, transitionalshelter is an opportunity to long-term,aordable housing and a springboard oreconomic and community development.

Mother and inant displaced by the quake awaittheir new home to be completed. Photo: Habitator Humanity Haiti


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In a section o Port-au-Prince, Haiti, thecommunity o Simon-Pel and its 23,000low-income squatter residents had de actosecurity o tenure and had built a vibrantcommercial main street and strong socialconnections. Its lack o ormal municipaland legal recognition meant that despite

its residents eorts at improvements,Simon-Pel did not get public services suchas water, sanitation, sewers, latrines, solidwaste disposal, street lighting and socialamenities such as schools and playgrounds.Many streets remain unpaved. Diseasessuch as cholera spread easily and oten.

When hit by the 2010 earthquake, likemany Haitian neighborhoods, its residents

suered devastation. At least 8,000, overa third o its residents, now live in one oeight camps surrounding their ormerneighborhood.

Communities like Simon-Pel present manychallenges, all magnied by the earthquake.Individual plots are small and irregular,and houses are sel-built rom salvaged

materials. This makes it almost impossibleto rebuild structures rom scratch. Highdensity and narrow streets mean housingand inrastructure work aects groups ohouseholds, so it is dicult to help onehousehold at a time. Most importantly, thestrong social bonds created by a shared

Housing conditions in Simon-Pel. Photoscourtesy o HFHI-Haiti.

history o inormal settlement and survival

mean it is important to create a processthat all residents believe will meet theirneeds over time. Isolated projects, bycontrast, could create jealousy and division.

Recognizing these challenges, Habitator Humanity Haiti decided to use a tooldeveloped by Shack/Slum DwellersInternational: a community-basedenumeration (survey) process that would

help the community take stock o itsresources, prioritize its needs and developplans o action to address them. In so doing,the community would take ownership othe process and have clear priorities towork in partnership with government andNGOs to address its needs. Although theproject is still at an early stage, community

Empowering an Urban Community Ater DisasterBy Ted Baumann
http://www.sdinet.org/http://www.sdinet.org/http://www.sdinet.org/http://www.sdinet.org/http://www.sdinet.org/


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teams have mapped and numbered 4,000buildings, and surveyed 6,000 households inSimon-Pel.

The Simon-Pel enumeration is based ona standardized set o questions developed by

a working group o Haitis Inter-ministerialCommittee or Territorial Planning (ComitInterministerial dAmenagement Territoire,CIAT.) This ensures that the inormationgathered is compatible neighborhoodsurveys. The working group hopes to collectand compile such surveys on a citywidescale or all o Port-au-Prince.

The enumeration process involves ormingand supporting community-based surveyteams; numbering and mapping buildings;surveying every household or inormationabout demographics and economic activity;and ocus groups to create communitymaps and use them to decide whichneeds are most urgent. Local universityarchitecture students help with training,veriying and compiling the data intoa database. The process is punctuated bycommunity mass meetings and celebrationsdesigned to cement broad commitmentto the process.

Interestingly, the rst priority identiedby the Simon-Pel enumeration was nothousing repair or reconstruction, but saewater. Two community water points are now

under construction. Two more projects areexpected to start in the next ew months toadd street lighting especially importantto womens groups or saety and solidwaste management.

Nevertheless, the Simon-Pel project iscreating the basis or housing interventions,including upgrading existing houses so

they are earthquake-resistant; repairingand retrotting earthquake-damagedhomes; and building new permanenthomes on vacant land. Habitat Haiti alsois building transitional shelters in or near

Simon-Pel and partnering to clear rubblewith the Community Housing FoundationInternational (CHFI).

For Habitat and the community, however,the surveys and ocus groups are toolsor building more than housing in Simon-Pel. The enumeration methodology buildscommunity sel-condence, creates aplatorm or ongoing engagement with the

community as a whole, and initiates post-earthquake reconstruction in a way thatbuilds on existing community capacities,both physical and social.

Survey takers post their inormation andcoordinate new areas to canvass. Photo courtesyo Habitat or Humanity Haiti.


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Vilaire Syrin, 29, a teamleader in the enumeration,has lived in the communityor 27 years, and says thesurvey process is one the

best things that Habitathas done. By leadingthe work, his condence,organizing and leadershipskills increased strongly particularly importantin a neighborhood whoseresidents have long beenstigmatized as illegalresidents o the city.

