| dc.description.abstract | Accessibility to adequate and quality housing by low and middle-income public sector
earners remains a major challenge world over particularly in developing countries. Kenya, for
instance, has encountered hurdles in provision of adequate and quality housing for the low
and middle-income public sector employees who form over 90% of the total workforce. The
housing crisis may be partly traced to the in-adequacy of housing delivery system
components and failure of the systems components to operate in synergistic manner. This
study therefore applied systems approach to evaluate the provision of quality housing for the
low and middle level public sector employees. A system in the context of this study is a
coherent entity as a whole but with parts that are interdependent and interactive amongst
themselves and the immediate environment for a common objective and purpose.
The study was conducted in the City of Nairobi and focussed on 5 Public Housing Schemes
with a total of 1016 households. 259 public sector housing experts, 52 key housing
informants and 5 previous lead consultants were also part of the target population. Stratified
random and systematic random sampling techniques were applied to identify housing units,
households and public housing experts. Structured questionnaires were administered to 235
households and 60 public servants while 12 key informants and 5 previous lead consultants
who were purposively selected were interviewed. Further data were obtained from
observation by the researcher and records maintained by purposively selected public and
private institutions. The study employed both qualitative and quantitative approaches.
Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics while qualitative
data were analysed through the grounded theory technique. Charles Spearman‟s rank
correlation analysis was adopted in correlating independent and dependent variables while
Chi-square test was applied to test null hypotheses.
The findings have shown that the existing housing delivery approach is not a fully operational
system since it lacks basic configuration and characteristics of a system. The null hypotheses
were rejected implying that there are relationships between both housing cost and household
income with affordability and customer satisfaction. The most significant challenges of the
existing housing delivery approach included lack of / high cost of land / infrastructure, high
cost of construction, in-adequate financing, lack of focus in research into cheap alternative
materials / technology, lack of integrated planning, low household income and lack of
political good will.
The study recommended policy initiatives that include lowering taxation on construction
inputs, enhancing research into cheap alternative materials / technology, streamlining land
administration / management, reviewing of planning / approval process, subsidizing rent /
mortgage rate, controlling of macro-economic environment and reforming of the existing
housing policy. | en_US |
