Perceived Factors Influencing Performance of Community Based Housing Projects in Urban Informal Settlements: a Case of Mukuru Slums, Nairobi County, Kenya

Abstract

Poverty alleviation is one of the main goals of SDGs. Public sector, civic society and private sector organizations contribute to the realization of this goal in low-income settlements. One such means is through community-based housing schemes. However, the mobilization of different factors to performance of community-based housing projects is still unknown. This research project investigates the perceived factors that influence community-based housing projects in Mukuru slums. The project looks at how community participation, resource mobilization, leadership and socio-cultural environment influence the performance of such projects. Theory of change, Marxian theory of poverty and cultural theory of poverty guided the study. This study employed use of cross-sectional descriptive research design. The target population of the study was the project officers, managers and residents of the area. The study sample size was 156 respondents and the respondents were selected through convenience sampling, stratified sampling and purposive sampling. The study made use of primary data collection that was collected using questionnaire, focused group discussions and key informant interviews. Data was analyzed through quantitative and qualitative data analysis. The findings showed that community participation influences the performance of community-based housing projects in Mukuru Slums positively by a factor of 0.308 supported by a p-value of 0.001. The results also indicated that resource mobilization leads to an improved performance of community-based housing projects by 0.016 with a p-value of 0.862. The findings also demonstrated that institutional leadership leads to an increase in performance of community-based housing projects in Mukuru Slums by 0.226 with a p-value at 0.003. The findings also depicted that socio-cultural environment leads to a decrease in performance of community-based housing projects in Mukuru Slums by 0.143 with a p-value of 0.139. The study concluded that performance of community-based housing projects is dependent on community participation, resource mobilization and institutional leadership. The findings recommend that housing-based projects managers develop strategies to strengthen community participation, resource mobilization and institutional leadership in implementation of community-based housing projects.