In addition, the Simon-Pel enumerationhas caught the attention o the municipalityand other NGOs in a positive way. It hashelped attract unding, and strengthens theneighborhoods acceptance as an integral parto the municipality particularly importantwhen it comes to regularizing tenure.

From Habitats perspective, the Simon-Pel enumeration has urther benets.The quality o inormation about aordablehousing is more accurate and richer using anenumeration process because people tendto share more, and exaggerate less, whentalking to neighbors. More accurate data anddeeper community engagement increasesthe eciency and eectiveness o specichousing project design. The resulting pool o

trained and committed local residents servesas yeast or uture work, both within Simon-Pel, and or other neighborhoods in need othe enumeration process.

Simon-Pel Survey Enumerator Team

Msina Antoine, 73, a charcoal retailerwho lives in the community with herour grandchildren, says shes eelingbetter about the neighborhood ater theearthquakes tough times, and has begunto look orward. Now Im praying or mygrandchildren to have a better uture ina much better, saer place.

Through this community-building process,the area now has a critical mass o awareand empowered residents capable oorganizing or change so that Simon-Pel isa better, saer place or all Haitis children.1

1 For more inormation, see Build Hope: Housing Citiesater a Disaster, Habitat or Humanitys 2012 experienceson urban disaster planning and steps or permanenceduring rebuilding creates a more solid path to recovery.
http://www.habitat.org/eurasia/stories_multimedia/shelter_report_2012.aspxhttp://www.habitat.org/eurasia/stories_multimedia/shelter_report_2012.aspxhttp://www.habitat.org/eurasia/stories_multimedia/shelter_report_2012.aspxhttp://www.habitat.org/eurasia/stories_multimedia/shelter_report_2012.aspx


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The Power o Collecting Accurate Market DataBy Keerthi Kiran

The Challenge. Entrepreneurs knowthe toughest part o succeeding in a newmarket is to prove it actually exists. Needdoes not always translate into demand,and neither necessarily translate intobuying the products oered. Many a

company applying their time-testedmarket surveys (developed or middle- orupper-class consumers) or using ocialdemographic data to evaluate the potentialo a new BoP market have ailed. Either thedata showed too little demand to warrantpenetration, or it looked enormouslypromising according to ocial aggregate

survey numbers, but when projects basedon these numbers were tried, sales proveddicult and ultimately deeply disappointing.These experiences have reinorced notionsin private developers that aordablehousing projects at the BoP are not as

potentially protable as they seemed.

Ashokas India Housing or All initiativeaced this same data disconnect. Ourhybrid value chain model included bothbusinesses (large builders or real estatedevelopers) and citizen organizations(trusted and knowledgeable ater decades


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working in Indias slums with BoPamilies). When we asked about marketinormation on new aordable homes, wegot two dierent perspectives that seemedcontradictory.

One relied on the inormation romthe experienced grassroots citizenorganizations (e.g. SEWA and SAATH)across the country and our own stas rst-hand interviews with people living in slums.We were convinced that Indias aordablehousing sector was real, underserved, withhuge decits in available homes at pricesthe BoP could aord and, most important,

was ready and willing to be unlocked byprivate market interest and investment.

The other view came rom the privatebuilders, developers and housing nancialinstitutions, who were interested in thisnarrative. But they were not convincedby the data they saw rom ocialdemographic, government census andhousing inormation they routinely useto analyze new development risks andopportunities. Data doubts tarnished theirenthusiasm to invest.

To convert their interest into a goodbusiness opportunity, our challenge wasto transorm the inormal sector slumdweller into a ormal sector customer.We knew there was a disconnect between

the inormation rom our partners in theslum communities and the ocial datadevelopers used. We set out to nd how thedisconnect was caused. Either our numberswere wrong, or the ocial ones were. In anycase, we needed to get accurate inormationabout aordable housing demand,preerences, ability to pay, priorities to close

the deal. This was imperative to serve ourpotential customers and to help buildersdevelop, market and successully sellappropriate aordable housing oerings(size o project, risks vs. rewards).

