SOLD BY: THE CHALLENGES OF MANAGING PUBLIC SECTOR HOUSING ESTATES
ABSTRACT
This project work focuses on the challenges of
managing public housing estate with Gwarinpa Housing Estate as a case
study. The objectives of the study are to examine the management and
maintenance strategies put in place by the management and as well identified
the causes and effect of physical obsolescence. Relevant literatures were also
reviewed to aid the study ranging from the concept of management to its
functions. Reviewed like Thorn Croft (1978).Lawal M.(2000). Jide Babatunde (1996)
etc. To prove to this point, the researcher also deemed it fit to adopt
questionnaires and field survey in gathering relevant data required for the
study. Data were also analyzed in tables using percentages. The findings of
this project work revealed that, the profound and exacerbating managerial
challenges in the estate is not just insufficient fund and changes of
management but that of bureaucracy and to top it all, policy and
governmental changes as the major challenges that enfeeble the management of
public Housing Estate. The strengthening of managerial capacity, provision of
adequate fund to carryout regular maintenance without delay and redressing of
political practices that undermine efficient management will go a long way in
proffering solution to the above identified challenges.
1.0
INTRODUCTION
1.1
BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Shelter is one of the basic necessities of life. It
has been tagged second most important need to man after food, It plays an
important role in man’s survival and continued existence just like food .It is
also considered to be a matter of public as well as private concerned.
Provision of adequate housing, affordable, high standard and quality housing
that meet the social, economic and political aspiration of the citizenry
remains the primary focus of all government all over the world. This is
because the fulfillment of this desirable social objective is a key component
of sustainable development (Ibem and Amole, 2010) and a measure of the
well-being of the people, social ability and work efficient of any organization
providing such. According to Leong (2009), housing is a factor impacting
on the health, safety, socio-economic and political life of the occupants. In a
nutshell, it impacts all aspect of human endeavor. Thus, the state of housing
estate and it is environment is an indicator of the level of development,
condition and state of the citizenry.
Despite the pivotal role of housing in the
socio-economic development of a nation and the life of the people,
unfortunately, for over 52 years of independent, Nigeria is yet to attain an
efficient and effective public housing management. Majority of the public
housing Estates in Nigeria are in a deplorable condition and state of
disrepair, due to long period of neglected maintenance. According to Olatubara
and Fatoye (2006), Public Housing Estates, when comparing with the
existing Private Housing Estates, are known to be lacking the basic management
and maintenance culture of the infrastructural facilities/services that are
meant to enhance the liveability of such Estate. A poor quality living
accommodation according to Brennan (2000), will impact negatively on the
physical and mental health of the residents of the Housing Estate. Management
and maintenance are primarily undertaken in order to keep or restore every part
of the buildings, its contents and its environment in an acceptable condition.
This includes but not limited to the carrying out of repairs of
works and the replacement/maintenance of facilities in buildings and its
environment that are in deplorable condition.
The challenges bedevilling public sector housing
Estates vary with different context and analytical perceptions. The problems of
chronic financial crisis, poor maintenance, lack of manpower and strained
relationship between public estates residents and the management has been
mentioned by (Davidson 1999) as recurring themes of public estate management
issues, While Okpala (1977), identified bureaucracy corruption.
This implies that, there is need to look at the
management of existing Public Housing Estates in order to restore them back to
habitable condition through regular management and maintenance so that the intensity
building management becomes higher with its age especially in the face of
climatic change and its negative and adverse effects on the building itself,
the facilities and the physical environment for sustainable development.
This project work therefore, examines the strategies
adopted in the past 19 years for the management and maintenance of stock of
building facilities and the environment in Gwarinpa Housing Estate with a view
to identify the challenges confronting the effective adoption of the strategies
and suggest a good management practice suitable for the Estate and public
Sector Housing Estate in Nigeria in general.
1.2 STATEMENT OF RESEARCH PROBLEM
Achieving an optimum returns and also to ensure that
the public sector housing is always in good and habitable condition to meet the
satisfaction of the owner(s)/occupants is nothing but a mere dream due to the
following problems itemized below;.
I. The estate
lacks adequate funding since it is tagged a government property.
