An analysis of the government's inability to provide housing for the low-income groups

An analysis of the government's inability to provide housing for the low-income groups
  • 2020-06-21
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Planning to provide housing for the low-income groups requires fundamental approaches in defining and identifying the right holders of government support to provide housing.

According to the International Exhibition of Iranian Stone, according to Article 31 of the Constitution, having a home is appropriate for the rights of every Iranian individual and family, and the government is obliged to protect low-income groups. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights also considers the provision of adequate housing to be a prerequisite for a decent life. A review of the country's development policies and programs shows that in different eras, governments have achieved their goals in social and supportive housing less than in other areas of housing production.

From the post-revolutionary period to 1989, the distribution of land and its extensive divestitures that reduced land and housing prices, on the one hand, and the allocation of a significant portion of government funds in the housing sector, despite the growth of three and seven percent of households, Reduce housing shortages from twenty-seven percent to fifteen percent. Although the contribution of workers, villagers and other low-income groups to the program was significant, it led to widespread confusion in urban planning and the loss of unplanned land resources, and in recent years, the boom in the land and housing market, rising prices and declining It was able to buy low-income groups.

In the first development plan, despite the reduction of the public sector share to about six percent (including the reconstruction of war-affected areas, the provision of labor housing by 2 percent and employee housing by six percent of these goals has not been achieved. Workers accounted for less than 30 percent and in the employment sector for about 25 percent.

However, the realization of the projected goal of free housing production has been more than sixty percent, and production has covered less of the government's target group in accordance with the consumption pattern. The construction of the rental units envisaged in the program was also unsuccessful due to the lack of government support and the failure of landlord and tenant laws.

In the second development plan, the public sector's share was set at 5 percent and the non-governmental sector's 17 percent share was allocated to cooperatives. Thirty-nine percent go to free housing (without government support and non-compliance with the consumption pattern), fifty-one percent to supported housing (built on a consumption pattern that includes paying water and electricity subscription subsidies, tolls and cheap loans) and Ten percent was allocated to social housing, lower than the consumption pattern in the form of rent and lease on condition of ownership (at the rate of forty percent of the minimum wage in the country).

Achieving the goals of this program in the production of social housing has been 50% and supportive housing has been 70%. Meanwhile, the share of free housing was thirty-four percent higher than the goals of the program and the infrastructure produced was eleven percent higher than the goals of the program. Land prices rose by up to fifty-one percent as housing prices rose by more than 30 percent by the government and seventy percent by the private sector, creating unfavorable conditions for supporting vulnerable groups during the program. In the third development plan, the production of rental units (three hundred and seventeen thousand units by the private sector and seventy-seven thousand units by the government, with an annual rate of ten percent of housing production, was put on the agenda.

Studies show that despite the fact that in 2004 the production of housing was ninety-six percent and in the next three years, more than the projected goals of the program, the goals of providing urban rental housing have been achieved only by four percent of urban housing production.

The policies of the Fourth Development Plan focused on the Mehr Housing Project with the aim of creating equal opportunities for housing and providing housing for low-income households, youth and women heads of households, renting land for ninety-nine years, and building rental housing units. Prolonging the implementation of the program and increasing prices, lack of proper targeting of the audience and problems of coordination with development and development plans and low quality of implementation in some projects, in addition to preventing the full realization of the project's goals in providing housing for low-income groups, physical, social and economic side effects It was remarkable.

Overall, a review of housing programs in the context of the country's development plans shows that the increase in construction during the economic boom has always been sent to the market, and in addition, the housing boom has led to an increase in land and housing prices. Weak economic strata have followed. Government social housing programs have often been hampered either by government economic problems or by the lack of prioritization of planning problems in achieving projected goals.

Housing is a right that is rooted in law, and governments have a responsibility to protect the weak in achieving their rights. But the definition of a precise and clear mechanism for identifying a group that is subject to state protection in exercising this right has always been neglected. Also, if we define this right at the second level, which corresponds to the right to citizenship, we will enter a new hierarchy, and that is which of those who are subject to government support in exercising this right, which have the right to citizenship. In other words, the first priority is the right of citizenship, which gives individuals the credibility of government support for the realization of a right.

Programs, meanwhile, have often shown that individuals have the right to citizenship in addition to government housing. In recent years, this approach has had a significant impact on the country's housing planning system.

The real target of government support in housing is a person who, as a citizen, has played a role in the prosperity of his city or guarantees that it will do so on the basis of the infrastructure and rails that will be done by the government and whenever given the opportunity to do so. will do. This right will come to him because the prosperity that he has been involved in or guarantees will lead to an increase in the price that has reduced his ability to own a home in that city, or that, ultimately, His inability as a citizen to assert his rights and the need for social support has been demonstrated on the basis of defined criteria.

According to this approach, individuals as citizens have a right to the system of government that they can claim in the country's legal system, and the tasteful approach of governments cannot deprive them of this right or exploit it as a political privilege.

Despite the priority and importance of the role of the governing system in providing housing for the very poor, who make up villages one to four, most government support programs in the past and in the present are focused on the middle class economically and housing in the lower villages. In practice, society has been entrusted with supportive institutions such as the Relief and Welfare Committee, which have not provided a coherent, integrated, and defined program, and this group, despite their extreme needs, has been removed from the structural support cycle of the housing system.

In most countries, the solution for the low-income group is rental housing, which is covered by all or part of the legal system according to the financial means of the households in the form of various legal models. Rent housing during development programs has not been significantly successful in any of the programs due to the lack of a specialized rental system and its legal infrastructure in Iran, and no fundamental action has been taken to achieve this.

Planning for public support for the realization of home ownership of low-income groups in the form of social housing or support must be done according to the real potential of the target community. Failure to plan programs in accordance with the prevailing economic conditions often leads to the departure of real audiences from the support circle and their replacement by a layer of society that has higher economic potential, and in practice the real target group remains the applicant group.

Having a job is essential for the audience of housing support projects, such as the National Action Plan, as a support for the implementation of the program. In recent years, all employment creation programs in the country have been planned at the rate of five and four percent with the default growth rate of the country. In studies of Tehran-Karaj region, assuming the rate of economic growth of five and six percent (in coordination with the presumption of national growth), the share of Tehran city from employment of fifty-eight and one percent in 1390 to fifty-six percent on the horizon of landscape and Karaj Thirteen and four to fifteen and eight percent are predicted, which at the time was not a promising figure for development. At the same time, the rate of economic growth in recent years has not been as high as expected and has reached zero or less, which has certainly had and will have a significant impact on the economic potential of the housing group's audience.

Low-income housing planning requires fundamental approaches to defining and identifying the right holders of government support for housing, segregation of target groups, and coordinated and integrated planning for the lower deciles in line with the middle deciles, as well as dynamic and variable planning. It is the economy of society.

At present, land is the most important resource for the government, which can be considered a lever for the implementation of supportive housing programs. Due to the severe limitation of suitable land resources for living in cities and the consequences that land and housing programs will have for urban development, the proper use of this resource can be the most effective result in providing housing for the low-income groups with the least consequences for the country's urban development system and environment. , The religious and human duty of the ruling system of the country.

Ghazal Rahb - Head of Housing, Research Center for Roads, Housing and Urban Development - Tasnim