Closing the Data Divide. We designed atwo-stage, electronic data-driven solutionthat was also hybrid to bridge the dividebetween potential customers and builders:

slum dwellers and citizen organizationworkers make on-site visits to targetedcustomers to do interviews asking moreprecise, detailed questions about their

housing needs; and cutting-edge technology developed to

enable these interviewers to recordcharacteristics and identity accuratelyand immediately (reducing error), senddata electronically to be analyzed andaggregated correctly in one centrallocation by trained sta, who thentranslate it into reliable and useul

inormation or real estate developmentplanning and evaluation o new aordablehousing projects.

Heres how it works:

Stage 1:Targeted Customer Outreachto Ascertain Demand. We select arepresentative sample o slum dwellersrom dierent slums to answer a survey

questionnaire. The survey was designedto capture 26 demographic, nancial andgeographic parameters such as the size othe amily, occupation, current ownershipstatus, monthly surplus income, proo oidentity and savings record.


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Answers to questions are recorded in a tablet toavoid transcription errors during the personalinterview. Photo: Ashoka HFA India

We employed slum residents andcommunity workers and trained them to gethonest answers and to use their cell phonesto photograph the interviewee in ront ohis current home or accuracy and lateridentity verication (potential home and loancustomer).

Immediately upon completing theinterview and photos, the worker inputs all

inormation into a hand-held digital tabletwith ormatting to minimize human error,and sends it to a central data analysis pointin Ashoka Housing or All India oce (as inphoto below).

From the beginning, by comparing our datawith those o ocial or private sources,we conrmed the answers our interviewsproduced were indeed much more accuratethan those given to a government or

academic survey done by interviewersunknown to slum dwellers.

Such rich and relevant data brings privatereal estate developers and nancialinstitutions on board to kick-start the newaordable homes project and enables thenext step in which the builder sources theland and the developer designs the initial

layout. Based on the location and the layout,an estimate o cost and size o the house iscalculated.

Stage 2: Client Proles Identiy CustomersHousing Needs. The level o detail makesall the dierence: Data collected on newparameters gave specic guidance toarchitects and developers about their targetmarket and ideal customers. They then

can rene their building plans to includesmaller apartments or single amilymembers, ones with more bedrooms orextended or larger amilies, and ones withparking or other special attributes or thosewho need to park their rickshaw nightly oraccommodate a small home business.


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During this second stage, we publicizeinormation about the new aordablehome development planned project acrossdierent slums near the projects location.We then do a survey o interested customers

to gather the details such as current assets,availability o relevant documents andaccess to nance. We use this survey toconvey their preerences on desired numbero rooms and estimated monthly incometo builders. Their responses help architectstailor the design and layout to suit customerneeds and assist the nancial institutionspre-approval o a loan, thereby increasingsuccessul marketing and sales.

The inormation we capture also reducesthecost o business development andcustomer acquisition to a raction o whatit would be otherwise, making the processnancially and operationally viable or thedevelopers and nancial institutions.

The vital role o including local citizensin data collection. Citizen organizations,with their deep experience, trust andunderstanding o the community, play apivotal role in the entire two-stage processo data collection. In slums, where a widerange o income groups live side by side,

they identiy and target the right customerpool at a nominal cost. Their amiliaraces help elicit accurate and sensitiveinormation that oten is not shared withgovernment ocials or proessional survey

takers who arrive in slums.

The benets o training slum dwellers

themselves to help gather data gives themnew income, develops technical skills andinorms them about aordable housingoptions. Instead o being outsidersor passive recipients o new productsappearing on the market, they becomepurveyors o inormation to neighbors andamily members and active participantsshaping the outcomes o the new housingproducts developed. This has tremendouspositive outcomes in their sel-esteemand their uture willingness to asserttheir needs and preerences as includedeconomic citizens.

We asked them how hard it was to work onthe tablets and Android app, and the answerthis community surveyor in Madurai gaveus was repeated by all those we trained:

We all have touch phones, so it is very easyto use this device. Also, we are able to domany more households in a day becauseo the device. Pen and paper surveys takelot more time.

The results o their work convincedmicronance institutions, private companiesand realtors to invest in new housing. They


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were able to better plan and make quickdecisions or new sites to develop andnance.

Technology as an powerul enabler.Traditional pen and paper surveys let

too much room or inaccuracies andineciencies to creep into the system.Instead, we designed an Android cloudapplication that was synched automaticallyto hand-held, tablet devices.

We trained community workers and citizensurvey takers to carry these tablet devicesinto the eld or collecting the data.

Along with the data, they snap photoso the customer and o his/her relevantdocuments.