II.
Lack of routine inspection and unskilled management staff due to instability in
management from the Government.
III.
Changes in government policy and power thereby making the managing agent face
changes also.
IV.
Delay in carrying out maintenance work on the estate due to bureaucracy
corruption and questionable character of staffs.
V.
Strained relationship between public estates residents and the management.
e.t.c.
1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The following are very pertinent to the study.
I. What are the strategies adopted by the
Authority concerned for the management of the Housing Estate in the past?
ii. How effective are these strategies?
1.4AIM AND OBJECTIVES
The aim of the study is to examine the challenges of
managing public sector Housing Estate in Nigeria with Gwarinpa Housing Estate
as the case study
To achieve the above aim the following objectives will
be pursued;
i. To identify and examine the strategies adopted by
the FHA in the overall management of the Housing Estate.
ii. To examine the challenges confronting the
effective adoption of the strategies.
iii. To proffer solution to the problems
identified.
1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE
RESEARCH
The significance of this project work is to critically
examine the challenges of managing public sector Housing Estate in Nigeria.
Building requires maintenance in order to enhance
their values and life span. After the development of Housing Estate, the
problem of management set in. with few years of completion, other problems
began if adequate and appropriate strategies are not employed.
Furthermore, people enjoy building houses without
considering the management aspect of development and as a result, there has
been an increase in the deterioration of building and hence less in value. Also
as a result of maintenance negligence, the Housing estate tends to lose its
aesthetic nature.
This research will enlightens both government and the
general public on the need to engage the services of professionals (Estate
Surveyors and Valuers ) in the management of public Housing Estate, so that the
aim of developing such Estate will not be defeated.
1.6 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The study addresses the management of Gwarinpa Housing
Estate and it is restricted to Residential properties developed by the Public
Authority. This is because the general management is done by the Federal
Housing Authority and it also faced more challenges than the privately owned
properties.
The project work covers the challenges facing the
management and maintenance of the Housing Estate and will be limited to, 3rd,
2th and 5thavenue of the Estate due to its vast nature.
1.7 DEFINITION OF TERMS
i.
Management
ii.
Maintenance
iii.
Housing
iv.
Estate
v.
Housing Estate
vi.
Development
vii.
Public Estate
viii.
Public developer
ix.
Obsolescence
x.
Slum
xi.
Blight.
I.
MANAGEMENT: Allison (1967) defined management as the selection of goals
and the planning, procurement, organization and control of the resources for
their achievement.
II.
MAINTENANCE: Lawal M.
(2010) defined maintenance as the whole range of operation necessary to
preserve a building with its finishes and fittings so that it continues to
provide the same facilities and services which it did at its initial stage of
development.
III.
HOUSING: Housing extends
beyond the concept of shelter. In the word of Abraham (1980) in his book
“Housing in the Modern Market” it is not only shelter but part of the fabric of
the neighborhoods life and the whole social milieu. It touches on many facts of
industrialization, economic activities and development.
IV.
PUBLIC ESTATE: Are land
and building owned and directly managed by public authorities and those rights
of control which public authorities exercise over the estate of the private
owners.
V.
ESTATE: Udechukwu (2006)
defined estate as “A legal entity denoting the character and quality of right
that an individual or individuals possessed on a property.
VI.
HOUSING ESTATE: In the word
of Essien G.A (2012) in his Lecture Note “An Approach to Property Development
II (Vol. 3)”. “Is an area of land on which many houses are built either by
private enterprise or by a public authority”.
VII.
DEVELOPMENT: Is the
process of generating latent values in land or creating benefits there from by
incurring on it costs in the form of labour, capital or management skill (Umeh,
1983).
VIII. PUBLIC
DEVELOPER: Nathaniel
(1979) cited that public developer deal directly with government involvement
in the provision of housing, public properties (Estate) are therefore owned,
controlled and managed by Federal, State, Local Government and other public
bodies which are set up and functioned under state and their aims is usually
based on political, social and economic ground.
IX.
OBSOLESCENCE: Obsolescence
is refers to as the wear and tear of the fabric of a building. It is a loss in
the usefulness of a building and is a deficiency in design layout and equipment
(Lawal M. 2010).