The tablet devices also record the exact

location o the current residence usingthe GPS technology. This acted as urtherproo o residence. As the data is instantlysynched, it helps Ashoka HFA sta toconstantly monitor the quality o data,even rom a remote location. The datathus captured is presented to builders,architects and housing nance institutions

in the orm o graphs, tables and photos.The technology made the entire processecient, accurate and extremely costeective. Plus, it served to eciently qualiynew customers or micronance housing

loans, as much o the verication wasalready in our les.

Accurate Data Makes a Dierence. Data accurately collected and analyzed romthe ground up are providing a voice to anotherwise invisible and ignored businesssegment. The quality o the data also isbinding dierent stakeholders into a HybridValue Chain model, providing real value to

BoP customers and businesses.

A prominent developer in Bangalorereported that: When I saw the proles andthe surplus income o amilies, it helpedme to connect it to the kind o project wewanted to develop. It is this data that gaveus condence to take the rst step.

The hybrid survey model is not only

valuable, but extremely scalable andcost-eective. We have already receivedinquiries rom several countries interestedin learning how to use our survey system.For example, we will soon travel to Mexicoto train CEMEX (a global building materialscompany) and the citizen organizationsworking at the community level, toimplement a similar solution or their

aordable housing initiatives. Clearly,accurate data can transorm the inormalhousing sector slum dwellers into ormalmarket customers.


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Buying a home is a lengthy and stressulprocess or everyone, rich or poor. But BoPcustomers ace a tougher road to ensuringtheir investment buys the best quality theycan aord. Many recent arrivals rom ruralareas, they have little prior experiencebuying a new urban home, ew relatives to

share their home-buying lessons and evenewer who can aord a lawyer or mortgagebanker to advise them about contracts orto recommend architects, master contractors

or licensed inspectors to evaluate a buildingplan or construction quality once built. Publicinormation about how to judge home qualityand price is rare. Oten the only inormationthey see is the marketing publicity by the

private builders themselves.

And yet, the investment to buy an aordablehouse is a greater risk or BoP amiliesproportionate to their income and assets.It represents years o sacrice to have

enough or a small down payment. Thereis no margin or error: the loan they getor its purchase stretches the limit o theirsavings and their credit (i they even can getcredit). Once bought, this investment mustbe a tangible and lasting asset that growsin value or many years. BoP customers are

under great pressure to maximize the valueo a real estate purchase. In short, they areputting their entire lie savings at risk.

What advice, technical assistance,standards or materials and buildingrequirements are available to guide them?Who is responsible or developing andenorcing building standards? I customersare sold a home with sub-standardconstruction or poor quality materials or their next-door neighbor sel-builds anunstable structure posing a danger to theirhome and amily what recourse do BoPcitizens have?

To answer these questions, AshokasHousing or All India reviewed the laws,regulations and enorcement governing

aordable housing. We wanted to be surethat the aordable homes Ashoka HFA wasplanning indeed met appropriate qualitystandards. What were the denitions?What did builders, architects, engineers,urban planners and governmentocials see as minimal required qualitybenchmarks? How do we protect the

Establishing Quality Standardsor Aordable HousingBy Martina Wengle


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consumer and the home-builder romunsae quality? How do they get helpenorcing appropriate quality construction?

We ound a labyrinth o conusing andoten contradictory mandates, which were

not enorced uniormly or adapted to theneeds o BoP communities. There is noocial, consistent denition. For example,our partners classiy affordable housingas costing below INR 10 lakhs (roughlyUS$20,000). But we ound developersadvertising aordable new housing ashigh as INR 40 lakhs (roughly US$80,000).This price mismatch means that many

houses labeled aordable are totallyunattainable or BoP households, and whatthe $80,000 aordable houses oered(size, materials, quality) had no relationto what those seeking $20,000 aordablehouses would receive.

Instead we ound that to be aordable,quality is oten sacriced in exchange or

lower costs (or the customer) and higherprot margins (or the builder or developer).Customers may see a model home thatlooks great, but when they are ready to moveinto the new homes built in the project,they oten encounter poorly designed,cheaply built dwellings, which oten needingcostly repairs quickly and, thereore, theirpurchase is ultimately not sustainable.

As housing expert architect and chairman oKSA Design Planning Services, Kirtee Shah,notes, A new house is a very big investmentor low-income customers; they cannotaord to buy bad quality.1

1 Statement at AshokaHFA India workshop on BestPractices in Bangalore, July 2011.

Experienced architect Kirtee Shah on site o newhousing being built in India, Photo: Ashoka

A Step Toward Aordable HousingStandards. To remedy this situation, Ashoka

HFA India looked or ways to provide bothbuilders and consumers with trustworthyguidelines or quality in aordable housing.The major challenges were:

How to provide good standards thatare clearly enorceable, ensure saetyand protect consumers without addingcomplex and slow bureaucracy?

How to ensure quality without pricingaordable construction above BoP marketlimits?

How to get technical inormationabout standards, and their processesor recourse, widely shared inunderstandable terms and into the handso BoP consumers?

How to ensure a process that was win-win-win: good or public saety andsecurity, good or BoP householdsand good or home builders?

As our hybrid value chain model meantbusiness-citizen collaboration, we searchedor the most respected and experiencedexpert on standards and certications


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processes internationally, and ultimatelyagreed to partner in collaboration withTV Rheinland to create a set o qualitystandards, benchmark measures and arating system to be applied to aordable

housing throughout India that reliablybalances housing quality and costs andincludes home owners as well as buildersand government ocials in the process.

The Certication Process. The certicationwe are developing is not a one-time stampo approval. It is aprocess that starts withpre-building and lasts over time, involvingmultiple stakeholders:

Stage One: Developers at the start o aproject apply to accredited certicationagencies or a rating. The measures usedin the rating system include: adequatesite selection, construction processes andmaterials, design, thermal comort, energyuse, waste disposal, amenities, accessibilityto the low-income populations employment

and processes to involve consumers in themaintenance o the building. Developersreceive an initial rating ater a review odocuments and construction plans. Theycan use a avorable rating to market theiroers. Consumers looking or betterhousing options can check the ratings orsound advice about which oers the bestquality or the price.

Stage Two: Once the rst consumers havemoved into a new housing development,they begin to provide eedback on aspectso its quality. These will aect the overall nalrating or the building project. It becomesa strong incentive or developers to maintaingood quality (or suer bad publicity rom

a poor overall rating), encouraging them tocomplete the building process consistentlywell, not just or the ew introductory sales.

Stage Three: Ater nal certication isgiven, the process includes longer-termmonitoring and improvement at its core.Multiple aordable housing stakeholders developers, citizen organizations, housingnance institutions, research organizations share their ongoing ndings on theaccuracy o the ratings, where theyare working well, and where they needclarication or improvements. This multi-stakeholder vigilance ensures transparencyand trust in the ratings, and set upprocesses or solving problems that mayarise with an emphasis on collaboration,rather than confict.

Standards Benet the Aordable HousingSector. Aordable housing consumers willbe able to make inormed buying choicesusing these ratings. Armed with this

accurate inormation, they can balancequality with aordability and gain condenceand power as ull economic citizens. It isa large step: instead o remaining victimso raud, alse advertising or ew goodoptions, they will move rom beingunderservedinormal sector slum dwellersto consumers exercising their choice in theormal market. They establish patterns that

will work as they seek increased income,better public inrastructure, health andeducation services shown impact avorablyon their amilys uture.

Private developers will lower their per-project planning and start-up costs, sincethe standards and measures will already
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have been tested and established. They caninnovate, but the basic requirements andcosts will be predictable or permitting,pricing and marketing purposes. Theywill also have clear guidelines or their

construction workers and oremen tooversee, making it cheaper and easierto enorce quality. Developers with goodratings will quickly gain a competitiveadvantage in the market, enjoying higherdemand or their units, as potentialcustomers will trust (and use word o mouthto spread) the quality o their product.

Government agencies will save time, moneyand people while improving the aordablehousing sector by adopting these standards,as stakeholder input or the rating systemis key. These savings allow governmentagencies to ocus on enorcing the worstcases o raud or unscrupulous builders,and on positive public policy or urbanplanning, inrastructure improvements, etc.

Increased collaboration will create morehousing options and higher prots overall,as consumers, citizen organizations, nanceinstitutions and builders will all be using thesame terms and expectations or quality,options and costs. As this inormation isco-developed at the project conceptionstage, it will lower the transaction costsoverall or consumers, MFIs and builders,

and will speed up the time to move thenew project rom vision to completion avirtuous investment and cash-fow cycle ordevelopers and potential home owners.