X.
SLUM: Adetoro S.A and Mbazor D.N (2007) defined it as “An area of
advanced blight condition usually requiring cleaning or re-building as the most
effective corrective action. It can also be said to be a poor dirty crowded
area in an urban area.
XI.
BLIGHT: Babatunde J.
(1996) described blight as “Premature obsolescence and physical deterioration
or other factors that has become undesirable for or impossible for normal
development. Blight ranged from simple to complex.
1.9 STUDY AREA
GWARINPA HOUSING ESTATE
Abuja the Federal City of Nigeria is one of the
development under taken by the government. The territory is located just north
of the confluence of the River Niger and Benue. It is bordered by the state of
Niger to the west and north, Kaduna to the northeast, Nasarawa to the east and
south, and Kogi to the southwest. It lying between latitude 8.25 and 9.20
north of the equator and longitude 6.45 and 7.39 east of Green which meridian,
Abuja is geographically in the centre of the country. The FCT has a landmass of
approximately7, 315km2, of which the actual city occupies 275.3km2.
It is situated within the savannah region with moderate climatic
conditions.
On December 12, 1991, a historical event took place;
the seat of government was moved to Abuja, replacing Lagos, which is still the
country’s most populous city. At the 2006 census, the city of Abuja had a
population of 776,298, making it one of the top ten most populous cities in
Nigeria. However, Abuja has witnessed a huge influx of people in to the city
which has led to the emergence of satellite towns and smaller settlements to
which the planned city is sprawling towards; the unofficial metropolitan area
of Abuja is well over three million. According to demographic, the population
of Abuja’s area as of 2012 is 2,245,000, making it the fourth largest urban
area in Nigeria.
GWARINPA HOUSING ESTATE is located within and
named after Gwarinpa district of Abuja. The Estate is located at the
north-eastern part of FCT and within the municipality area. It is bounded by
Wunmpa and Bunkuru district to the north, Dape and Kafe to the west, and
bounded by Karimu and Mbora district to south.
Gwarinpa is in Phase III of development plan of Abuja.
It became popular when the Gwarinpa Housing Estate in the district said to be
the largest Estate in West Africa was built.
The Housing Estate is the largest single estate in
Nigeria and one of the largest in Africa. The Estate was built by the
administration of late General Sani Abacha in 1994, Via the Federal Capital
Development Authority (FCDA) of which the overall development and management
contract was handed over to the Federal Housing Estate (FHA). And it is the
largest of its kind in Africa. It provides residence for both minority and
majority.
Gwarinpa is mainly a residential area though recently,
some business especially service oriented business like eateries and banks are
springing up rapidly. Most of this business is located on the three major roads
which are 1stAvenue, 2nd and 3rd Avenue.
Within Gwarinpa Estate there are some small estates.
These include Federal Ministry of works and Housing Estate, War College Estate,
Federal Housing Authority Estate (FHA), Citect Villas, Abuja Modern City which
is with a population of 1,800 and a housing stock of 3,700. Also, Places near
Gwarinpa are Kado, Kubwa, Jahi, Utako, Durumi etc.
The real properties are mainly residential and are
managed and maintained by the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) Estate Service
Department which is sub-divided into three units as follows: The Town planning
unit, the Land Survey unit and Estate Management Unit. The Maintenance of
houses, roads, drains, collection of ground rent, all falls within the Estate
unit’s jurisdiction.
THE FEDERAL HOUSING AUTHORITY (FHA) was established under Decree No 40 of 1973 (Now Cap
136 of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1990). Initially as a public enterprise
and given the mandate to prepare and submit proposal periodically to the
government for National Housing Programme and to execute such programme as may
be approved by government. First, FHA was partially commercialized in 1992
under a triplet performance agreement, which gave the authority operation,
authority as a corporate / business concern not under the control of the
government. Under the Subsisting National Housing Policy and (2006) FHA was
again partially commercialized and given similar role as the 1991 era to
develop estates on commercial basis, provides low-income houses and engages in
the provision of site and services for all income groups in all the state of
the Federation.
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