Working Toward A National Standard. Keyto these standards becoming respectedand widely adopted, o course, is theundamental role played by government toendorse and enorce them.

Following an Ashoka HFA India workshopheld in July 2011 to introduce this jointproject to develop aordable housingstandards, Aruna Sundarajan, JointSecretary o Indias Ministry o Housingand Urban Poverty Alleviation said, I amvery happy to see this initiative. It is veryimportant or the Government o India toincorporate the learning rom other players

in the eld in order to tackle the tremendouspoor quality o housing in India.

We involved local and national governmentocials rom the beginning o developingthe quality standards and certicationprocess. These careully ormulatedmeasures and processes will contributeto a better national policy and governmenteectiveness in the aordable housingsector, helping it demonstrate how itsupports closing the huge aordablehousing decit that grows each year.

All these steps and stakeholders are criticalas we aim at changing policy, mind-setsand the reality o what gets built, so thatultimately, aordable housing is a goodsource or business growth o its builders,

improves the urban landscape or citiesand ullls the hopes o BoP consumersto attain their dream homes.


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India community organization, SPARC, a citizen organization partner in Ashoka HFA India,convenes clients in need o aordable housing. Above, they explain a private developersplans or new aordable housing. They answer clients questions and elicit their housingneeds, and match them with the right housing option. At this meeting, they help clientsunderstand the architectural plans and layouts, costs o buying a new apartment or home,nancing options and ways to document their incomes so they can qualiy or a home loan.This meeting has multiple results: marketing more eectively than the developer can,SPARC is a key player in the success o new housing developments AND provides multipleservices based on the needs o their BoP clients to leverage their assets to purchase

housing o their own. Photo by Martina Wengle or Ashoka.


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Youve read all the gures by now: Themajority o people live in cities and overone billion live in slums, a gure that willtriple by 2030. Urban areas are growingmuch aster than can be absorbed andmanaged, causing demands on servicesand inrastructure that massively outstripsupply. In many developing world cities, thisleaves the majority o residents with littleoption but to live in slums.

It is clear that increasing access to high-quality, low-cost housing has a prooundimpact both or the individual and societyat large. Yet housing rarely comes up inconversation among social enterprisecircles. We hold panel ater panel and writeblog ater blog about the new innovationsin health care, energy and agriculture, but

we seldom hear about housing. At AcumenFund, we believe it is high time or thisto change and or the social enterprisesector to recognize the need to catalyzeand support aordable housing acrossemerging markets.

But we know there are orces workingagainst us that cause housing to be treated

like the orgotten stepchild o the socialenterprise sector:

Housing rarely ts neatly into the socialenterprise box. As impact investors, welook or investment opportunities withstrong entrepreneurs, attractive nancialsand clear, scalable social impact. Housingprojects require many dierent partners, maynot have one clear entrepreneur at the helm,

oten rely on subsidy to be truly aordableand dont see a nished product on theground until many months or even yearslater. Yet does this mean housing isnt worthsupporting? Or does it mean that perhapswe should evaluate housing deals dierentlythan we do our energy or water investments?

Housing is not sexy, which unortunatelymakes it easier to ignore. It is a sector

characterized by loud construction sites,massive delays and legal and regulatorymesses. In act, we oten make housingeven less sexy in order or it to beaordable, taking out the rills and extradesign nishings to bring down the price.Unlike new medical devices or agriculturalinputs, when someone purchases a home,

Impact Investing in Aordable Housing:By Aden Van Noppen

FINANCING:NECESSARY BUT NOT SUFFICIENT
http://www.acumenfund.org/ten/http://www.acumenfund.org/ten/http://www.acumenfund.org/ten/http://www.acumenfund.org/ten/


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regardless o their income, they want to puttheir savings into good old-ashioned bricksand mortar, not shiny new technology thatis unamiliar, or unlike the homes o theirmiddle-class counterparts. Yet this should

not mask the need or true innovation inbusiness models, end-user nancing andcreative methods o reducing costs whilemaintaining quality.

Housing is slow. We tend to be seduced byrapid growth. We want to see large numberso people reached in short amounts otime, understandable given the scale opoverty and the challenges we are working

to address. Housing is oten out o line withthis emphasis on scaling quickly. Scale looksdierent in housing, and so does impact.

Using our preconceived notions o

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